MikeTheC
April 5th, 2009, 05:49 AM
MODERATORS: Please read this post and the thread before deciding to move it to the "Recurring Discussions" section. It may belong there, or it may evolve into belonging there. Give it a fair chance; I won't protest.
I was driving home this evening and I had this thought pop into my head, and it's a question which I'd really like to get the input of the community on.
There's a lot of people, Mac OS X, Windows and Linux users alike, who complain about the fact that Apple doesn't license their OS and de-shackle it from the bonds and bounds of their own hardware offering. Now, I'm not here to debate the relative merits of their policy in this -- that's been done ad nauseum here and elsewhere -- but there's something I'm not hearing, and that's complaints about Texas Instruments' business policies.
Let me explain the Genesis of this whole thought process.
I'm 36 and am a recent first-time entrant into college. (Yeah, I know, but better late than never, right?) Anyhow, so I'm in a remedial math class, and one of the things they're talking about is that the next class, which isn't remedial, is "Intermediate Algebra". It's the first level math class where they allow you to use a calculator -- and, in fact, actually require it. The calculator range in question is the TI-83 series, which as a practical matter includes the TI-83, TI-83+, TI-84+ (there is no "TI-84"), and the Silver Editions of each of these "plus" models.
So, in kind of mentally preparing myself to take on this next level class in the next few weeks, I decided to start researching the relevant TI product range, and lo and behold, I found a wealth of info on them. They can do all kinds of neat stuff, such as running TI-language programs, Assembly, contact management and daytimer apps, and so forth and so on. All of this in addition to their baseline functionality of being a graphing calculator. Now, I know there are various software-based calculator programs out there, and so I started thinking "Gee, I wonder if TI has a software version of their calculator for my iPod Touch?"
Short answer: They don't. I don't even think they have software-only versions of the calculator at all. Anyhow, so let's fast-forward to this evening, when all of a sudden, the following question (and the whole point of this thread) hit me:
There's an awful lot of complaining and consternation at Apple for not licensing and releasing their OS for other hardware. Where's all the anger and wrath and anger over TI not releasing their widely-used (perhaps even moreso than Apple's Mac OS X platform?) TI-83/84 (or heck, 89/93, etc.) OS platform for other hardware? Why is nobody screaming over that?
Honest, folks, I'm not trying to stir the pot or turn this into a flame war. It's just it suddenly hit me, and I am genuinely curious what you folks think about that...
I was driving home this evening and I had this thought pop into my head, and it's a question which I'd really like to get the input of the community on.
There's a lot of people, Mac OS X, Windows and Linux users alike, who complain about the fact that Apple doesn't license their OS and de-shackle it from the bonds and bounds of their own hardware offering. Now, I'm not here to debate the relative merits of their policy in this -- that's been done ad nauseum here and elsewhere -- but there's something I'm not hearing, and that's complaints about Texas Instruments' business policies.
Let me explain the Genesis of this whole thought process.
I'm 36 and am a recent first-time entrant into college. (Yeah, I know, but better late than never, right?) Anyhow, so I'm in a remedial math class, and one of the things they're talking about is that the next class, which isn't remedial, is "Intermediate Algebra". It's the first level math class where they allow you to use a calculator -- and, in fact, actually require it. The calculator range in question is the TI-83 series, which as a practical matter includes the TI-83, TI-83+, TI-84+ (there is no "TI-84"), and the Silver Editions of each of these "plus" models.
So, in kind of mentally preparing myself to take on this next level class in the next few weeks, I decided to start researching the relevant TI product range, and lo and behold, I found a wealth of info on them. They can do all kinds of neat stuff, such as running TI-language programs, Assembly, contact management and daytimer apps, and so forth and so on. All of this in addition to their baseline functionality of being a graphing calculator. Now, I know there are various software-based calculator programs out there, and so I started thinking "Gee, I wonder if TI has a software version of their calculator for my iPod Touch?"
Short answer: They don't. I don't even think they have software-only versions of the calculator at all. Anyhow, so let's fast-forward to this evening, when all of a sudden, the following question (and the whole point of this thread) hit me:
There's an awful lot of complaining and consternation at Apple for not licensing and releasing their OS for other hardware. Where's all the anger and wrath and anger over TI not releasing their widely-used (perhaps even moreso than Apple's Mac OS X platform?) TI-83/84 (or heck, 89/93, etc.) OS platform for other hardware? Why is nobody screaming over that?
Honest, folks, I'm not trying to stir the pot or turn this into a flame war. It's just it suddenly hit me, and I am genuinely curious what you folks think about that...