MacMegasite Archive
   


To reduce the database size and server load, all articles from 2004 or earlier are archived here.


Return to MacMegasite



       

Sat, 25 Oct 2003

Apple rips off Proteron?

Proteron has posted the following open memo to Apple, in response to a particluar Panther feature:


Dear Steve et al at Apple Computer,


Congratulations on the recent hardware announcements and release of Panther. Apple continues to innovate in the world of personal computers. Thanks for all the hard work. Our lives are a bit better and brighter for your efforts.


There is, however, one issue I must raise. It is regarding a specific feature introduced in Panther. As you are aware, keyboard application switching is significantly improved. What is disappointing is that this "improvement" is a near pixel duplication of a Proteron product, LiteSwitch X. And despite the obvious similarities, Proteron has received no recognition or credit.


This memo is written for two reasons. First, to request that Apple officially recognize that LiteSwitch X played a role in the formation of Panther's switcher. For tens of thousands of users the feature has existed since May 2002. A developer at Proteron first conceived of it. Proteron developed and published it. Now Apple has made it their own, an "Apple innovation", without recognizing Proteron.


This memo is also written to publicly highlight your behavior and request more of an explanation. What happened with LiteSwitch X is a repeat of recent Apple history, ala Sherlock 3 and Karelia's Watson. You have again absorbed a third-pary innovation into the OS without crediting the original authors. Why not give credit to your developers? Does Apple lose anything? Does it hurt Apple or the Mac OS to recognize that a someone's ideas are so good they belong in the Mac's core feature set? Is there any harm in hailing the achievements of the "little guy"?


We're flattered by the imitation. And we don't blame you for incorporating great features into the OS - it is good for Mac users everywhere. But it is definitely going to hurt our bottom-line during hard times. And we don't even get credit for our work.


I feel that what Apple has done by incorporating third party features into the Mac OS without recognition is both disappointing and dishonest. I invite you to change your approach. There is no shame in recognizing quality work whenever and wherever it appears, especially when it is coming from within the Mac community. We love what you've done with Panther. We love developing for the Mac. As you continue to innovate, please recognize those who have helped you. It's a basic courtesy: give credit where credit is due.


Sincerely,


Samuel Caughron et. al.

Proteron LLC


[] permanent link

iCash 1.4.1

iCash is an easy-to-use, full featured and multi-purpose software intended to control your personal finances, keeping track of incomes, expenses, credits, debts and Banks transactions for you.

As simple as creating the accounts you need and move money between them! You don't even need to know about accounting or even care about it!



iCash can serve several small accounting needs for either private users, or clubs, associations, self-employed, small businesses or simply to be used at home, making keeping track of incomes, expenses and Banks transactions a snap. With a few clicks you can begin creating accounts and making transactions in minutes.



MacOS X:





MacOS Classic:


[] permanent link

Panther upgrade notes

Although I've been running Panther on my G4 minitower for a while, I waited until this afternoon to install it on my PowerBook, which is my production machine. Here are some tips for making the upgrade as smooth as possible.


  • If possible, install on a separate drive or partition. If you have more than one machine, test it thoroughly on a less critical system before you install it on one you depend on.

  • I highly recommend doing an archive install, preserving user settings. You'll end up with a clean system with all of your data & custom applications intact.

  • If you're using a version of Default Folder earlier than 1.9, upgrade BEFORE installing Panther. I learned this the hard way on my G4 - if Default Folder 1.8 is installed, bad things (such as the finder repeatedly crashing & relaunching) will happen when you boot Panther. Version 1.9 fixes this problem and makes it fully compatible.

  • Make sure any applications you depend on work in Panther. If you're using a VPN connection, make sure you can still connect to your VPN server.

  • If you do software development, especially if you're working on multiple programmer projects, make sure you remain compatible with everyone else. If the other programmers are still using 10.2, use ProjectBuilder (which is fully compatible with Panther) instead of XCode. If you do use XCode, force it to use GCC 2.95 or 3.1 using the gcc_select command (type 'gcc_select --help' in the terminal for more info).


By taking these precautions, your upgrade can be painless with little or no downtime.

[] permanent link