Is gOS getting a bit too similar to Apple?

[Mazza558]

With the introduction of gOS Space, which has the AWN dock by default, and a very glassy style to it, I got a bit suspicious. Just now, I headed for their website and saw that they've got a new look, surprisingly similar to Apple's own website...

Compare these two:

http://dev.thinkgos.com/

and

http://www.apple.com/

[misfitpierce]

I suppose they are similar but its a good look so I mean...

[saj0577]

Legal to have it so similar?

saj

[Mazza558]

I bet apple will have something to say about it...

[Foster Grant]

I bet apple will have something to say about it...

Are you implying that Apple has carnivorous lawyers who they sic on anybody who crosses them? I've never heard of such a thing! :lol:

[Tomosaur]

Doesn't really matter if the site is not actively trying to fool people into thinking it's affiliated with Apple.

I tried a Live-CD of gOS, it's a very nice OS. Unfortunately it wouldn't load on the crappy laptop I had been planning to put it on.

[urukrama]

From the gOS blog:


There have been some people that have been falsely accusing gOS of being an Apple clone. We’re not. If those of you who I am referring to really want to accuse us of anything, accuse (or just excuse) us of copying Linux. Oh wait, we are Linux. Unfortunately, many of you who accuse us have probably never even used Linux or even know what Linux is.

The rest can be read here (http://dev.thinkgos.com/blog/gos-is-linux-not-apple).

This thread might be better suited for the 'Other OS' forum.

[vishzilla]

The website design also is very similar to Apple's

[Mazza558]

Are you implying that Apple has carnivorous lawyers who they sic on anybody who crosses them? I've never heard of such a thing! :lol:

I wouldn't be surprised.


From the gOS blog:



The rest can be read here (http://dev.thinkgos.com/blog/gos-is-linux-not-apple).

This thread might be better suited for the 'Other OS' forum.

That's great that they're completely pro-FOSS, but with a website design and buttons basically identical to the Apple website, how do they explain that?

[Kingsley]

I'd say the big screenshot is Apple if I wasn't knowledgeable about computers/Linux.

[Iehova]

I wouldn't say that the OS itself is a rip off of Apple (I mean, that screenshot on the main page only has a panel, a dock and a background, nothing that most of us probably aren't running, but the website design has to raise eyebrows, I mean, it isn't coincidental.

[Mazza558]

Yeah, my main focus was the style of the website.

[macogw]

Are you implying that Apple has carnivorous lawyers who they sic on anybody who crosses them? I've never heard of such a thing! :lol:

Crosses them? All you have to do is send a letter with an idea. They sent a cease & desist letter to a friend of mine for sending an idea and another to a 10 year old girl for sending drawings of how to make an iPod more friendly little children.

[Tristam Green]

Crosses them? All you have to do is send a letter with an idea. They sent a cease & desist letter to a friend of mine for sending an idea and another to a 10 year old girl for sending drawings of how to make an iPod more friendly little children.

I think the term "excessive" doesn't begin to describe this.

Thanks for the info mac (lolMac), I love having an increasing number of reasons why not to buy an Apple product.

[kutjara]

With the introduction of gOS Space, which has the AWN dock by default, and a very glassy style to it, I got a bit suspicious. Just now, I headed for their website and saw that they've got a new look, surprisingly similar to Apple's own website...

Compare these two:

http://dev.thinkgos.com/

and

http://www.apple.com/

Er...yes, indeed. They'd better be careful or The Steve will be angry with them and confiscate all their iPods.

Considering how many billions Apple has spent developing the OS X interface over the years, why not rip it off...if you can get away with it?

[kutjara]

Crosses them? All you have to do is send a letter with an idea. They sent a cease & desist letter to a friend of mine for sending an idea and another to a 10 year old girl for sending drawings of how to make an iPod more friendly little children.

Not to defend Apple or anything, but it's a two way street.

A few years ago, J. K. Rowling (of Harry Potter fame) told an interviewer about her experiences at book signings in the USA. She said that, often, people would come up to her and hand her envelopes, which she took to be fan mail. Every time one of these was handed to her, however, one of her PR handlers stepped in and whisked the letter out of her hand.

After the signing, Rowling asked the PR people why they'd taken the letters from her. She was told it was for her protection. Basically, every one of those letters contained an "idea" for a character, plot twist, scene, etc. If it later turned out that Rowling included something in her books that was close to one of those ideas, she'd find herself on the wrong side of a plagarism lawsuit (of course, the letter-givers had all been sure to get themselves photographed handing Rowling the letters).

The PR people were Rowling's shield. They'd stand up in court and testify she'd never laid eyes on the contents of the letters.

Apple (and other large product-based corporations) use cease-and-desist letters for a similar reason. The legal department basically views any unsolicited suggestion as an attempt by someone to claim they had an idea first, in case that idea ever appears in a product. Then it's all aboard the gravy-train! Next stop: the local courthouse.

As litigation has become, in many cases, the primary business of many corporations, the walls between those corporations and their customers have grown higher and higher. From within the corporate castle, everyone outside is viewed as a potential enemy. And, as everyone knows, the best way to deal with an enemy is to attack it...before it attacks you.