“Why don’t you ask Microsoft for documentation of the secret APIs in Windows they use for their Office products - then come back and tell me who’s being proprietary....”
Ah, the “secret APIs” nonsense.
It’s interesting that Microsoft was sued for “bundling” with IE and Windows - requiring IE to be installed, but Apple continues to get away with something similar and continues to be the same bad corporate citizen - just like Jobs.
Microsoft and AAPL are different companies with different business models. Microsoft is a software outfit that does sell some hardware; Apple is a systems house which does sell software. Big PC makers including Dell, Gateway, HP, et al depend on Microsoft continuing to license Windows to run on their products, whereas Apple sells computers which are able to run Windows but is sold with OS X installed and without any Windows license.As it happens, Apple used to sell computers which were not capable of running Windows, and is delivered those computers with an OS which could not run on a PC. Was Apple evil, in your opinion, for selling computers which could not run Windows? Was Apple evil for making software for that hardware, which was intrinsically incompatible with being run on a PC?
If Apple is evil for not licensing the use of its OS on non-Apple computers now, it must have been just as evil when it wasn't selling an OS which even could run on non-Apple computers. But then, you (unless you're working for Microsoft or Red Hat) aren't selling an OS that will run on PCs, either. Does that make you evil too?
The undocumented/secret APIs has been proven in court during the antitrust trial. Microsoft hasn’t changed from that; in fact, they’re still using them instead of their own .NET products for Office.