On Friday, October 17, 2003, at 05:12 PM, mkauspe wrote:
Purely to argue -
Me,
First I think people need to stop viewing Microsoft (MS) as this huge evil out to kill you conglomerate.
Umm, yes, they are. They're aiming for complete control and dominance of the personal computing field.
If they were so bad every PC user would still be on Windows 3.1 or better yet DOS.
No they wouldn't, because *new* computers come with new MS OS'es and programs, forcing people to upgrade their old ones systems to keep up within their business, or replace their systems all at once. MS is in the software business...they make *their* money by selling lots of software boxes. Frequent, incompatible upgrades are an excellent way of doing just that.
Bringing out new and incompatible file formats for their programs (Office, for example) are quite the moneymakers for them. We had to buy a LOT of copies of Office 2K and soon thereafter Office XP just to keep people to the point where they could work together.
MS is working hard towards a future where you're locked into an upgrade path whether you like it or not (their corporate licensing schemes already enforce that: You pay an annual fee to Microsoft for every system that *can* run their software, whether or not it does...otherwise you pay full ticket for every install, no more upgrade prices.) They want to *rent* their products, not sell them.
MS has been actively participating in many developments with Apple, I'll use bluetooth as one example.
Actually *lots* of people have been working with Bluetooth as it's a huge market. And you're right, MS does have an interest in keeping Apple alive, if for no other reason than to be able to say with a straight face that they're not a monopoly.
I think, and I am not sure, that MS actually owns part of Apple.
No they do not. As part of a patent infringement settlement with Apple, MS invested 150 million in *non-voting* Apple stock, and sold it as soon as they could. (at a handsome profit, in fact)
I am no programmer and i don't know what would be easier to deal with as far as the two OS's go, but I love X and would much rather take advantage of my cheap PC hardware with a stable and well running OS. Maybe Apple would loose some money with hardware but they could always develop x86 systems and hardware for the x86 OS X.
Sigh, you're not a business man either. Repeat after me: Apple is a *hardware* company.
Your solution is to enter the market that Microsoft owns 97% of, while simultaneously removing 90% of your income.
They would be competing directly with Dell, Gateway and HP with the huge disadvantage of not having the supplier clout that these companies have AND the added costs of R&D to maintain and improve OSX. I mean, what does Dell spend on R&D, $23.49 a year or what? What do they have to innovate? A different color case? (which is done for them by their Taiwan partners anyway) These companies are commodity systems assemblers.
Michael Dell got his start buying cheap clone parts and assembling them into cheap clone computers in his dorm room.
Dell is a now a Fortune 500 company, but is, essentially, the very same thing. They buy cheap clone parts made and designed by someone else and put them together and sell the resulting cheap clone systems.
You just want a cheapass computer that runs OSX. While it would be good for you, personally, it would be economic disaster for Apple. It's telling, you would't even consider buying a computer from apple..You "would much rather take advantage of my cheap PC hardware with a stable and well running OS".
Are you willing to spend $500 or so on that OS? No? Didn't think so.
Put Linux on that PC and be done with it. It's stable, it runs well, it's nowhere nearly as good as OS X, but this is the price you pay: Cheap or Good...you choose.
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