[Eug]

Leopard downloads prompt Apple retail firings

At least five employees of Apple's retail stores have been fired after admitting to having downloaded copies of Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard from the Internet that were distributed to developers at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference two weeks ago. "Dozens" more also face termination

[Abit667]

I remember when Tiger was leaked I downloaded one of the first copies to hit the net and installed it on my ibook. A couple days later I took it to the apple store to get the keyboard replaced and all the employees were playing with it and thought it was awesome that I install tiger on there.

[icruise]

Good advice, but somehow downloading a pre-release leopard build wasn't what I had imagined from your title.

[Chuckit]

Yeah, "pirate" usually implies some kind of potential profit loss. Anyway, though, .

[Landos Mustache]

Silly silly people.

To be honest though I think we would all have done the same. If you did try out 10.5 I think you would talk about it with your co-workers who would all be interested. Guess they just told the wrong people.

[Cody Dawg]

Pretty sad that Apple employees feel the need to steal information. In my opinion they don't get paid enough in the first place for the hard work that they do (especially the Geniuses) anyway.

Microsoft is so far ahead of them in that respect...you should see the software and hardware that they're using up in Redmond. Right now they've got clear see-through monitors on some of their desks - beta hardware - and running their new software along with other new beta software.

More bad PR for Apple, that's all.

[::maroma::]

Hey, if they were dumb enough to talk about their piracy of Apple software while at work at an Apple Store, they don't deserve to wear the Apple Store Employee Uniform™.

Fooey!

[mitchell_pgh]

They were dumb to tell anyone that they pirated it.

They could have said things like "I've seen rumors where XYZ" but to say "I downloaded a pirated copy..." is just dumb.

It's also no secret that Apple is VERY protective of their secrets.

[Person Man]

Originally Posted by Cody Dawg

More bad PR for Apple, that's all.

No, it's not.

They're not supposed to have the software in the first place. Apple's Rules. And if you're going to work for Apple, you've got to follow the rules plain and simple.

Apple's response to people who downloaded Tiger was over the top and went well beyond the boundaries. But firing their own employees for not following the rules is not.

[Peter]

yeah you'd have to be pretty stupid to tell everyone that you pirated it. I would have presumed staff would get copies of Leopard anyway.

[mitchell_pgh]

Originally Posted by Peter

yeah you'd have to be pretty stupid to tell everyone that you pirated it. I would have presumed staff would get copies of Leopard anyway.

Having worked in retail, I probably wouldn't give my staff a pre-release of an OS. It could only hurt their sales. If I were selling Macs, I wouldn't even mention Leopard... because the person may say "Oh, you mean there is a new OS coming in 7 months? Oh, I'll just wait until then to buy and save $129... Bye" (this happened to me once or twice before I wised up)

If they bring Leopard up, I would only say what was said in the keynote. "Yah, it looks great, and will work perfectly with the computer you are considering picking up today." "Time machine looks great! Bla bla bla..."

You want your staff to be smart, but you don't want them bogged down the the town "Leopard Genius" who just wants to shoot the breeze and obtain insider information... which you shouldn't be giving away regardless.

I hate getting a dumb sales associate just like the next guy, but sometimes too much information is bad for sales.

[icruise]

Originally Posted by Cody Dawg

Microsoft is so far ahead of them in that respect...you should see the software and hardware that they're using up in Redmond. Right now they've got clear see-through monitors on some of their desks - beta hardware - and running their new software along with other new beta software.

Um, what? Which Microsoft retail store are you talking about? Oh that's right, there aren't any.

[goMac]

Originally Posted by Cody Dawg

Pretty sad that Apple employees feel the need to steal information. In my opinion they don't get paid enough in the first place for the hard work that they do (especially the Geniuses) anyway.

Microsoft is so far ahead of them in that respect...you should see the software and hardware that they're using up in Redmond. Right now they've got clear see-through monitors on some of their desks - beta hardware - and running their new software along with other new beta software.

More bad PR for Apple, that's all.

I actually have to agree. Apple keeps most their employees (engineers) on graphite G4's. C'mon Apple... it's the Intel transition. To be fair though, a source told me that Microsoft does seriously have a Mac in their primary Windows dev lab for inspiration.

That, and you have Microsoft giving away public betas of their OS.... for free. Do you realize how many bugs could be found and features polished if Apple did that? And don't even get me started on open sourcing XCode.

I don't know how fair it is for you though to compare Apple retail employees to the engineers that work at Microsoft. That's two different leagues of staff.

[Peter]

Originally Posted by goMac

I actually have to agree. Apple keeps most their employees (engineers) on graphite G4's. C'mon Apple... it's the Intel transition. To be fair though, a source told me that Microsoft does seriously have a Mac in their primary Windows dev lab for inspiration.

are you 100% sure? A few guys I know claim they were using intel macs ages ago, and had an abundance of latest generation hardware at their disposal.

[Chuckit]

Originally Posted by Cody Dawg

More bad PR for Apple, that's all.

Uh…no. I mean, I guess people who are inclined to view it as bad PR every time Jobs sneezes might view it that way, but firing people for stealing their own company's secrets is pretty hard to criticize.

[goMac]

Originally Posted by Peter

are you 100% sure? A few guys I know claim they were using intel macs ages ago, and had an abundance of latest generation hardware at their disposal.

Pretty sure. I've heard from employees, and from looking in the window at the campus bash for WWDC, there seemed to be a lot of graphite gear. Then again, this probably does vary heavily on what department you're in. From what I've heard, Apple has so many new engineers coming in they're quickly running out of room. Perhaps they simply don't have enough machines to go around and are recycling lots of graphite G4's.

[Kyros]

Someone I know personally's dad worked rather high up in Apple (might still be working there, not sure), and she remembered playing video games with her brother on prototype computers that came out something like a year later. I don't know how high up you have to be, but they are using prototypes there for sure.

As for the employees, it sounds like they thought that because they were honest enough to talk about it, they shouldn't be dealt with so harshly. That's complete rubbish. Whether or not you think it's a stupid policy, you still signed a contract saying you agree to abide by it. I don't get why people are so stupid these days.

[Stogieman]

Originally Posted by Cody Dawg

...Right now they've got clear see-through monitors on some of their desks

Pfft... that technology has been around for years.

http://www.jasoco.net/images/news/050411.jpg

[Cody Dawg]

goMac:

Yes, I'm sure that they great workstations. POSITIVE. (I worked there once and someone *this* close to me still does.) That's not the engineers either - it's managerial departments, PR, and other departments. Maybe engineers get them also - I'm not sure about that.

The point is that Apple doesn't cut their employees enough slack.

Actually, I HONESTLY feel badly when I go in to see the Genius and he's working on a Titanium still and drooling over somebody's new PowerBook and openly admits, "I can't afford one of those."

That's sad.

[Cody Dawg]

Originally Posted by Stogieman

Pfft... that technology has been around for years.

http://www.jasoco.net/images/news/050411.jpg

Oh yeah? Well Apple doesn't have it in their stores now, do they? And when you see one of these 30-inch displays they simply make you drop your jaw. They're awesome.

[Eug]

Originally Posted by Cody Dawg

Microsoft is so far ahead of them in that respect...you should see the software and hardware that they're using up in Redmond. Right now they've got clear see-through monitors on some of their desks - beta hardware - and running their new software along with other new beta software.

Originally Posted by Stogieman

Pfft... that technology has been around for years.

http://www.jasoco.net/images/news/050411.jpg

Originally Posted by Cody Dawg

Oh yeah? Well Apple doesn't have it in their stores now, do they? And when you see one of these 30-inch displays they simply make you drop your jaw. They're awesome.

[Landos Mustache]

Originally Posted by Cody Dawg

Oh yeah? Well Apple doesn't have it in their stores now, do they? And when you see one of these 30-inch displays they simply make you drop your jaw. They're awesome.

Oh Cody

[goMac]

Originally Posted by Cody Dawg

Oh yeah? Well Apple doesn't have it in their stores now, do they? And when you see one of these 30-inch displays they simply make you drop your jaw. They're awesome.

Ok ummmmm... You lost me.

[Dakar]

Originally Posted by Stogieman

Pfft... that technology has been around for years.

http://www.jasoco.net/images/news/050411.jpg

Don't worry, the rest of us got it.