Proteron to Apple: “You ripped us off”

Posted on October 30, 2003
Filed Under /dev/null/ | 40 views |

Samuel Caughron of Proteron Software is accusing Apple of ripping off their application switcher, Liteswitch X:

As you are aware, keyboard application switching is significantly improved. What is disappointing is that this “improvement” is a near pixel duplication of a Proteron product, LiteSwitch X. And despite the obvious similarities, Proteron has received no recognition or credit.

This memo is written for two reasons. First, to request that Apple officially recognize that LiteSwitch X played a role in the formation of Panther’s switcher. For tens of thousands of users the feature has existed since May 2002. A developer at Proteron first conceived of it. Proteron developed and published it. Now Apple has made it their own, an “Apple innovation”, without recognizing Proteron.

This memo is also written to publicly highlight your behavior and request more of an explanation.

I have to disagree with Caughron’s claims that keyboard-switching between applications is any sort of Proteron invention. In fact, two of my currently-running applications provide that feature as an adjunct to their primary purposes (and in neither do I use it). Perhaps Apple stole the look & feel, but they certainly didn’t steal the concept, it’s been around for years and years.

However I do agree that Apple has exhibited a tendency in the last few years to simply stomp on the markets of third-party developers with little regard for them. I seem to recall an Apple of old that used to happily buy the innovations of developers and incorporate them into the OS. Now it seems that they just steam-roll.

So here’s an open request to Apple: you have billions in cash reserves. When you find you need to implement a feature into the OS that is already being well-served by an existing utility or application, float an attempt to buy out the developer. More than likely you won’t use the code base but you’ll have shown some respect for someone else’s hard work, you’ll have provided an incentive to develop cool stuff rather than a disincentive, and you’ll be fostering good will among those who, c’mon - admit it, are responsible for you having that cash reserve in the first place.

Think different? How about “play nice”.

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