Slashdot Mirror
Apple's Colossal Disappointment?
Mudzy writes "Michael Roberson, founder of Linspire, has an article at The TechZone talking about Apple's 'Colossal Disappointment' for not porting Mac OS X to PC after they announced the move to Intel processors. He discuss why this could be a mistake." From the article: "Instead of a brilliant strategic maneuver, it's a step necessitated by IBM's inability to keep pace with Intel. It seems Apple was tired of losing the gigahertz competition to the PC world. Apple had been promising faster computers for some time and had not been able to deliver them. In addition, they were frustrated at IBM's inability to produce a fast low-powered chip for laptops."
Nah, Jobs' actually works.
Area IV, here I am
My statement was not redundant. If you disagree with what I have to say, that does not make it right for you to mod me down based on any pretext you can think up.
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools The way to dusty death. --Will
If you haven't figured it out yet mods don't need a "right" they just smoke some serious crack and mod away.
Bad Panda! No Bamboo for you! In matters of importance ACs will not be responded to. Want to say something critical,OK
First, who the hell is this mutha giving advice on how to strike it big in the desktop computing market. Isn't he the founder of linspire, the over-hyped rehashing of Debian that was suppose be this big monopoly buster but fell short. Linspire isn't even in the same ball park as Apple. Some jackass actually posted this shit.
You know in the seven years I used computers, I learn one thing. A computer is not box with assorted electrical components. Its the synergy between hardware and software. A "computer" without software is a 35lb paper weight and software without a "computer" are table coasters. You need both to have a true computer. I believe this is a why Steve Jobs- who is a technologist first and a businessman second- is so intent on controlling both. With control of both, Apple produces the best user experience in the market today.
Flip the coin, look at Linux. By all rights, it developers try to make it something for everything. People try to install it all over the place. But in the end, not many want to use it to surf the web, read email, type papers, etc.- the very fundamental stuff that make computers an integral part of our lives. A reason this is that in some configurations installing Linux is a breeze with everything working satisfactorily but with others its a damn nightmare even with good distributions. A notebook with wireless but Linux can't use it because it lacks the driver is crippled (You'll never say that about a Powerbook with OSX). For a techie this is frustrating but for a non-techie it is downright impossible.
Now, I read a lot of posts from so called techies who think Apple releasing OSX is such great thing. But it is actually a fallacy because the very act will erode the quality of OSX. Its all been done before and it nearly kill Apple. Remember OS 7, it was crap compared to Windows 95 and for an OS that is a bad thing to be considering 95 was total crap. That was the OS when Apple was trying to be the next Microsoft but actually was digging its own grave. Controlling both hardware and software is not a bad thing. Apple can assure that their computers will work because there will be no hiccups between hardware and the software. Moreover, Apple can dedicate more resources to innovation in both the OS and the hardware. This is why OSX beats the pants off of XP and I suspect Vista as well. This why OSX has gotten 3 major upgrades with new great features while Microsoft is still working on Vista and omitting features that won't be ready in time. Apple does all this and it still bests Dell and HP in hardware design. Apple releasing OSX for commodity hardware will probably put on the same level as Linspire. Guys, gals, Wake UP!!!
It is true, commodity hardware is cheap, but that is exactly what you get- CHEAP!
You don't have to be smart to use a Mac, you just have to be smart enough to buy one