ok, if apple is smart they will never release OSX onto the PC, this is because if they do, people will never buy an apple product again. they can get a cheat powerfull dell, with the security and know how of apples OS X....just thought i'd say this
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why would tiger be released on PC?
- Thread starter biohazard6969
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biohazard_6969 said:
Microsoft don't sell hardware, but they do OK.
Releasing OS X on the PC platform would, however, eliminate the controlled Apple hardware environment and therefore introduce a whole set of driver quality and interoperability hassles
People don't always understand this, but what makes Apple such an excellent author of a fine operating system is that they exclusivley make the hardware it runs on. Once and a while some toothless open source hacking linux nut will come along and bark at OS X for being proprietry; but they fail to realize that that is the key to it's whole success.
A couple prime examples of this are the sleep mode and hardware drivers. The reason that there is no sleep mode commonly used on PCs is because it works horribly. Us OS X users really take for granted being able to put down our Macs and bring them back to life in only mere seconds; unheard of and extremely bugy on most PC based systems.
The other day someone I knew had the trackpad on their laptop stop functioning because of a driver problem. This is a perfect example the compleity that exists when you have to make an operating system that need to plug into 50,000 different brands motherboards. Even Linux (a good stable unix-based OS) has many of the same problems of the windows world because of this mess. The trade off of course is not being able to buy and build you own computer from any company and brand you choose, but you're also asking for trouble.
A couple prime examples of this are the sleep mode and hardware drivers. The reason that there is no sleep mode commonly used on PCs is because it works horribly. Us OS X users really take for granted being able to put down our Macs and bring them back to life in only mere seconds; unheard of and extremely bugy on most PC based systems.
The other day someone I knew had the trackpad on their laptop stop functioning because of a driver problem. This is a perfect example the compleity that exists when you have to make an operating system that need to plug into 50,000 different brands motherboards. Even Linux (a good stable unix-based OS) has many of the same problems of the windows world because of this mess. The trade off of course is not being able to buy and build you own computer from any company and brand you choose, but you're also asking for trouble.
appleretailguy said:
rumor has it that apple has an x86 version of the code. NeXT used to work on x86, there's a x86 version of darwin. who's to say they don't have a fairly workable version for x86 processors? Might only take a few guys on that one to convert necessary code to x86 during development. So it's not unfeasible. In fact i'd be willing to bet they have a version that someone is working on day in and day out keeping up to date.
Plus, OS X probably would be almost as bad as Windows. Think about all the different 3rd party hardware MS has to support. You have to give them credit trying to make their software for all PC users. But this is a big reason why windows crashes so much (its not THE reason, but it still is a major factor). Apple only has to support the hardware they select to put in their products. If they supported every vender that makes hardware for PCs, OS X would get bloated and sluggish.
TigerPRO said:
don't get all crazy here but you realize the same happens to OS X users on a daily basis right? And i mean hardware/software conflicts and issues. Browse through the forums and see if there aren't a load of people asking for help in fixing their setup. Just so happens you see more wintel machines have this problem because there's more of them. that's why.
The reason for bad sleep support, is due to a bad api for it on the wintel machines. APCI or whatever it is, and all that other mumbo jumbo. Last I knew linux supported 2 of them, but neither really worked well because they're both half-assed. Point is the only problem is lack of standard on that, it's not microsoft's fault here, it's the hardware manufacturers. So you're partially correct on this one.
Irrelevant. If OS X was released for PCs, Apple's margins (they make a nice profit from each machine) and revenue (stockholders like hearing Apple sold X.Y billion dollars worth of products and they constantly expect it to increase) would plummet since nobody would be buying their hardware anymore. And no, the increase in OS sales would not make up for it.blodwyn said:
Everything else you mention is true too. It just doesn't make sense for them to do it.
not going to happen any time soon, if ever for the reasons that others have mentioned already. this really should be a non-issue
How PC motherboard companies are there?
Because I've put many different kind of hard drives, DVD-ROM drives, GFX cards, PCI add-on cards and RAM in my old powermac, and with OS X it is still solid as a rock. Albeit, that these companies that I buy products for usually have their own mac drivers.
So I don't think having to support many manufacturers would be a huge deal really as long as the companies provide the drivers if necessary.
I still think an x86 version should be kept for a last resort if Apple is ever in big trouble, but for the time being it should stay as it is, and currently Apple is only growing as a company.
Because I've put many different kind of hard drives, DVD-ROM drives, GFX cards, PCI add-on cards and RAM in my old powermac, and with OS X it is still solid as a rock. Albeit, that these companies that I buy products for usually have their own mac drivers.
So I don't think having to support many manufacturers would be a huge deal really as long as the companies provide the drivers if necessary.
I still think an x86 version should be kept for a last resort if Apple is ever in big trouble, but for the time being it should stay as it is, and currently Apple is only growing as a company.
So what you're saying is Apple's hardware can't compete in a market economy?
You don't think people would keep buying 3000 dollar G5s to run photoshop because, really, truly, it's 93% (or some other fake number) faster than ANY PC ever has been? [/sarcasm] *wicked smile*
Sounds like a problem to me...
biohazard_6969 said:
Thats not all. If OS X ran on Intel processors, then every existing peice of Mac software would not run. Remember, binaries in applications are written in the API for the operating system and then compiled for the PROCESSOR ARCHITECTURE. As a result, every existing Mac program is PowerPC compiled and could not run on an Intel processor.
I would not be surprised if at some point Apple gets together with other hardware companies (most notably Sony and IBM) and licenses out OS X- on PowerPC systems. Then PC manufacturers could build systems with IBM PowerPC processors and run OS X on them. Apple would keep strict control over it though.
But there is NO WAY we will see it on Intel processors. Absolutely not.
DXoverDY said:
Yeah, I wasn't trying to proove that OS X is perfect or anything; just exponetially better. No, please don't use "there's more problems because there's more of them" logic. I can compare the "driver related" problems and hassles I've had with just one of any of the over half dozen windows machines I've had, and it will way far surpass the minor issues I've had with OS X.
The fact of the matter is, on a Mac you'll never need to worry about rediculous things like reinstalling your mouse drivers from time to time as with windows' typical spastic behavior. And the number of issues I continue to have on my windows boxes with video and sound drivers seems to be neverending (although only occasionally). Sometimes it's only a matter of time before sound stops working on some wintel machines (and for apearently no reason). Several months ogo when we were doing a rutine wipe and install of XP, I came to find out I couldn't even play a DVD!! It's so rediculous that you can't freshly install XP on this machine with a perfeectly modern DVD-ROM drive and use it! What a shocking feature that would be. Again, welcome to the world of third party drivers.
On a Mac, plug in a mouse and it always works. On a Mac, insert a DVD and it always plays. On a Mac, plug in your speakers and you'll always hear sound. On a Mac, simple things just always seem to work.
GFLPraxis said:
It's not that we won't see it running on Intel, it's that we wont see it running on Intel x86... but if Intel licenses PowerPC they could make them in their fab. or if it allies with IBM... Considering PowerPC chips are growng in other machines (Xbox) that could be a possibility, or mabe AMD...
TigerPRO said:
i call BS.. in my 13 years of computing on x86 I have had very few driver related issues. Never has my mouse stopped working due to drivers only because it wiggled itself free and wasn't plugged in. Never had a keyboard not function. Never had sound card issues with windows 2000 or windows XP. In fact i've had so few problems with this computer i find it rather great. in the 3 years i've had this computer i have not had a single hardware/software conflict cause problems. Just a dead hard drive. Once again, it's not all computers, it's just that when 1 of every 33 computer users is a mac, you don't hear about the problems as much as you would on a PC. I have a dell in the living room for my brothers and parents, never had a problem with it. IBM machine in my closet, never had a problem with it. Dell laptop, never had a problem with it. Packard Bell. only problem i ever had with that one was sound driver and cdrom driver related back in the days of windows 3.1 and 95.. that switch hurt.
That number sounds like market share... which is very different from the actual number of users for any given platform. As Mac users are only counted in market share when they buy a new system from Apple, and many stay with their system for much longer than your average PC user, you really can't tell anything about an installed user base for any platform based on market share.DXoverDY said:
On the issue of drivers, what does and doesn't happen on Windows is totally beside the point. Mac OS X on x86 hardware would be at the mercy of hardware manufactures. Microsoft doesn't worry about drivers because hardware venders are going to write them to sell their hardware to Windows users. On the other hand, these same venders would have no reason to write these same drivers for Mac OS X on x86.
Yes, this is a big issue. As a user of Rhapsody for x86 I had to be very careful to only buy hardware that I knew I had drivers for. And even then, there was no guarantee that everything would work.
I've never had sound on my IBM ThinkPad because Apple never made sound drivers for that model of sound card. On the other hand, I have sound (and support for just about everything else) on my PowerMac (also running Rhapsody).
What it would come down to is that either Apple or some other people would need to write drivers for many things because most hardware venders wouldn't be willing to support Mac OS X on x86 early on.
DXoverDY said:
Do you realize the same explanation you're using to reason that my cases are secluded could be reverse engeneered to say that you've just had "good luck"? We need to be careful in debating this issue based purely on personal experience. I claim a personal experinece of problems, and your retort is to evidence your lack of problems. But I'm not just talking about a few computers I own, I'm in the computer troubleshooting and repair business. And all I can say is that you have a really nice computer comparitively speaking.
DXoverDY said:
Look back at what I just said though. I'm not comparing the community of Mac users at large with that of Windows. I'm comparing my one and only Mac in the house with the best of my last 6+ Windows systems.
TigerPRO said:
As Mr. Jobs likes to say, Apple makes the whole widget...
One of the best things about Apple... Something goes wrong (or right for that matter) and I have one place to go/call/shop/email/search...
OS X is not coming to the x86 platform. It is not going to happen, not today, not tomorrow, probably not the next day either.
Stop this madness.
Mike
Stop this madness.
Mike