Throughout my journey on the Internet (and particularly technology-related websites), I've always found lots of talk about innovation.
Innovation is great... right? But what is it? How can one define it?
In the technology realm, I really see two types of innovation. There's open source-type innovation, and there's Apple innovation.
Open source innovation is really the larger ideas (such as, "build a better browser with great security and a revolutionary addons system"). That's what has created Firefox, Thunderbird, Apache, Linux, OpenOffice.org and countless others. But they don't have to be open source, per se - I see the GUI (which Xerox first developed) as open source innovation, even though the code was proprietary.
Then, there's Apple innovation. Apple innovation takes the open source innovation (either the idea/s or the literal source code, depending), polishes it, makes it nicer, maybe adds some more convenient features while limiting some freedoms in terms of options and customizations, and then re-releases it. That's what has created Mac OS X, the iPhone, the vision (not result) of Windows 95, Photoshop, Flash, and many other decent products.
Let's look at Mac OS X Leopard for example: a lot of those 300 new features are, in fact, not Apple-pioneered. As a Linux user, I die a little bit every time someone suggests that Apple created the idea of multiple workstations (i.e. Spaces). Multiple workstations have been available in countless other UNIX-like and non-UNIX operating systems for
decades.
What features
did Apple pioneer in Spaces, then? Not really any.
But they did the whole idea of multiple workstations right. They made it useful - no, beyond useful - to more than just the complete power user or l33t Linux hacker. And they absolutely ought to be commended on that. They shouldn't, however, be praised for "inventing" multiple workstations. Or for "inventing" the countless other examples that fit in just like this one.
So, which one is actual innovation? Many dictionaries define innovation as
"the act of introducing something new." Obviously "open source" innovation fits under that. Does Apple innovate? Yeah, but maybe not to the extent of "open source" innovation - at least in terms of the "big picture."
What do you think about this? Apple and the open source/Linux communities innovate in different ways, therefore should there be two definitions of innovation? Should we support the people coming up with the ideas or the people who polish the ideas and re-release them?
February 13th, 2008
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