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by Tiomaidh 5463 days ago
>Before I switched to OS X, I've never heard of any software being called "apps" on any other platform I used

Maybe you didn't use the TI-83+, which has an "Apps" button on it, and was designed in 1999.

And though I agree that Apple has put a lot of effort into its app store, I feel like saying that they should have sole access to the term is comparable to AOL suing anyone who uses "instant messenger" to refer to something other than AIM.
1 comments
sigzero 5463 days ago
Or Microsoft having "Windows" ?
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Tiomaidh 5463 days ago
There's a lot more to an operating system than how it manages non-fullscreen applications. "Windows" is obviously a related term, but I don't think it's generic--when I boot up Linux on my laptop, I don't say, "This Linux/Xorg/Openbox combination sure is a great windows!" But I might say, "This collection of software for my smartphone compiled and sold by Amazon sure is a great app store."

Edit: See also: MS Office, MS Word, MS Security Essentials, and arguably MS Internet Explorer and Windows Explorer (I browse the internet and manage/browse files--there's not much literal "exploring" going on)

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mikemaccana 5463 days ago
> I don't think it's generic--when I boot up Linux on my laptop, I don't say, "This Linux/Xorg/Openbox combination sure is a great windows!"

You never 'open a window', or 'close a window', or 'change a window'? You might be younger than me (I'm 30) but I've been doing that since having an Atari ST in the last 80s.

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burgerbrain 5463 days ago
As far as I know, MSFT doesn't have a trademark on the term "window" as used to describe objects in a GUI. They have a trademark on the term "Windows" as a whole system.

Same reason you can buy "linux" laundry detergent.

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mikemaccana 5462 days ago
Windows began as an installable GUI, target than a whole system. It was only in 1995 that it started doing more than windowing.
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burgerbrain 5462 days ago
Even so, their trademark in that case was on the windowing system. Not on the UI elements generally called "windows".
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mikemaccana 5462 days ago
Ahem, 'target' should be 'rather'. Hooray autocorrect.
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Tiomaidh 5463 days ago
Sure I perform window operations, but they're not nearly the same thing as using Windows--which entails a lot more than using windows.
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