| News | Features | Interviews |
| Blog | Contact | Editorials |
| Sparrow's acquisition highlights the dangers of closed source |
| By Thom Holwerda on 2012-07-21 23:06:23 |
| Okay, so this is entirely new to me. Sparrow |
|
| Whining because they are Apple fanboys? |
| By ozonehole on 2012-07-22 00:06:51 |
|
This is a good post, Thom. I went and read the original story, and I honestly don't see what he's whining about. Like you said, he got everything he paid for, and then some, and this is for an app that costs US$15. The only thing I can conclude is that it's killing him that Google seems to have won. The guy is an Apple fanboy, and Apple/Microsoft hates Google, and thus anything that is good for Google is bad for Apple, or something like that, causing his head to explode. Your suggestion - that Apple users consider open source - is like asking a group of religious fanatics to convert to atheism. |
 - Score: 15 |
| Sparrow complete |
| By Athlander on 2012-07-22 00:41:45 |
|
I read an article dated March 14th about Sparrow on The Verge. According to Dominique Leca, one of the people behind it, "The problem with Sparrow is that I'm happy with what we've done." The article goes on to say that the next step for Sparrow is optimization and seeing what aspects of the app people actually use — seeing where people click and how the UI can be even further optimized. So Sparrow probably wasn't going to get many more features anyway. I can see why people may be upset if they had been paying for a beta because they believed in a project and wanted to support the developers but in this case they have paid for a finished product that will continue to receive bug fixes and security patches for at least the near future. I wonder if the reaction would have been the same if Apple had bought Sparrow. This seems more of an issue with Google than anything else. |
| - Score: 6 |
| RE: Sparrow complete |
| By jptros on 2012-07-22 00:59:18 |
|
I think people are upset they never received push notifications in the iOS version which most people probably purchased in support and anticipation of that feature. In addition, who wants to use a piece of software for your day to day business that you know has no future? Email clients aren't a hobby OS or something you really play with for nostalgic reasons. In addition they say there will be bug fixes and what not, but hey, they said they were working hard on getting push notifications numerous times and look at how that has turned out. Personally, I think the developers saw a big pay day and new offices on the horizon and packed up shop and that is OK. It's their right, but that doesn't mean doing so didn't piss a few folks off. Typo correction. Edited 2012-07-22 01:00 UTC |
| - Score: 3 |
| Missing the point... |
| By scarr on 2012-07-22 02:02:33 |
|
A lot of the frustration with Sparrow being sold is how it was handled. Two weeks ago they have a big sale and media blitz and sold a tonne of copies (shot way up on the app store charts). This is when a lot of us first heard of Sparrow and also purchased it. 5 bucks. yippee... a fancy coffee. No big deal... Except, they had to know about the sale two weeks ago, so why didn't they just shut their big traps, stop promoting their app, and forget about a fire sale? Instead they went for one big last minute money grab assuming no one would care about "5 bucks". Thankfully Apple is sending out refunds, you only need to ask. |
| - Score: 5 |
| Danger?! You've gotta be kidding. |
| By ferrels on 2012-07-22 02:04:24 |
| You're using the term dangerous as if people will really be physically harmed by this, which by the way I find laughable. Software acquisitions happen all the time and the world hasn't come to an end. It is in no way uncommon for big software giants to buy up and kill off the competition. AutoDesk bought out and killed every AutoCAD clone they could find. That hasn't stopped anyone from continuing to write such clones, heck, even open source clones and work-alikes. And what's wrong when a talented programmer decides to sell out to one of the big software houses and live happily ever after? I say nothing. This guy got paid well for his work and he's happy with the deal. We shoud be happy for him instead of starting a software-socialism rant. |
| - Score: 2 |
| The problem is with iOS, not open source |
| By tomz on 2012-07-22 02:09:49 |
|
You want it Opensource. Which license? GPL is incompatible - unless you want everyone to jailbreak. Apache or MIT? Then someone can clone the code (like the Pakastani app factories) and there will be 100 $0.99 apps that do gmail, each called something slightly different, but alphabetized, or marginally localized or something so they get the revenue, not the original author. GPL enforces sharing, so a project could form around a GMail client, but iOS prohibits it. So there is nothing between GPL which cannot be done on iOS and fully proprietary. Calling it a "walled garden" doesn't make it not a prison-farm. You are locked up and down, and there are armed guard towers and razor wire. You can't leave except by dying. And now one bit got paroled. Don't worry, someone soon will be incarcerated to replace the lass. |
| - Score: 8 |
| beside the point but |
| By fran on 2012-07-22 02:14:29 |
| I wonder how many people remember when Apple bought Logic and dropped the PC version. |
| - Score: 7 |
| RE: Whining because they are Apple fanboys? |
| By Macrat on 2012-07-22 02:33:27 |
|
> Your suggestion - that Apple users consider open source - is like asking a group of religious fanatics to convert to atheism. All Mac users are using open source as open source apps come with OS X. http://www.apple.com/opensource/ |
| - Score: 3 |
| RE: Whining because they are Apple fanboys? |
| By shmerl on 2012-07-22 02:44:24 |
|
> Your suggestion - that Apple users consider open source - is like asking a group of religious fanatics to convert to atheism. Not exactly. I'd rather compare it to trying to convert hardcore money worshipers to altruists. Edited 2012-07-22 02:45 UTC |
| - Score: 8 |
| RE: Whining because they are Apple fanboys? |
| By krreagan on 2012-07-22 02:49:53 |
|
> Your suggestion - that Apple users consider open source - is like asking a group of religious fanatics to convert to atheism. Your complete ignorance of the Apple ecosystem is showing. OSX and iOS are built on OSS. |
| - Score: 1 |
| News | Features | Interviews |
| Blog | Contact | Editorials |