The Microsoft and Apple of the Crypto Space
A lot of people get confused when comparing and contrasting Ethereum and EOS. This is understandable as they are attempting to do very similar things. Both promise to bring a usable platform to interconnect the world of cryptos. That is they are both trying to develop an ecosystem that will allow other developers to have a platform to permit their ideas to connect with other developer's ideas.
For a technial understanding of the differences I suggest reading EOS vs Ethereum for Dummies, this commentary is in reference to the philosophical differences in their approachess.
We are still at the very early stages of cryptos. Most developers have quickly realized that we require a single approach, or unified approach to permit all these different functions to interconnect. This is similar to what we experience in the early days of computing, when there were no standard plugs and equipment. Before buying a piece of hardware you would need to make sure it worked with the hardware you already had, and would have to be pretty good with computers to get it to all work together. Simple tasks like adding a operating system were too difficult for most people at the time.
Enter two companies with two drastically different approaches. Apple had a straight forward solution, they would make a closed off ecosystem that would support any programmers that wanted to learn to program in their language and any hardware provider that would follow their specks. This insured that Apple could select the best methods and approaches to any problem that they were faced with. If you want to program apps, you can and they can be made to easily work with apple products ... but you have to use apples coding language and platform. It would take Apple going bankrupt and getting bailed out by Microsoft to have them finally open up to windows. Even today Apple products do not work with a universal charger. That being said I own an Iphone.
Microsoft took a very different approach. Microsoft attempted to make computers usable for the common person. Instead of attempting to make the programming language that was best for computing or picking hardware that was the best at what it does, they made decisions based on the end user experience. When they made a programming language they made it as close to English as possible. Visual basics is one of the most user friendly languages around. That is not to say it is the most useful, but the most practical. This approach resulted in many viruses, but I still own a PC at home and use one for work.
Ethereum has decided to solve the crypto world's problems using the Apple approach. They have provided us with a difficult programming language to create dapps that can run on their platform. They've made many decisions on how to improve their platform, but every decision is based on what is best for developers and the crypto space. Very little attention is being paid to the end user.
EOS has stepped in to solve these same problems in a more practical way. Instead of trying to maximize the platform for the provider and programmers (internal programmers), they are attempting to make the user experience as pleasant as possible. EOS is trying to make a platform that will allow anyone to be able to add a dapp and use cryptos.
Neither approach is best in all cases, as we've learned from Microsoft and Apple, which are both great at some things but not quite as good as their rivals for others.
The new Steve Jobs an Bill Gates of Cryptos
)Both companies even have well known leaders with their own quirks and a rivalry. Vitalik Buterin and Dan Larimer, two of the better known pioneers of cryptos, have taken to mimic young Steve Jobs and Bill Gates with their slight rivalry over which approach is better. This may be the start of a long multi-decade competition between the two to see who can bring the best approach to cryptos.
If nothing else the back and forth between the two developers has provided the rest of us with something to consider when developing a platform of the future. There are two very different approaches to bring technology to the world, and the early adopters of the technology have a large say in which approaches we take.
Personally, I'm glad we don't have to decide. I will hold both cryptos, as I see them both as long term winners. A lot of people say it is hard to find the Microsoft and Apples of tomorrow today, I disagree and say I've found them already ;).