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If Windows Came to PPC, Would You Switch?

Posted by Cliff on from the converse-questions dept.

An anonymous reader asks: "This question was posted on Ask Slashdot about a week ago: 'If Mac OS X Came to x86, Would You Switch?' This makes me ask why not have Windows run on PowerPC? Windows/PPC would not necessarily have to run on Apple hardware, or at least not exclusively on it. I'm sure their friends at IBM and Motorola would be happy to provide chips to anyone that wanted to make computers to run this new OS. Microsoft could dust off the code from NT4/PPC, add some code from Virtual PC to get Windows/x86 compatibility, and have it up and running in about the same amount of time it would take Apple to get Mac OS X running on common Intel hardware." An additional question comes to mind, however: If Microsoft made this move, how would Intel react?

22 of 906 comments (clear)

  1. Obligatory Quote by Average_Joe_Sixpack · · Score: 5, Funny

    "You can't polish a turd"

    1. Re:Obligatory Quote by Trejkaz · · Score: 4, Funny

      Putting Windows on a PowerPC wouldn't be so much like polishing a turd, as it would be like smearing shit on a diamond.

      --
      Karma: It's all a bunch of tree-huggin' hippy crap!
    2. Re:Obligatory Quote by ActiveSX · · Score: 4, Funny

      Yeah, how dare somebody suggest sullying Windows like that! >:(

    3. Re:Obligatory Quote by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

      Nice uptime. For a windows box.

    4. Re:Obligatory Quote by DarkEdgeX · · Score: 4, Funny

      (shamelessly translated from http://ask.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=125372&cid =10505702)

      Look, you guys just can't get it through your heads that the reason why Windows XP works so well is because it runs on such a wide array of hardware-- this allows the engineers coding XP to make assumptions THAT CANNOT BE MADE in the PPC world, where a machine could be using one of dozens of motherboards, network cards, graphics cards, sound cards, etc. Mac OS developers have to code for the lowest common denominator. Windows developers code for specific hardware. Even the version of Windows that ran on PPC hardware ran on a tiny subset of the available PPC hardware. If your CD-ROM drive and motherboard weren't on the "supported hardware" list that came with Windows, you were SOL.

      That little fantasy you all have of buying "Windows for PPC", running it on some store-bought shitbox you purchased from the Apple store, and having it work as well as an x86 runs Windows XP today will NEVER come to pass. Apple has spent twenty years and untold millions trying to achieve that goal, and they still have quite a way to go.

      Do you think Gates could just snap his fingers one day and a few months later have a product on the shelves that would run perfectly on every PPC capable of running OS X today? It's impossible. And even if it were possible, you wouldn't buy it. Why? Because Microsoft uses their software to sell their hardware, so a copy of Windows XP for PPC would have to be priced to ease the pain of a lost hardware sale-- you'd either do without it and bitterly bitch about the price here on /., or you'd pirate it-- either way, Microsoft would lose money on it.

      ~DarkEdgeX

      --
      All I know about Bush is I had a good job when Clinton was president.
  2. How to put this... by daveschroeder · · Score: 5, Funny

    No

  3. HAHAHAHAHAHA!!! by lordkimbot · · Score: 5, Funny

    Oh, you're serious.

    Sorry!

    --
    sig mind freed
    1. Re:HAHAHAHAHAHA!!! by kundor · · Score: 4, Funny

      The proper way to handle that situation is
      "Oh, wait you're serious. Let me laugh even harder."
      (--Bender)

  4. For Shame! by Draconix · · Score: 5, Funny

    Once more, people are overlooking an oft ignored market base:

    Masochists.

    --
    By reading this you acknowledge that you have read it.
  5. Oh yeah by cubicledrone · · Score: 4, Funny

    People are going to switch to Windows from OS X. Oh sure. They'll probably line up around the Best Buy at midnight. Yeah. Uh huh.

    Dell makes an iPod. Sony makes an iPod. Windows is trying to be OS X. Microsoft has a music store. HP licenses the iPod. Hmmm.

    Yep. Everybody wants to be Apple.

    --
    Business isn't willing to pay for products, innovation and careers, so we get brands, mortgage commercials and layoffs.
  6. If the Astros put on Yankees uniforms... by PollGuy · · Score: 5, Funny

    would you root for them?

    1. Re:If the Astros put on Yankees uniforms... by mvdw · · Score: 4, Funny

      I'm an Aussie. Here in Australia, to root means something completely different to what you USAians would mean. Short answer is that yes, I would root for them. In fact, I'd root for anybody...

  7. New Poll by Nova+Express · · Score: 5, Funny
    What do you think of running Windows on the PowerPC Platform?

    1. Finally! The stability and ease of use of Windows combined with the Mac's huge library of games!
    2. I think you should put down the crack pipe.
    3. Hmm, there's something just not right about this ice cream. I know! I'll improve it by adding this dead rat!
    4. Don't make me hurt you.
    5. You'll install Windows on my PPC over my dead body.
    6. The goggles! They do nothing!
    7. Seriously, I really, really have to hurt you now.
    8. I'm still trying to install Windows 3.0 on my PDP-11. Just 12,500 more dip switch flips and I'm done!
    9. With my 5000 node XServe cluster, I can now achieve a Blue Screen of Death in picoseconds!
    10. I'll use Windows when it runs on CowboyNeal.

    --
    Lawrence Person (lawrencepersonh@gmailh.com (remove all "h"s to mail)

    http://www.lawrenceperson.com/

  8. -1 Redundant by wazzzup · · Score: 4, Funny

    Why?

    Really, why was this story even posted? The barrier for entry to Windows is already lower on Intel than PPC. 99% of people buy PPC to get MacOS and have made a decision to stay away from Windows. Maybe for some obscure server configuration or something - I don't know. Ewww. I think I just felt my PowerBook shudder.

    It's like going to church and asking the congregation if, next week, they would like to hold a Satanic mass and worship the devil rather than the usual Sunday drill.

  9. Re:Not possible. by finkployd · · Score: 4, Funny

    Umm, basic economics my friend. If the demand is there, the production capacity will rise with it. It isn't like PPC chips are a scarce, natural resource, IBM certainly has the ability to boost production.

    "Sir, we cannot keep up with the damand, we need to find more PPC mines"

    That would be kinda cool actually.

    "Eureka! We have struck Altivic!"

    Finkployd

  10. Re:muuuh. by rlwhite · · Score: 5, Funny

    I'm still waiting for Windows on x86 to have full efficiency.

  11. Wrong! by EtherAlchemist · · Score: 5, Funny


    You can't polish a turd

    Oh yes you can! See?

    And I remember on the old Ripley's show (circa 80's) a farmer that made jewelry out of chicken droppings.

    --
    R(k)
    1. Re:Wrong! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      OK, but that's a fossil. Windows is a little too fresh and steamy for that treatment now.

      Come back in a couple million years and we'll be ready for it. 8^)

  12. Re:Already done. It's called Microsoft Virtual PC. by damiam · · Score: 5, Funny
    But it's otherwise as useful and harmless as XP.

    I can't say that either of those adjectives would be my first choice for describing XP.

    --
    It's hard to be religious when certain people are never incinerated by bolts of lightning.
  13. Re:Already done. It's called Microsoft Virtual PC. by Anml4ixoye · · Score: 4, Funny
    But it's otherwise as useful and harmless as XP. I can't say that either of those adjectives would be my first choice for describing XP.

    That's because the poster mistyped. He meant useless and harmful

    --
    Random Musings
  14. Re:NT Runs on G5 Mac Hardware Now by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Wait wait wait... so let me get this straight... There used to be Apples and IBM-compatibles... now, Apples are the IBM-compatibles, and IBM doesn't make IBM-compatibles... I need to sit down.

  15. I would run Windows on a shiny new G5 by shplorb · · Score: 4, Funny

    ...for the exact same reason that I'd buy a Ferrari and run it on sump oil.