That's 20 years ago. And for bundling a browser
in the operating system that couldn't be uninstalled
or easily replaced? Sure, no operating systems do that
in 2014. I wonder if I can swap out Chrome from Chrome
OS or Mobile Safari in iOS. Point is, it's common now.
I lived through this time "hating" Microsoft for some of the stuff it was doing then, and it's probably well past time to bury those hatchets.
But they still do rather icky things: Rockstar Bidco lawsuits and the "Scroogled" campaign come to mind. I'm biased, but they've got to can it with these things (and just innovate) until I'll look at them as a pleasant company.
Yes, I got reminded of that recently when I installed MS Office on my Mac. I just wanted Excel and Word - now I have Microsoft Messenger, Microsoft Remote Desktop, Microsoft Connection Manager(?!), Microsoft Communicator, Microsoft Office Setup Manager, Microsoft Document Connection, and the complementary launch agent "com.microsoft.office.licensing.helper".
Best thing: They plastered my dock with app icons that I just couldn't drag out of the dock to delete them. I had to go the rightclick->submenu->"remove from dock" route for every of the ~10 icons. Now why would they do this? So the typical Mac user won't be able to remove them because the default way to remove them doesn't work?
" I just wanted Excel and Word - now I have Microsoft Messenger, Microsoft Remote Desktop, Microsoft Connection Manager(?!), Microsoft Communicator, Microsoft Office Setup Manager, Microsoft Document Connection, and the complementary launch agent "com.microsoft.office.licensing.helper"."
Yet when you were in that "Customize Installation" menu choosing Excel and Word, you for some reason didn't de-select Messenger, RDC, or the Dock Icons. And that's Microsoft's fault... hmm.
Ehh, I don't see how that was a great point since the problem with Windows bundling a browser which couldn't be uninstalled or easily replaced was that they were a monopoly on the desktop, OSX certainly is not, and of course neither is ChromeOS.
As a former Google user and Chromebook owner, I kind of agree with the sentiments of the Scroogled campaign. That said, I don't think it made for good commercials.
Actually, Apple transitioned from Motorola 68k to PowerPC in the mid-90s and the 2000s transition from PowerPC to x86 was their second successful transition.
But they still do rather icky things: Rockstar Bidco lawsuits and the "Scroogled" campaign come to mind. I'm biased, but they've got to can it with these things (and just innovate) until I'll look at them as a pleasant company.