[blingbling]

Hrmm...rumors that Apple has a port of OS X which works on Pentiums?

Moshe Bar - Byte.com

 

[gcutler]

But will it require special versions of the applications, making it an even smaller market. It would be funny hearing "I'd like to get the MS-Office for OS X on P4"

 

[blingbling]

Originally posted by gcutler
But will it require special versions of the applications, making it an even smaller market. It would be funny hearing "I'd like to get the MS-Office for OS X on P4"

Here is an article referencing their possible plans for a switch to Pentium and how they would license it. It apparently wouldn't be available for your typical clone. No surprise there.

[/RANT ON]

You have to wonder how long Apple is going to be around. They have squandered so much opportunity. In the late 80s they were so innovative with both hardware and software. They had LaserWriters, fast SCSI HDs, daisey chainable SCSI devices, great DTP software, and an OS that was far more advanced and elegant than anything else out there (lets skip the whole Palo Alto PARC debate ). What was their market share back then? 10%? 13%? What is it today? I don't think its much different. In fact worldwide Linux is ahead of Apple on the desktop! The current Macintosh hardware is almost identical to the Intel/Windows/Clone except for the Motorola processor and they're about to replace it with Pentiums. The Macintosh has adopted USB, PCI, Firewire, and now apparently even the Intel processor. The current Mac OS is more innovative... but isn't it really just a spruced up version of a Unix build? You can get pretty much everything Apple is offering from hundreds of different vendors at a much lower price. Why are people still buying these computers?

Apple has missed several opportunities but the biggest may have been some 15 years ago when Microsoft was floundering with Windows 2.0. Apple should have licensed their ROMs at that point or tried to port Mac OS to the x86 architecture. There was a huge debate within Apple about doing this...but they never did it. As I sit here and type this on my ultra fast, ultra cheap, ubiquitous Windows XP/Linux clone you have to wonder what would have happened if they had taken a different path.

[/RANT OFF]

 

[MarkA]

Not to be too picky but Apple didn't "adopt" FireWire - it's an Apple trademark actually (the generic name is IEEE1394) and Apple was the first to really implement it. That's something Windows PC's have adopted from Apple...

As to your "isn't it really just a spruced up version of a Unix build". Honestly, yes - it is. But it's also so much more. If you've used it as an important part of your life on an almost daily basis, you'd understand (I really want my own Mac. They're great. I regret buying an Athlon system SOOOOO much)

 

[gcutler]

Originally posted by blingbling
You have to wonder how long Apple is going to be around. They have squandered so much opportunity.

It is pretty hard to count Apple out. Their death knell have been rung several times over the years and they do something that the Apple Loyal just love and are willing to shell out money for. (The PowerPC Macs, the IMac, etc) And now that MS realizes that a 10% market share Apple prevents them from being a default monopoly, so MS will do whatever it takes to keep Apple around.