[iDC] Undermining open source: iTunes U

[E. Miller]

> i think Apple has been let off the hook for a long time especially by cultural
> activists. Bill Gates and Microsoft have been an easy bugbear, but Apple are
> monopolists too and have been since they first started making an OS that works
> only with their own hardware.

I don't know that 'monopolist' is a good term for a company with less than
5% market share in the PC market.  They've got something that more closely
resembles a monopoly in the MP3 player market, but even there Apple's
behavior (interoperability, OS-agnostic, DRM) has been noticeably more
neutral than, say, Microsoft & Real Networks & all the major content
companies.

They _could_ release OS X for PCs, but it's unlikely that they will, even at
the expense of more market share.  A very un-monopolist thing to do, but
they do it to preserve quality.

And incidentally, Yellow Dog Linux (among others) runs just swell on Apple
hardware.  

Eric