Comments on: Apple switching to MS Windows? Not likely http://www.philsteinmeyer.com/59/apple-switching-to-ms-windows-not-likely/ Phil Steinmeyer's rumblings on the game biz, programming, and life Sat, 05 Jul 2008 16:09:18 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5.1 By: Nabil http://www.philsteinmeyer.com/59/apple-switching-to-ms-windows-not-likely/#comment-173 Nabil Sat, 25 Feb 2006 16:36:35 +0000 http://www.philsteinmeyer.com/59/apple-switching-to-ms-windows-not-likely/#comment-173 I long ago gave up on Dvorak. He's been preaching the demise of Apple "any day now" for well over the past decade now, even when their sales were going gangbusters. It's a shame that he has as large a readership as he does. I think an unofficial patch that allowed OS X to run on most PCs would be fantastic. I think it's only a matter of time until it happens. I also think people who talk about their small marketshare miss the point: it's not about being the biggest fish in the pond, it's about being big enough to not get swallowed. As long as their maintaining that (ie, continuing to see some growth, and good profits), who cares if they have 5% or 50%? I long ago gave up on Dvorak. He’s been preaching the demise of Apple “any day now” for well over the past decade now, even when their sales were going gangbusters. It’s a shame that he has as large a readership as he does.

I think an unofficial patch that allowed OS X to run on most PCs would be fantastic. I think it’s only a matter of time until it happens. I also think people who talk about their small marketshare miss the point: it’s not about being the biggest fish in the pond, it’s about being big enough to not get swallowed. As long as their maintaining that (ie, continuing to see some growth, and good profits), who cares if they have 5% or 50%?

]]> By: Phil Steinmeyer http://www.philsteinmeyer.com/59/apple-switching-to-ms-windows-not-likely/#comment-152 Phil Steinmeyer Fri, 17 Feb 2006 15:42:53 +0000 http://www.philsteinmeyer.com/59/apple-switching-to-ms-windows-not-likely/#comment-152 Yeah, I agree. A version of OS-X that runs on general PCs that's not officially supported, but runs out-of-the-box, or with a minor, easy-to-download unofficial patch, would help Apple with the hacker crowd, and bring in a bit of money with little additional cost for Apple and little risk of cannibalizing existing Mac sales. But 'official' support for OS-X on non-Mac PCs would require a lot of development effort/testing, and customer support follow-up. And by giving their official blessing to running OS-X on non-Mac PCs, Apple would be encouraging businesses who use Mac (all the graphics design shops, etc ), to buy cheaper 3rd party hardware and slap OS-X on it. Yeah, I agree. A version of OS-X that runs on general PCs that’s not officially supported, but runs out-of-the-box, or with a minor, easy-to-download unofficial patch, would help Apple with the hacker crowd, and bring in a bit of money with little additional cost for Apple and little risk of cannibalizing existing Mac sales.

But ‘official’ support for OS-X on non-Mac PCs would require a lot of development effort/testing, and customer support follow-up. And by giving their official blessing to running OS-X on non-Mac PCs, Apple would be encouraging businesses who use Mac (all the graphics design shops, etc ), to buy cheaper 3rd party hardware and slap OS-X on it.

]]> By: Nathan Forget http://www.philsteinmeyer.com/59/apple-switching-to-ms-windows-not-likely/#comment-151 Nathan Forget Fri, 17 Feb 2006 14:35:21 +0000 http://www.philsteinmeyer.com/59/apple-switching-to-ms-windows-not-likely/#comment-151 I think the smartest thing Apple could do is to release a retail version of their OS, WITHOUT OFFICIALLY SUPPORTING NON-MAC HARDWARE, but allowing for the OSS community to develop the necessary drivers and such. This would position Apple to be _the_ *nix distribution for the geek hobbyist community, many of whom like OS X, but chafe at the hardware restrictions. <a href="http://nforget.com/blog/?p=47" rel="nofollow">I blogged about this a while ago</a>, if you're interested in a longer response. I think the smartest thing Apple could do is to release a retail version of their OS, WITHOUT OFFICIALLY SUPPORTING NON-MAC HARDWARE, but allowing for the OSS community to develop the necessary drivers and such. This would position Apple to be _the_ *nix distribution for the geek hobbyist community, many of whom like OS X, but chafe at the hardware restrictions. I blogged about this a while ago, if you’re interested in a longer response.

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