The move of Mac OS X to Intel-based Macs is picking up steam. So much steam that one major prognosticator says Apple will eventually sell OS X for installation on any Intel PC.
Can you imagine Dell or HP or Gateway or Lenovo selling a PC with Mac OS X instead of Windows or Linux? John Dvorak thinks it’s possible, could happen, and should happen.
The logic is plausible, particularly if Apple continues to crank out success after success.
Not going to happen any time soon. *Maybe* quite a ways down the road.
Apple is a hardware company It gets most of its income from hardware sales. The software is used to help generate those sales. To switch over to mostly software, Apple would have to be pretty sure they could make up all that revenue, and pretty quickly, or shareholders will be storming the campus demanding blood.
Remember too that one reason Macs, for the most part, “just work” , is because of the control of the hardware and software. As soon as you start throwing OS X on any old system, you have the same nightmare Microsoft does - trying to support every possible hardware combination on earth. Support costs would skyrocket, as there would most likely be a *lot* more calls on the AppleCare line from people with strange hardware configurations.
Not going to happen any time soon. *Maybe* quite a ways down the road.
Apple is a hardware company It gets most of its income from hardware sales. The software is used to help generate those sales. To switch over to mostly software, Apple would have to be pretty sure they could make up all that revenue, and pretty quickly, or shareholders will be storming the campus demanding blood.
Remember too that one reason Macs, for the most part, “just work” , is because of the control of the hardware and software. As soon as you start throwing OS X on any old system, you have the same nightmare Microsoft does - trying to support every possible hardware combination on earth. Support costs would skyrocket, as there would most likely be a *lot* more calls on the AppleCare line from people with strange hardware configurations.
The longer I think about what Dvorak wrote, the more plausible the whole scheme becomes. Yes, it’ll take some time. No, it won’t happen overnight. Yes, Apple can build in some ‘advantages’ to buying Macs vs. buying a Dell running OS X.
First, there needs to be some understanding that if Apple REALLY wants to compete with Microsoft they’ll have to poke a hole in the market share balloon. That’s not happening yet. Even if Macs double market share, it’s not much of a poke. Volume. It’s all about volume. Apple can’t do the volume alone.
Second, there MUST be some kind of ‘chip’ that locks down Mac OS X to Apple-built, Intel-based Macs. That’s a given, so I’m certain Apple will do that. Third, when there’s still sufficient differentiation between all that comes on a Mac vs. generic PCs, Apple could ‘certify’ OS X to run on specific branded PCs, such as Dell or HP.
That’s a plausible scenario.
Now, let’s move out there a bit… Google distributes a version of Linux. Woo hoo!
Dvorak is a real muck-raker. Another pundit the Mac world has often despised is Enderle, who recently gave his views on why the Mac OS X will not be widely adopted buy businesses, here - http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/45264.html
His explanation may seem sound, even if the business rational for sticking with Windoze is insane! They claim they want a two-year roadmap and guarantees of support and interoperability with their current apps, too? Since when has M$ ever given a two-year roadmap that has been less than one-year behind schedule…. Seems every OS upgrade by M$ requires stiffer hardware requirements - and a lot of businesses have yet to upgrade to XP since 2k is still working on old hardware.
Certainly, Apple can make huge inroads into the home market in the future, whether or not OS X will run on the generic x86 hardware. I can’t see Apple supporting non-standard hardware configurations anytime in the future. Not that you won’t be able to hack something together that will work, but it’s not likely that Apple will support it and no business will adopt a completely unsupported platform. People wanting the Apple experience will continue to buy Apple hardware, those with nothing better to do than futz with hardware and software nightmares will buy cheap PC’s with Windoze and install whatever OS they can get to work on it.
Me, I’m still struggling to get GPG working on Tiger…
More than possible. Unless Apple has a super-secret chip in each machine, what’s to prevent OS X from running on vanilla PCs? AMDs? And, even if there is a validation chip, how tough would it be to overcome it with a simple ‘hack’?
More than possible. Unless Apple has a super-secret chip in each machine, what’s to prevent OS X from running on vanilla PCs? AMDs? And, even if there is a validation chip, how tough would it be to overcome it with a simple ‘hack’?
I didn’t know the TCM chip was a “simple hack.“ The reason Macs “just work” is because the whole machine and the OS are Apple-designed to work together. Applications can be sloppy or not. As long as they don’t affect the OS, the machine will keep on working. That same quality control can’t be built into 3rd-party machines. Another thing… IBM didn’t have their first PC out for very long when an upstart called Compaq came out with the very first 80286 machine that ran circles around IBM. If Mac OS is licensed for every Intel machine, Apple will never produce the fastest or the most capable among them. However, I see no reason why Apple should not continue to produce the most elegant Mac OS machines.
There’s one thing one can say for our Windows friends, they can find their way around chips, software walls, etc. My guess that some young hack will figure out how to run OSX on AMD & Intel processors not approved by Apple within a few weeks after Apple starts using the Intel chips.
Oh yeah, Tera I hope you get well soon! We miss your comments on MDN too.
_______________________________________
Dual 1.25 G4 Tower 2 gigs RAM OS X 10.4.2
iBook 1.3 G4 768 MB RAM OS 10.4.2
and yes Dell 600M Inspiron 1.5 Centrino 1 Gig RAM Win XP SP2
There’s one thing one can say for our Windows friends, they can find their way around chips, software walls, etc. My guess that some young hack will figure out how to run OSX on AMD & Intel processors not approved by Apple within a few weeks after Apple starts using the Intel chips.
If Mr. Jobs wants them to find a way around it, they’ll find it. Then, sales of OS Leopard will go through the roof. If Mr. Jobs doesn’t want them to find a way around it, they won’t.
If Mr. Jobs wants them to find a way around it, they’ll find it. Then, sales of OS Leopard will go through the roof. If Mr. Jobs doesn’t want them to find a way around it, they won’t.
Which brings to mind the so-called Dvorak Prophecy whereby Apple to get OS X “in the wild” and running on Intel-based machines.
That’s a gamble.
That would mean that sales of Mac OS X for Intel would have to be sufficient to offset potential lost sales of hardware, as many future buyers would prefer to purchase cheaper Intel-based boxes vs. Apple’s premium for hardware.
At some point, Apple could “certify” other hardware manufacturers to deliver boxes with OS X pre-installed. Or, as speculated elsewhere, Macs would chip with a “trusted” chip in the hardware that would allow OS X for Intel to only run on that hardware, not vanilla Intel hardware.
The trusted chip is absolutely going to happen. If hackers can figure out how to get around it, then more power to them. What makes Macs work so well, is the tight integration between the hardware and the software. I don’t think that people with the hacked version will experience that. We’ll see what happens. It’s a brave new world.
The trusted chip is absolutely going to happen. If hackers can figure out how to get around it, then more power to them. What makes Macs work so well, is the tight integration between the hardware and the software. I don’t think that people with the hacked version will experience that. We’ll see what happens. It’s a brave new world.
It’s a none issue. When Apple is ‘ready’ to release OS X into the wild on Intel or AMD boxes, it’ll be news. Until then, it’s only news to a very limited few. Apple will have a chip and specific hardware required to make OS X work on Intel CPUs. Will hackers get around that? Sure.
So, in the first full year of selling Macs on Intel-based machines, Apple will sell five to six million boxes. Maybe a few more. How many versions of Mac OS X will get hacked on other Intel CPUs? 12. Maybe a few more.
The average user won’t fool with it because there’ll be enough ‘gotchas’ to make it painful. The hackers who get it to work will be buying Apple applications for Mac OS X on Intel. Apple makes money from everyone.
If there’s enough difference between Mac OS X for Intel and Windows Vista, Apple might make a vanilla version available just to muck up Microsoft’s world, though I doubt it.
Mac sales now are at an all time high and continue to grow monthly, quarterly, annually. Why buy a cheapo PC when you can buy a Mac and run Windows on it. That makes the price of a Windows PC less than $200.
The hackers who get it to work will be buying Apple applications for Mac OS X on Intel. Apple makes money from everyone.
This is a joke, right? Im going to go out on a limb here and state that the people who “hack” OS X to run on a white box surely won’t be paying for Apple products or even the OS in the first place.
That’s probably the case, but they’ll always be in the small minority anyway. Folks who ‘hack’ do so for the fun of it, not to increase their ‘productivity’ (as if they had any or understood the concept).
I’m more than confident that Apple does NOT want OS X for Intel in the wild any time soon, if at all (John Dvorak’s rantings notwithstanding). Think of it this way: Apple sells OS X for Intel for $129, or Apple sells a Mac, average price $1,200 with an Intel-inside. Which do you think they want?
Initially, it’s all about the big numbers so you’ll see Apple with strong efforts to prevent OS X for Intel going wild. Longer term? Ahhhh. That’s a good question. I still remember one of the last scenes in ‘Pirates of Silicon Valley.‘ Anyone remember? Steve Jobs on stage at Macworld. Bill Gates on a big giant video screen behind him. What did you think?
