03.14.10
Apple Makes Toys, GNU/Linux Still Ahead of It
Jealous Jobs
Steve Ballmer’s presentation slide
from 2009 shows GNU/Linux as bigger than Apple on the desktop
Summary: News about Apple’s primitive products (from a technical perspective) trying to catch up with their Linux-powered counterparts
Given Apple’s patent lawsuits against GNU/Linux [1, 2, 3, 4, 5], it’s hard to see why any Free software developer would choose to develop for Apple, let alone buy anything from the company. One of the latest products from this company is being mentioned far too much by the technology press. It’s a disappointment even in the eyes of some avid followers of Apple [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8] and just like Palm OS, iPad and iPhone have no multitasking. No multitasking! It’s not a joke. Now there are rumours about no camera support, either.
Can Apple catch up with Linux and actually implement multitasking? Some people think so [1, 2]. Those folks at Apple are ‘stealing’ from Linux again (just as they did from BSD when they made OS X)? Does it make them “great artists”?
Multitasking, or the lack thereof, has been one of the most prevalent complaints about the iPhone as a serious business smartphone–although I am not sure it is iPhone users who are doing the complaining. The lack of iPhone multitasking was a prime target of Verizon’s “Droid Does” marketing campaign for the Android-based Motorola Droid.
The iPad has no multitasking ability, either. These devices are toys and they are also built by children, based on this news report.
That iPhone you adore may have been built by a child.
Nearly a dozen underage teens were working for Apple-contracted facilities in 2009, the company has revealed. The news was posted to Apple’s Web site under a section labeled “Supplier Responsibility.”
To make things worse for Apple, they have lost the right to own the small “i”. [via]
Apple has been dealt a severe blow having been told that it no longer has a monopoly on the letter “i2″ as part of the name for its products.
A trademarks tribunal has knocked back Apple’s bid to stop a small company from trademarking the name DOPi for use on its laptop bags and cases for Apple products.
Apple argued that the DOPi name – which is iPod spelt backwards – was too similar to its own popular portable music player, which has sold in excess of 100 million units worldwide.
Apple is a control freak. More on that later, in a much longer post about Apple’s bullying. █
Robotron 2084 said,
March 14, 2010 at 11:38 pm
Multitasking has been available for a long time. If you want to get specific, it was the Commodore Amiga that first brought multitasking to home computer users long before the first version Linux become available. Unix no more perfected multitasking than Ford did the automobile. Others have come and gone, done things better or worse.
Apple, as well as others, decided that multitasking may not be a good idea for mobile phones. What if one errant application starts hogging processor time? The user must then spend time tracking down which application is the problem. On a mobile phone where screen size limits just how much you can really do, there are few times were applications need to be working in the background aside from messaging scenarios. Not to mention the extra memory and other resources needed.
Sure, some people bitch and complain, but no single product can please everyone. My Palm TX does not support multitasking either, but I still enjoy using it everyday.