Computer - The Game is Afoot, Watson....
Sep. 16th, 2002 10:52 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
demiurgentThere was a time that Apple Computers wasn't a pack of weasels.
Seriously, we loved those cheerful Apple guys. They were driven to create (as Steve Jobs put it) insanely great software that people loved to use. They were responsive to and supportive of their developers, and they really conveyed a sense that we were all in this together.
And that community spirit was perhaps exemplified by Watson, by Karelia software. This was a wonderful application that took Apple's rather lackluster Sherlock and Sherlock 2 tools and greatly enhanced them. It featured one-stop shopping for many web functions and generally... well, just worked. And Apple recognized this -- in fact, they awarded Watson the "Most Innovative Mac OS X Product" for 2002. It got four mice from MacWorld. It got four and a half stars from VersionTracker. People loved that thing.
Well, Jaguar came out, and with it came Sherlock 3 -- a dramatic move forward and improvement... and very familar to Watson users. It incorporated a ton of Watson's functionality, look and feel -- actually moving away from Sherlock's traditional look and feel and toward's Watson's variations. It was widely assumed that Apple, having honored Karelia for their innovations, had bought their product out.
They didn't.
In fact, Apple worked extremely hard to replicate Watson, stealing ideas and interface components absolutely shamelessly. And, needless to say, putting Karelia in trouble. It was the kind of move we expect from Microsoft, except Microsoft usually has the decency to buy out the companies they undercut. What's worse, Watson is still the better product -- working faster and not being dependent on an Apple server that seems to drop off the web rather often.
This is full out crappy business practices, and beneath Apple. So, I did the only honorable thing. I bought Watson. I encourage all Mac users to do the same. You'll like it better than Sherlock 3, it's faster, it does more, and it supports the honest labors and efforts of developers, not raiders.
Apple, we expect better.
Seriously, we loved those cheerful Apple guys. They were driven to create (as Steve Jobs put it) insanely great software that people loved to use. They were responsive to and supportive of their developers, and they really conveyed a sense that we were all in this together.
And that community spirit was perhaps exemplified by Watson, by Karelia software. This was a wonderful application that took Apple's rather lackluster Sherlock and Sherlock 2 tools and greatly enhanced them. It featured one-stop shopping for many web functions and generally... well, just worked. And Apple recognized this -- in fact, they awarded Watson the "Most Innovative Mac OS X Product" for 2002. It got four mice from MacWorld. It got four and a half stars from VersionTracker. People loved that thing.
Well, Jaguar came out, and with it came Sherlock 3 -- a dramatic move forward and improvement... and very familar to Watson users. It incorporated a ton of Watson's functionality, look and feel -- actually moving away from Sherlock's traditional look and feel and toward's Watson's variations. It was widely assumed that Apple, having honored Karelia for their innovations, had bought their product out.
They didn't.
In fact, Apple worked extremely hard to replicate Watson, stealing ideas and interface components absolutely shamelessly. And, needless to say, putting Karelia in trouble. It was the kind of move we expect from Microsoft, except Microsoft usually has the decency to buy out the companies they undercut. What's worse, Watson is still the better product -- working faster and not being dependent on an Apple server that seems to drop off the web rather often.
This is full out crappy business practices, and beneath Apple. So, I did the only honorable thing. I bought Watson. I encourage all Mac users to do the same. You'll like it better than Sherlock 3, it's faster, it does more, and it supports the honest labors and efforts of developers, not raiders.
Apple, we expect better.
