On Tue, 2005-06-07 at 06:13 +0800, Rob Davies wrote: > I feel sorry for all the Apple retailers who have to re-evaluate > future whilst surviving the transition, knowing they are going to be > competing with our x86 brethren after the dust settles.
They already are. I don't see that too much changes here, frankly, unless Apple decide to let MacOS/X run on standard PCs. Do you think that's likely, 'cos I sure don't. Thus, the competition is much the same as it was, though Apple might have a bit of an advantage if they let users dual-boot, or sell bundled versions of VMWare with Windows or something. Of course, I won't be surprised if the Mac-on-Linux crowd have cracked out a version that lets you run MacOS/X on a standard Linux PC within a few weeks of getting their hands on a preview build. That's geek territory really - I don't see your average user buying MacOS/X then installing Linux to run in in a virtualized environment. You have no idea how happy the idea of being able to run (probably virtualized) MacOS/X on my nice AMD desktop makes me, as a software developer and tester, though. I wonder how much more interest Apple might get from software developers if they provide a legit way to run MacOS/X on developers' existing Windows workstations? Marketing to the developers and improving the availability of the target platform, all in one. > Obviously Apple did not learn from the last fore-ray into sharing > chips and technology. Maybe they won't shoot themselves in the foot quite as hard this time ;-) > As Shay mentioned earlier PowerPC offered security x86 definitely > does not That's BS IMO. The incompatible OS APIs offered "security" - and still will offer the same level of it now. Just like before, there won't be viruses unless someone decides to target MacOS/X with them. The CPU doesn't matter. > oh well what's another day on a weekend checking for > rootkits, spyware, malware and this weeks new virus or rebuilding > OS. Dunno. Do you plan on running Windows on yours? If not, I wouldn't worry. Not unless you worry about viruses on your current mac. Just like always, you'll want to be aware of the possibility, but won't need to expect every file to be wrapped in viruses. > At Least $M Gates will be smiling another 12 months to get his > Longhorn $M stable, and out the door. Whilst knowing he can control > another part of the Apple, it's future development. Er... how so? Apple can go to any x86 chip maker - currently AMD and Intel for the high end, VIA and Intel for the low end. Microsoft can pressure Intel, but not as hard as they once could. I wouldn't think Apple has opened themselves to anything they weren't already subject to because of their platform's dependence on MS Office. Microsoft can't afford to pressure Apple right now, either. They have legal problems and need to look like well behaved, honest above-board folks. > One must ask if PowerPC has no future roadmap or growth why have all > the leading games console manufacturers switched to them for the next > generation. Well, they /are/ using very specialized chips. Not desktop PC material at all, really. IBM /has/ been having trouble ramping desktop/workstation chips to very high speeds, and remember that there's the Opteron to consider in the workstation market now. -- Craig Ringer
