Is Apple eviler than Microsoft?

[burritos]

Long, LONG, time apple fan. Listen to this podcast if you care to know a little more. Don't if you don't want to know. It actually brought tears to my eyes.

Mr. Daisey and the Apple Factory | This American Life

[kornkob]

I'm not sure I ever heard anyone describe behavior attributed to Microsoft that could really be called 'evil'.


Microsoft and Nickleback have one thing in common: all the cool kids 'hate' them.

[stevemcelroy]

I listened to it just a few days back - at the very least it is a good way to spend an hour. I have a love/hate relationship with This American Life - in my opinion it produces both the best and worst radio - a show is either amazing or terrible, not much else.

On a semi-related note - Ira Glass was on this week's Savage Love as a co-host - it was a real hoot to hear a completely different side of him.

As to your question about Apple v. Microsoft - I do not think so - I think that just about any big corporation these days are pulling the same sort of shady thing - if you manufacture anything it is likely done in the same sort of factories under similar conditions. The only difference is how successful and how public the products are on the consumer side, something that Apple is just spot-on with these days.

[Rebound]

It's outrageous to treat Apple as the bandit here. Nearly every manufactured product you own was built under conditions such as that in China.

Why should we demand different of Apple than Samsung, Sony, Panasonic, Dell, HP, and a looooong list of others?

[stevemcelroy]

They have a long history of using their stranglehold on DOS and Windows to crush the competition - that is why the Justice Dept got so involved with them. Back to the first big thing that Microsoft did - PC-DOS - there are stories that there was a whole lot of double dealing.

Microsoft has a long history of being a complete corporate bully - the difference is that they were screwing over companies and not consumers.

Go back to the 90's and I would bet that there are a whole lot of people who described Microsoft as evil.

Originally Posted by kornkob

I'm not sure I ever heard anyone describe behavior attributed to Microsoft that could really be called 'evil'.


Microsoft and Nickleback have one thing in common: all the cool kids 'hate' them.

[kornkob]

Originally Posted by Rebound

It's outrageous to treat Apple as the bandit here. Nearly every manufactured product you own was built under conditions such as that in China.

Why should we demand different of Apple than Samsung, Sony, Panasonic, Dell, HP, and a looooong list of others?

Yeah--- that's true.

Many of the 'Microsoft sucks' comments have their roots in the same sort of thing: complaints about behaviors that nearly every that can afford it company engages in.

I guess the one thing in this case is that Apple is successful enough that they have whole factory towns that are dedicated to their stuff specifically. Makes it easier to point at the problem when you put it all in one gated community.

[eagle33199]

Whats even more important... Foxcon, probably the worst abuser out there, produces 90% of the electronics we use. Simply put, companies are forced to go with them for a few reasons. First, they have the ability/knowledge/skill that's needed. Second, they have the manpower that's needed. Third, they have amazing turnaround time when needed (there's a story out there about when Apple switched the first iPhone from a plastic face to a glass face... they got the manufacturing plants turned around in just a few days, and were at full production capability in two weeks. That's incredible turn around for a huge change. You couldn't see something like that here in the US.

All that said, it does appear that Apple is trying to improve conditions over there, although it's slow. Foxcon knows there's no one else Apple can switch to overnight, so Apple can't really force Foxcon into changing. That said, Apple has started branching out to other manufacturers, and hopefully, given time, Foxcon's competition will grow to the point that companies can switch when needed, and then conditions can really start to improve. Until then, there's nothing our American companies can do.

[kornkob]

Originally Posted by stevemcelroy

They have a long history of using their stranglehold on DOS and Windows to crush the competition - that is why the Justice Dept got so involved with them. Back to the first big thing that Microsoft did - PC-DOS - there are stories that there was a whole lot of double dealing.

Microsoft has a long history of being a complete corporate bully - the difference is that they were screwing over companies and not consumers.

Go back to the 90's and I would bet that there are a whole lot of people who described Microsoft as evil.

I built an IT career during the 90s. I'm aware of the things people said about Microsoft. However, I really feel like most of the things attributed to Microsoft fall well short of 'evil'. And those that fall closer to 'evil' are behaviors that can be attributed to just about any company of that size, including Apple.

And if you recall the results of the DOJ involvement the end result was... pretty much nothing of significance.

Lots of people call Microsoft 'evil' and lots of people say Nickleback doesn't play music. But just because people say it doesn't make it true.

[Stev0]

Originally Posted by kornkob

I'm not sure I ever heard anyone describe behavior attributed to Microsoft that could really be called 'evil'.

I take it you've never actually used any Microsoft products?

[kornkob]

Originally Posted by Stev0

I take it you've never actually used any Microsoft products?

I'm afraid that joke was worn out in the 90s.