Donald Keenan wrote: > Bruce: > Thanks for the info. > So there's not yet been an economic incentive to make a a platform > independent? standard? (Am I wording this correctly?)
Yes there was a serious attempt to make a platform independent standard, and it's wide adoption has been thwarted by monopolistic forces in the market: Java. It is not in Microsoft's interest to have any sort of other platform in the market. They use their monopoly to force the acceptance of their system on the world. They immediately released a non-standard Java implementation, as well as Windows-only Java components to sterr all Java development to Windows as well. This was one part of the anti-trust action that the Department of Justice brought against Microsoft. > Some would say the best hope for this is already Windows, others the > promise of Linux being adopted as an alternative? The thing is, Linux runs on fewer systems than MacOS does, so I doin't see how this is so touted as an alternative over windows... (That said it is one HECK of an alternative to Windows Servers!) > I love Apple hardware (except for the mouse). Could it run Windows > software if it were recompiled? No, not unless Windows itself was rewritten/recompiled to use the different processor and computer architecture in the Mac. When this happens, watch out for falling pig feces from the sky. :-/ Also, this is one reason that Office 6 for the Mac suck so badly. Microsoft just tried to include all the necessary windows libraries with minimal rewriting for the Mac. It resulted in having to put 300 MS files into your System folder, a kludgy Mac interface pasted on to the Windows program, and really poor performance all around. Even Microsoft could see that that didn't work, so they eventually re-wrote the entire office suite for the Mac from the ground up again, for Office 98. Is this what programs like Virtual PC > are actually doing, recompiling the software for a mac machine? No. Virtual PC and such are 'emulators' they set up a software version of the hardware for a Windows system, then run windows on this emulated computer. This is the reason it's so slow. Note: This is pretty much how Java works as well...all Java implementations are emulators for a 'Java Virtual Machine', a processor that exists only in software (though there was once upon a time plans to make an actual hardware Java processor) It's much faster, as the JVM is a simple system, and doesn't have to implement a huge amount of hardware, like a Wintel system, but it does support the premise of 'Write once, Run everywhere' that guided early Java development. This design goes back deep into the history of computer science, as it is essentially the same as the old Pascal p-machine. -- Bruce Johnson University of Arizona College of Pharmacy Information Technology Group Institutions do not have opinions, merely customs -- G-Books is sponsored by <http://lowendmac.com/> and... Small Dog Electronics http://www.smalldog.com | Refurbished Drives | -- Check our web site for refurbished PowerBooks | & CDRWs on Sale! | Support Low End Mac <http://lowendmac.com/lists/support.html> G-Books list info: <http://lowendmac.com/lists/g-books.html> --> AOL users, remove "mailto:"; Send list messages to: <mailto:G-Books@;mail.maclaunch.com> To unsubscribe, email: <mailto:G-Books-off@;mail.maclaunch.com> For digest mode, email: <mailto:G-Books-digest@;mail.maclaunch.com> Subscription questions: <mailto:listmom@;lemlists.com> Archive: <http://www.mail-archive.com/g-books%40mail.maclaunch.com/> Using a Mac? Free email & more at Applelinks! http://www.applelinks.com
