The “I’m a Mac / and I’m a PC” line of commercials from Apple that mocked the abilities and performance of Microsoft Windows software and the Personal Computers that ran them.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHgKu81Tv9A
The criticisms were exhibited in amusing, memorable, and effective ways, so it was smart for Intel – recently dropped as a processor chip partner from Apple – to hire the “I’m a Mac” actor Justin Long for their own series of ads titled “Justin Gets Real” throwing shade at Apple and it’s custom M1 processors. Intel says laptops powered by Intel processors are better.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9gtRRMd2_UI
Other ads in the series have Long dunking on Apple’s lack of touchscreen Macs, the inability to plug more than one external display into M1 Macs (what? why is that a thing?), and a variety of different options available for laptops powered by Intel.
It’s all clever marketing, but dang Justin – where’s your loyalty at? In 2017, the actor starred in a series of Huawei commercials promoting the company’s Mate 9 smartphone. Meanwhile, the “I’m a PC” actor – who I met at LAX baggage claim in 2009 – has ironically stuck with Apple, appearing as a “one more thing” goof in 2020’s Apple MacBook announcement event:
The rap on Microsoft is that they started out stealing from Apple and continue to look out their Windows onto the Apple orchard for things to take and implement into their own products. The worst and most obvious example is the Zune. I mean, comethefuckON Microsoft… MP3 players existed for a few years before the iPod and Microsoft didn’t want in until Apple revolutionized the market with something unique and game changing. Instead of entering with something also unique and game changing, the Zune was a straight up clone of the iPod complete with click wheel. Apple responded by immediately dropping the click wheel format, making it obsolete and punking Microsoft – a move siblings have been using for decades (“younger sister trying to copy you? completely change your style so all the things she bought to look like you no longer look like you. take THAT, bitch”).
But going back to the basics: isn’t it true that Microsoft stole the start of Apple and built a billion dollar corporation on it? For the answer, I turn to Hollywood. I skimmed the the made for tv movie The Pirates of Silicone Valley a few years ago and it appears to conclude that Steve Jobs got punked by a crafty Bill Gates.
Not all of these are steals. some of these things were just computer things that the Windows operating system made popular and then mac adopted. like how Microsoft “stole” the mouse. Apple didnt invent the computer mouse but no one used them in their hardware besides like…idk…NASA until apple started manufacturing them. Some in the list seem like stretches to label as stolen. like “control panel“. Apple had separate control panels, named as such, fist – then Microsoft stole the name and put them in one area – then Apple let Microsoft have the name and put their control panels into one System Preferences window. That’s marked as Apple stealing from Micro. and that’s a stretch.
Some might be valid steals that i guess that i didnt really think about before because i grew up using Windows first before i joined the cult of fruit but it still comes off as a little weak only because the features seem more common and not Microsoft-exclusive. Things you’d find in video game menu’s or software across all platforms or in Linux or in movies where they’re faking an operating system. but those are most likely Microsoft imitations as well, so it’s not really a valid argument. There is a Top 10 features Microsoft stole from Mac OS X too.
The recent copies are what I noticed, because Windows Vista came out right when I made the switch to using Apple for my main computing needs and I was just like “whoah… really??”
This is… odd…. Microsoft tests out a new operating system, code named Mojave, with some average-joes who hated Vista. They loved it. Now, two guesses as to what Mojave ACTUALLY was.
After months of searching for ways to defend its oft-maligned Windows operating system, Microsoft may just have found its best weapon: Vista’s skeptics.
Spurred by an e-mail from someone deep in the marketing ranks, Microsoft last week traveled to San Francisco, rounding up Windows XP users who had negative impressions of Vista. The subjects were put on video, asked about their Vista impressions, and then shown a “new” operating system, code-named Mojave. More than 90 percent gave positive feedback on what they saw. Then they were told that “Mojave” was actually Windows Vista.
“Oh wow,” said one user, eliciting exactly the exclamation that Microsoft had hoped to garner when it first released the operating system more than 18 months ago. Instead, the operating system got mixed reviews and criticisms for its lack of compatibility and other headaches.
To be sure, the focus groups didn’t have to install Vista or hook it up to their existing home network. Still, the emotional appeal of the “everyman” trying Vista and liking it clearly packs an emotional punch, something the company has desperately needed. Microsoft is still trying to figure out just how it will use the Mojave footage in its marketing, though it will clearly have a place.
Microsoft is pressuring vendors to limit the hardware capabilities of low-cost laptops so that they don’t eat into the market for mainstream PCs running Vista.
Microsoft plans to offer PC makers steep discounts on Windows XP Home Edition to encourage them to use that OS instead of Linux on ultra low-cost PCs (ULPCs). To be eligible, however, the PC vendors that make ULPCs must limit screen sizes to 10.2 inches and hard drives to 80G bytes, and they cannot offer touch-screen PCs.
The program is outlined in confidential documents that Microsoft sent to PC makers last month, and which were obtained by IDG News Service. The goal apparently is to limit the hardware capabilities of ULPCs so that they don’t eat into the market for mainstream PCs running Windows Vista, something both Microsoft and the PC vendors would want to avoid.
Imposing the limitations solves a number of problems for the PC industry, said industry analyst Roger Kay, president of EndPoint Technologies Associates. “It allows PC makers to offer a low-cost alternative, and it prevents eroding of pricing and margins in the mainstream OS market,” he said.
Microsoft declined to comment on the documents. “We don’t speak publicly about our agreements with [PC makers],” the company said in a statement via its public relations agency.
