Microsoft's Gall

A while back, Microsoft decided to kill further development of Internet Explorer for the Mac. Good riddance, I say, but it was the reasoning they gave for it that astounded me. With a straight, but-we're-a-benevolent-monoply way, they claimed that they couldn't keep up with Apple's own Safari browser because Apple had the unfair advantage of owning the APIs and the OS. How those PR folks sleep at night is completely beyond me.

Then, today, the day after Apple launched the iTunes Music Store for Windows, the digital media guy at Miscreantsoft Microsoft claims that the iTunes experience will clearly piss off many Windows users because they're used to “choice”, and because superior usability will win in the end. -cough- -cough-

I wonder if they had to edit out the giggles and the ahem's from the man. Clearly Microsoft is simply pissed off that Apple deigned to ignore WindowsMedia format in iTunes and in the iPod. Now Windows users have a choice in which format of music to buy and have a choice in not using WindowsMedia with its draconian DRM scheme. That's really what's at stake here and the man is just whining, stewing in his own bilious juices.

Yes, seeing iTunes running on Windows XP was a bit jarring, sort of like Jesus showing up on the paid tour of Hell without warning Satan first. But it's there, and its usability is on par with the Mac version, save for the nasty Windows fonts and the crap idea of putting menus inside an application's window.

Oh, as a beautiful aside, the Microsoft man's namephreakish name? “Fester.”