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Comment by Tiomaidh | Hacker News Reader

>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.

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Or Microsoft having "Windows" ?

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)

> 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.

Sure I perform window operations, but they're not nearly the same thing as using Windows--which entails a lot more than using windows.

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.

Windows began as an installable GUI, target than a whole system. It was only in 1995 that it started doing more than windowing.

Ahem, 'target' should be 'rather'. Hooray autocorrect.

Even so, their trademark in that case was on the windowing system. Not on the UI elements generally called "windows".

I'm going to flat disagree that windowing systems and window UI elements are separate fields of endeavor, in the same way that laundry detergent and computer Operating Systems are. I think most lawyers would too.

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