Is Apple good or evil?

There has been a lot of talk lately about how is Apple becoming more like Microsoft and turning evil, but is it really the case? Personally I've known that Apple was evil since they tried to litigate me out of business and subpoena three years worth of my email, but I digress.

Recent examples of Apple's evilness include pushing their Safari Web browser down the throat of iTunes users on Windows as a "software update" and bricking modified iPhones with a firmware update but other examples exist.

Leander Kahney points to several examples of Apple's dark side in his cover story in this month's Wired magazine, including: their walled-garden approach to software and hardware, secrecy, paranoia and managements sometimes poor treatment of employees.

On the other hand, lots of good can be found in Apple. Their technical support and build quality usually yields pretty high marks and their hardware continues to improve at an almost breakneck pace. Witness their successes with iMac, iPod, iTunes, iPhone, etc.

Slashdot insists that Someday You'll Hate Apple (And Google Too):

Don Reisinger muses on the fickleness of consumer loves and hates. 'It's that same [level of] success and its own questionable privacy practices that will lead to Google's PR downfall and propel it into a position of disdain going forward. Trust me, the future of Apple and Google may look bright from an economic standpoint, but these companies will be hated one day too. Sad, but true.'"

So which is it? How would you characterize today's Apple, Inc.?

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