OS X works just fine on AMD

[beatle888]

However, it cannot be denied that the popularity of OS X is there and that many Windows users have itchy fingers. Some would say that Apple is making the same mistake it did 20 years ago and that if it opened OS X up to the masses, Windows Vista could be squashed in one fell swoop. Certainly, I'd wager we'd suddenly have a LOT more OS X software too.

are you kidding? OSX can not compete with windows on a business level. OSX lacks serious business advantages. dont get me wrong i love apple and use it exclusively but i know better. windows is for business. apple is for the home user and creative studios (to simplify it). apple seriously lacks business solutions. i cant even run my small business the way i could with windows because i chose apple.

so dont think apple will now dominate the world. they have a long way to go to overshadow microsoft when it comes to business.

 

[applemacdude]

your way of thinking is wrong.

now now thats why we call it a "opinion"

 

[Dont Hurt Me]

Lets get simple here, 95% of the world is using something else. Not selling your product to run on that 95% of the world isnt smart . Story over

 

[Mord]

AMD rules for gaming just pick up any issue of PC gamer. Very happy with Athlon 64 it laughs at Doom3

yeah, i know as i type this i'm doing a deadmines run on WoW on my pc with it's x800XT PE and 3200+ overclocked to 2.8GHz

 

[emoore]

Lets get simple here, 95% of the world is using something else. Not selling your product to run on that 95% of the world isnt smart . Story over

And 99% of people drive something other than a porsche but that doesn't mean they have to make cars for everyone. I don't understand the "need" for apple to make an OS for everyone.

 

[Mord]

now now thats why we call it a "opinion"

his opinion is wrong, plain and simple, and thats my opinion.

 

[roglisk]

And 99% of people drive something other than a porsche but that doesn't mean they have to make cars for everyone. I don't understand the "need" for apple to make an OS for everyone.

Money? Sure they have plenty but ultimately isn't that what all companies are reaching for?

 

[Dont Hurt Me]

There is a huge virus filled market crying for OSX but as allways Apple does something else,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,they should be ruling the computer world but they allways F... it up! I saw it years ago with powered by PowerPC with the star symbol anyone remember those days???? Anyways they are primed to take a run at microstink but perhaps its not in them.

 

[GimmeSlack12]

What if it was $129 for Mac-users, and $199 (or $249) for non-Mac users ?

Better yet, what if it was $89 for Mac-users and $129 for PC-Users? I think Mac users should get a break.

 

[Dont Hurt Me]

Thats thinking different now!

 

[Music_Producer]

apple isnt going to make the majority of its profits from selling its OS at $125 a pop.

doesnt sound good to me.

Really? Do you own a business? No, right? Let me explain:

I opened my own music instrument/pro audio business two years ago. I have ALWAYS believed in volume Business.. that is, let your profit margin be really small.. so you have more sales, and eventually more profits.

Initially, I tried selling some pro audio products which had a profit margin of $300-400 each unit. I hardly sold 3-4 units/month..although I was offering it at a price that was 20% lower than retail.

Now I sell pro audio products at $30 profit/unit.. and reduced the price to waaaay below retail. I sell 5 units/day.. thats 150 units/month.

Profit initially = $1600
Profit with low margin and volume sales = $4500.

A company like Apple would slaughter microsoft and any other operating system out there..if they sold OS X for PCs. If I was the CEO, would I be happy selling mac hardware to 2% of the market.. or selling mac software to 98% of the market? I'm surprised these guys can't figure this out yet.

 

[Music_Producer]

are you kidding? OSX can not compete with windows on a business level. OSX lacks serious business advantages. dont get me wrong i love apple and use it exclusively but i know better. windows is for business. apple is for the home user and creative studios (to simplify it). apple seriously lacks business solutions. i cant even run my small business the way i could with windows because i chose apple.

so dont think apple will now dominate the world. they have a long way to go to overshadow microsoft when it comes to business.

I run my small business perfectly with my mac software.. in fact, I own the same stuff on my Windows laptop..and I hate it. Some things might mess up for e.g. the payee/categories.. etc when importing a quicken file.. but its easily sorted out. My accounting,shipping,payment processing..etc.. everything runs on my powerbook just fine and I couldnt be happier.

 

[Eric5h5]

Also, the ONLY reason people buy the hardware is to run the SOFTWARE. PPC's aren't fast - no one is buying powermacs for speed.

They are, and they do. Have you forgotten so soon the supercomputer clusters using G5s?

They are buying it to run OS X. If people had the choice between a $2500 Mac that runs OS X or a $900 AMD that's twice as fast and runs OS X, the choice is quite obvious: they are going with the AMD.

They would, if there was such a thing. There isn't a comparable AMD chip, or Intel chip, that runs anywhere near twice as fast as a G5. A 3.6GHz P4 is in really general terms about equal to a 2.7GHz G5...let's not start revisionist history just because Apple chose to go x86. It was for purely political reasons as far as anyone can tell.

--Eric

 

[QCassidy352]

I honestly think, ultimately, Apple will release OS X across the board and not just for its own HardWare. Think how Apple is positioning itself now - Halo effect, Mactels - if it gets enough interest as soon as it releases a $129 OS X for all Intel... people will pay for Leopard and not for Vista.

I don't think so. Apple makes its money on hardware; the OS, as amazing as it is, is a vehicle to sell hardware.

How many times have you seen somebody on this site ask "why shouldn't I buy this Dell that's X dollars cheaper and faster besides?" And what's the answer every time? "But does it run OS X?"

What exactly would be the incentive to buy Apple hardware if they release OS X that can run on every machine? This is VERY VERY BAD for apple.

 

[QCassidy352]

A company like Apple would slaughter microsoft and any other operating system out there..if they sold OS X for PCs. If I was the CEO, would I be happy selling mac hardware to 2% of the market.. or selling mac software to 98% of the market? I'm surprised these guys can't figure this out yet.

And I'm surprised that as a former business owner you don't understand that there is more than one business model out there.

Apple is fantastically sucessful and profitable right now, regardless of market share. Abandoning the hardware market and challenging Microsoft for 98% of the software market could lead to Mac becoming the dominant OS... or being wiped out. I know that M$ looks pretty bad right now, but remember that they are one of the (or the single?) biggest companies on the planet with tremendous resources. Apple could slay the giant and take its place, or they could wake it up and get stepped on.

The business model apple has now is outstanding and is working extremely well for the company and its stockholders. As one of those stockholders, I'm not sure I like the idea of abandoning a winning strategy to pursue a far riskier one.

 

[me_94501]

are you kidding? OSX can not compete with windows on a business level. OSX lacks serious business advantages. dont get me wrong i love apple and use it exclusively but i know better. windows is for business. apple is for the home user and creative studios (to simplify it). apple seriously lacks business solutions. i cant even run my small business the way i could with windows because i chose apple.

so dont think apple will now dominate the world. they have a long way to go to overshadow microsoft when it comes to business.

For you it may lack serious business advantages, but the place I work for (retail) is 100% Macintosh-based.

 

[Eric5h5]

A company like Apple would slaughter microsoft and any other operating system out there..if they sold OS X for PCs. If I was the CEO, would I be happy selling mac hardware to 2% of the market.. or selling mac software to 98% of the market? I'm surprised these guys can't figure this out yet.

If only it were anywhere near that simple. Let's look at some realities, though. For one, it's easy to pirate software, but impossible to pirate hardware. It does Apple little good to expand their market, if most of that "market" hasn't actually paid them any money.

It's also true that just because someone could run OS X, doesn't mean they want to, or will. Realistically, the vast majority of Windows machines will stay Windows machines, even if OS X could run on them, just because OS X isn't Windows. It doesn't matter how much better it is, unfortunately.

Having real support for OS X on all x86 hardware would significantly increase Apple's development costs, drastically reducing any remaining after-piracy profit (unless they want to raise the price of OS X by a lot). It's one thing for OS X to get up and running on a generic x86 box, and quite another for it to actually support graphics acceleration, the sound card, modem, etc. Drivers don't just pop up out of thin air...someone has to write them. Actually, a great many someones have to write tons of them. If you already control 95% of the market, you can usually get other companies to do it for you or else their products won't run, but what about Apple?

(Example: remember how crap the GeForce 6800 ran when it first came out for the Mac, because there weren't any specific OS X drivers for it at the time? How long did it take before it ran well? That's the sort of thing you're dealing with, except on a massive scale...and that's not even a great example, because at least the 6800 was partially supported at first, even if it didn't run at full speed. How happy are you going to be, spending $600 for the latest mega-powerful graphics card, which runs in SOFTWARE mode because there aren't any drivers for it?)

"Duh, why doesn't Apple just sell to the biggest market"...it's not a trivial issue.

--Eric

 

[Music_Producer]

And I'm surprised that as a former business owner you don't understand that there is more than one business model out there.

Apple is fantastically sucessful and profitable right now, regardless of market share.

Hi Q, of course there are many business models out there.. but you might realize that Apple is extremely profitable right now because of the ipod. Now, why has the ipod been so successful? Because it caters to 100% of the market!! Thats right.. the mac market as well as the windows market.

Thats the point I'm trying to make.. while they have a healthy balance sheet.. now is the time to 'switch' windows users to the OS X experience. 98% of the market wont switch to spend $2000+ powerbooks just for the software.. they wont. Its just a fact..you and me will go out and buy the latest mac, but I know that my brother in law, my sis in law.. my parents, etc.. wont. Will they buy OS X for PC though? In a heartbeat.

 

[Music_Producer]

Eric, you made some valid points. True that Apple would have to invest a lot of time and money into the various factors that you have mentioned, but it would be worth it. Well, worth it for them as a company. As for drivers, etc.. I plug in any printer, scanner, peripheral, etc into my mac.. and it works. I am sure it would be a lot easier for the mac folks to build on this..

Additionally, the piracy factor is rampant in every industry there is.. software, music, books, movies.. you can't escape that. Adobe and microsoft products are the most pirated software products in the market, but they do extremely well anyway (legit sales)

 

[paulypants]

It doesn't take a PHD in rocket science to see what's going on here.

And from the looks of it, you are definitely not that.

 

[paulypants]

And I'm surprised that as a former business owner you don't understand that there is more than one business model out there.

Apple is fantastically sucessful and profitable right now, regardless of market share. Abandoning the hardware market and challenging Microsoft for 98% of the software market could lead to Mac becoming the dominant OS... or being wiped out. I know that M$ looks pretty bad right now, but remember that they are one of the (or the single?) biggest companies on the planet with tremendous resources. Apple could slay the giant and take its place, or they could wake it up and get stepped on.

The business model apple has now is outstanding and is working extremely well for the company and its stockholders. As one of those stockholders, I'm not sure I like the idea of abandoning a winning strategy to pursue a far riskier one.

That's the smartest and most accurate post I've seen in this thread...

 

[ReanimationLP]

Does anyone think I'm evil for installing it on a Dull?

Though it was funny to see the giant Dell logo then afterwards a big Apple logo on the screen.

 

[tristan]

"OSX. There are many copies. And they have a plan."

I think Jobby has something up his sleeve, something that he's been planning for a long long time. At some point he will position OSX to topple Microsoft. I don't know exactly how, but it will happen.

 

[greatdevourer]

urgh. not AMD. Intel is so clean, so pure. Intel and OS X go together. AMD is more fitted towards PC's

*using my way of thinking

I like to think of it the other way round. It was Intel who were peddling the "Mhz is more" line for a very long time, while AMD have been kicking their asses at 2/3 power

are you kidding? OSX can not compete with windows on a business level. OSX lacks serious business advantages. dont get me wrong i love apple and use it exclusively but i know better. windows is for business. apple is for the home user and creative studios (to simplify it). apple seriously lacks business solutions. i cant even run my small business the way i could with windows because i chose apple.

so dont think apple will now dominate the world. they have a long way to go to overshadow microsoft when it comes to business.

What business do you do? What way does it lack?

 

[TBi]

your way of thinking is wrong.

AMD currently leads with desktop cpu's the K8 is much much better than netburst, this will change with conroe.

I just "upgraded" to an AMD Athlon X2 from a Pentium 4 and while i agree that the processor is magnificant and fast and power and whips the P4 around the place, the chipset it runs on is a POS. The nForce 4 still has problems that plagued the nForce1 and has lots of compatibility problems. The intel motherboard just worked, no problems and now worries.

Intel at the moment don't have the most powerful processors but they have the best motherboard chipsets.

AMD at the moment have the best and most powerful processors but they have ATTROCIOUS motherboard chipsets.

Apple users don't use apple because it's the fastest (lets face it it's not), they use it because it is only slightly slower but runs a lot nicer and has less problems. Thats why Apple went Intel, less problems even though they are less powerful. Although when the new PentiumM's come out AMD will be shaking in their boots.

I'm all for the underdogs and i'd love if apple went AMD but only if someone brought out a decent motherboard chipset to go with it.