Robert Pritchett's Profile

Read "The FireWire Controversy" by Eric Schwarz and my follow-up notes at http://www.maccompanion.com/macc/archives/November2008/Columns/SchwarzTech.htm

Apple owns the software and they can terminate it at any time if the EULA is violated. We basically bought the permission to use it. Nobody is authorized to resell it. http://www.apple.com/legal/sla/ BTW, turandota, thanks for making the Adobe software transfers so difficult. (Snarky remark)

I think turandota is referring to this - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Softman_v._Adobe

"A violation of the EULA" in my book makes it illegal. I think perhaps Apple may have a better Lawyering team than Adobe and Autodesk did, based on all the suits they've had to handle over the years. And nearly all threats to Apple have been resolved, one way or another. I used to receive the Microsoft Tech packs each year. The Microsoft police were gunning for me when I stopped paying the annual fee (written strong-arm desist letter) and I was "forced" to remove any and all software from machines and destroy any and all CDs, etc. or be threatened with a lawsuit. Apple isn't there yet, but the weasel-worded legal sleaze is pretty darned close. And Psystar is a real enough business as a consulting firm in Florida - http://www.psystar.com/ But they will get a "knock it off" letter fro Apple, if they have not had one served to them already. Count on it. The contract is implicit in how it is to be used. Bloody wars have been fought over less. Psystar is obviously violating the Mac OS X contract.

My issue with NetApplications is that they do not or can not distinguish between computer systems that run multiple OSes. Most of our local Linux User Group (3clug.org) members run Linux on their Macs (true computer shade-tree mechanics) using Ubuntu or other Linux variant. Many of us also reluctantly run various MS Windows OSes on our Macs (not by choice). The Mac is a multi-OS device. The NetApplication numbers are scrambled because the stats do not reflect the "true" platforms in actual use. I doubt they will ever be able to determine real platform use. For example, many newer Macs also run Vista better than on non-Apple platforms. MS Vista stats are thus also not quite "true", since they read "Vista" in use, but not Mac OS X. Frankly, I honestly believe because of this multi-OS capability, the Mac "numbers" are actually higher in practice and not just in theory.

Steven Leigh; Nicely and tastefully done! I "switched" to Macs back in 1993 and used them exclusively at home ever since. Meanwhile, I jumped on the Microsoft Computer Systems Engineering training track for a few years, until I decided to jump off and establish a way for "switchers" to move to Macs by publishing macCompanion magazine over 5 years ago. We never seem to run out of things to write about. http://www.maccompanion.com

MS can live off sales of their books, training for MCSEs, and selling mice and keyboards and MS Office without selling another copy of MS Vista to Mactel users. (Snarky Remark)