Interesting Thread RE: Apple & Microsoft

[Resonant Alien]

Someone may have already posted this, but it is interesting.....headline should have read "Microsoft Shoots Self in Foot"


http://www.roughlydrafted.com/RD/RDM.Te ... 41BD1.html

[HCMarkus]

Ineresting site. Thaks for sharing.

[mhschmieder]

I found that an intriguing article as it filled in a whole history that I wasn't aware of, having ignored that particular area of technology for almost a decade before getting my first home computer with the G4 iMac's release. I didn't even know that Final Cut Pro had been spun off of Macromedia before the Adobe merger/buyout! The whole equation of Adobe Premier going away on the Mac and then returning to the Mac this year, adds more intrigue.

The Microsoft side of the article seemed more like a footnote to me, and I was tempted to post last night to inquire whether I had missed an additional link or thread/discussion at that site, or had simply misinterpreted its purpose. I can see some level of ongoing cluelessness on Microsoft's part showing its way even to the present day, but I'm not at all convinced that they have shot themselves in the foot regarding multi-media support. After all, they are currently eating Sony's lunch when it comes to gaming. But maybe there isn't as much crossover in technology between gaming and general multimedia (such as video post-production) as I naively think.

Whatever the case, that article is an excellent reference for putting the evolution of a standard into long-term perspective, as well as strategically informing those of us who occasionally sit on standards committees to watch out for being too accomodating to players (other committee members, in some cases) who may have dark agendas that could derail an entire industry . I have actually been in that position before (when I still worked in the computer industry), and still occasionally see the dying embers of a failed/sabotaged standard. The story must be kept private, but there are quite a few echoes of it in that writeup (particularly regarding specific bullying tactics by a certain OS provider ).

[Resonant Alien]

I think the angle on Microsoft in the article was just to say that MS tried to come in with inferior or even non-existent product and used its market share muscle to force people like Avid and Macromedia into making exclusive deals with them, trying to stamp out Apple's superior and more robust application (QuickTime in this case) by basically bullying rather than designing innovative and competitive products. But in the process of doing so, they pissed off and burned the very industry they were trying to muscle in on (pro video editing in this case), and that industry called their bluff and stayed with Apple in spite of MS's bullying, thereby making QT the standard.

[mhschmieder]

A direct quote of your followup post serves as an exact echo of my necessarily private account . I almost went to the FTC at the time, but had no support for my intended whistle-blowing. The echoes of that experience ring in my ears every time I read an article about a brave soul in either industry or government who sacrifices their own career for the greater good.