Because it would ruin the entire Apple user experience of "it just works" that they can deliver on their own hardware platform. They'd be years behind Windows in driver compatibility, simply because they haven't had the legacy Windows has had in developing it.
Not to mention, hardware is where they really make their money. Everyone would probably just end up pirating the OS, anyway:)
I'm no fan of Apple by an means of the imagination, but $1599's pretty decent and a heck of a lot more affordable than a tablet.
-- "...today consumers have been conditioned to think of beer when they see a bullfrog..."
Re:not bad
by
Steve+Cowan
·
· Score: 4, Insightful
You can poo-poo the 1024x768 screen on the 12" PowerBook, but to my knowledge there is no higher resolution 12" display on a notebook anywhere. If you want higher resolution you need a bigger notebook. This is the right trade-off in my opinion, because things would start getting pretty tiny at higher res on a 12".
Also check the Apple PDF Datasheet on the 12", you'll see that the drive is stated to write at 24x, not 2x as you suggest. (I just checked, and interestingly the Apple Store page says the drive writes at 8x. Weird, but still faster than 2x.)
Re:not bad
by
Anonymous Coward
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
The 12 inch powerbook is only a cacheless 867Mhz
My 4-cyl car runs at 6000RPM. Your big V8 only runs at 3300RPM. Therefore your car is slower.
There is more than "just works"
by
Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 3, Insightful
There is more than "it just works". How about "It not only works, it creates, it plays, and it does a lot more"
Re:G5?
by
Anonymous Coward
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· Score: 0, Insightful
PPC 970s will be out before the end of June. Fabrication of the new powermac enclosures is well underway.
Now, why doesn't Apple make OSX for x86 machines ?
I know I shouldn't feed the trolls, but everyone, repeat after me:
Because Apple is a hardware company!
Selling OS X for x86 machines would cut into their margins, encourage their competitors, and there's simply no way they could survive as an OS-only vendor (remember BeOS? That was a lot better than Windows, too).
Down From What?
by
nanobug
·
· Score: 3, Insightful
What price were they before?
Re:G5?
by
Anonymous Coward
·
· Score: 1, Insightful
Uh. When Apple lowers prices, it's because they want to sell more units. Why, exactly, they're looking to sell more varies depending on the circumstances, but on several occasions Apple has lowered prices in the middle of a model's lifespan for no other reason than to drive sales. Consider the way Apple lowered the price of the G4 iMac by $100 for no apparent reason several months ago. (Of course, they had to later raise that price by $100 again when LCD prices spiked back up, but that's life.)
The only thing you can read into this is that Apple wants you to buy a PowerBook. Anything else is rampant speculation.
Still using my 400 MHz G4 PowerBook & still loving it more than I ever did any of my PC laptops--no matter how fast they were.
It feels so good finally being content with something.
I look back to the foolishness of my former self with pity; I was never satisfied with my laptop. Somehow I thought that new hardware or a new OS would fix my problems. Somehow I kept at this for years, searching for the right laptop. I became a computing nomad--jumping from laptop to laptop, thinking that maybe my issues would be solved with the latest hardware. And jumping from OS to OS--from Windows to Suse to Debian to Mandrake to OpenBSD to FreeBSD... on and on. I couldn't find anything that really fit my needs.
I find that it wasn't really speed I needed all those years I was on the MHz treadmill--it was just a computer that worked the way it was supposed to.
I'm quite happy with what I have, and for the first time, I know I'll be using a computer until it dies its natural death. For the first time I can concentrate on getting things done rather than that gaggle of concerns and problems I had to think about before I could even start a project.
So, I've found out first-hand what people with old PowerBooks do--a lot more than people with old PC laptops.
It won't even matter whether Apple is competitive with the PC world. The mac users will always buy macs, and PC users will never be able to be cconvinced that
OS X is better than windows.
RISC chips outperform CISC chips, even at much slower speeds.
Macs are just way cooler than windows machines.
In the end, it sucks for mac users, b/c if Apple had 20% market share, their prices would be lower, and we could buy more songs from the Apple music store with the money we save.
PowerPC to x86 does not mean PC clone
by
AHumbleOpinion
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· Score: 3, Insightful
Your argument applies to Apple introducing MacOS X on generic PC clones. This has nothing to do with a switch from PowerPC to x86. The realistic scenario is simply Apple replaces the PowerPC at the core of it's proprietary design with an x86, much like the transition from 68K to PPC. This could also be a relatively painless transition. Emulation would not work as well this time around, however MacOS X apps are much more likely to be less CPU dependent than MacOS apps of the mid-90's.
it's kind of odd that the 15" has not been updated to match the other G4 powerbooks, seeing how the other books have been out for months now. i wonder how true that assumption is about massive backstock of 15" powerbooks. Apple rarely has more than a few weeks worth of stock. they give these figures in their quarterly earnings reports. there is no way they had 6 months worth of 15" powerbooks sitting on the shelves. i think there are a few obvious possibilities:
either they are waiting to leapfrog the 12" and 17" models and *possibly* require features in the next OS revision.
OR they want to keep the 15" as is for the OS 9 users (graphic designers needing Quark), till everyone is ready for OS X only.
OR Steve Jobs is just silly and you'll never figure him out.
Re:How about the rest of the world.
by
Alan+Partridge
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
Apple laptops aren't made in American factories you fucking fool - I think you'll find they're 'made with pride' in either Taiwan or China.
Arrogance + Xenophobia + Ignorance = American Pride
Slashdot Mirror
Because it would ruin the entire Apple user experience of "it just works" that they can deliver on their own hardware platform. They'd be years behind Windows in driver compatibility, simply because they haven't had the legacy Windows has had in developing it.
:)
Not to mention, hardware is where they really make their money. Everyone would probably just end up pirating the OS, anyway
Chris -- http://www.bitter.net/
I'm no fan of Apple by an means of the imagination, but $1599's pretty decent and a heck of a lot more affordable than a tablet.
"...today consumers have been conditioned to think of beer when they see a bullfrog..."
There is more than "it just works". How about "It not only works, it creates, it plays, and it does a lot more"
PPC 970s will be out before the end of June. Fabrication of the new powermac enclosures is well underway.
Anything more, I cannot say.
Now, why doesn't Apple make OSX for x86 machines ?
I know I shouldn't feed the trolls, but everyone, repeat after me:
Because Apple is a hardware company!
Selling OS X for x86 machines would cut into their margins, encourage their competitors, and there's simply no way they could survive as an OS-only vendor (remember BeOS? That was a lot better than Windows, too).
What price were they before?
Uh. When Apple lowers prices, it's because they want to sell more units. Why, exactly, they're looking to sell more varies depending on the circumstances, but on several occasions Apple has lowered prices in the middle of a model's lifespan for no other reason than to drive sales. Consider the way Apple lowered the price of the G4 iMac by $100 for no apparent reason several months ago. (Of course, they had to later raise that price by $100 again when LCD prices spiked back up, but that's life.)
The only thing you can read into this is that Apple wants you to buy a PowerBook. Anything else is rampant speculation.
Still using my 400 MHz G4 PowerBook & still loving it more than I ever did any of my PC laptops--no matter how fast they were.
It feels so good finally being content with something.
I look back to the foolishness of my former self with pity; I was never satisfied with my laptop. Somehow I thought that new hardware or a new OS would fix my problems. Somehow I kept at this for years, searching for the right laptop. I became a computing nomad--jumping from laptop to laptop, thinking that maybe my issues would be solved with the latest hardware. And jumping from OS to OS--from Windows to Suse to Debian to Mandrake to OpenBSD to FreeBSD... on and on. I couldn't find anything that really fit my needs.
I find that it wasn't really speed I needed all those years I was on the MHz treadmill--it was just a computer that worked the way it was supposed to.
I'm quite happy with what I have, and for the first time, I know I'll be using a computer until it dies its natural death. For the first time I can concentrate on getting things done rather than that gaggle of concerns and problems I had to think about before I could even start a project.
So, I've found out first-hand what people with old PowerBooks do--a lot more than people with old PC laptops.
Notes From Under *nix: blas.phemo.us
- OS X is better than windows.
- RISC chips outperform CISC chips, even at much slower speeds.
- Macs are just way cooler than windows machines.
In the end, it sucks for mac users, b/c if Apple had 20% market share, their prices would be lower, and we could buy more songs from the Apple music store with the money we save.Your argument applies to Apple introducing MacOS X on generic PC clones. This has nothing to do with a switch from PowerPC to x86. The realistic scenario is simply Apple replaces the PowerPC at the core of it's proprietary design with an x86, much like the transition from 68K to PPC. This could also be a relatively painless transition. Emulation would not work as well this time around, however MacOS X apps are much more likely to be less CPU dependent than MacOS apps of the mid-90's.
it's kind of odd that the 15" has not been updated to match the other G4 powerbooks, seeing how the other books have been out for months now. i wonder how true that assumption is about massive backstock of 15" powerbooks. Apple rarely has more than a few weeks worth of stock. they give these figures in their quarterly earnings reports. there is no way they had 6 months worth of 15" powerbooks sitting on the shelves. i think there are a few obvious possibilities:
either they are waiting to leapfrog the 12" and 17" models and *possibly* require features in the next OS revision.
OR they want to keep the 15" as is for the OS 9 users (graphic designers needing Quark), till everyone is ready for OS X only.
OR Steve Jobs is just silly and you'll never figure him out.
Apple laptops aren't made in American factories you fucking fool - I think you'll find they're 'made with pride' in either Taiwan or China.
Arrogance + Xenophobia + Ignorance = American Pride
That was classic intercourse!