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Apple Joins BAPCo
DigitalDame2 writes to tell us Gearlog is reporting that Apple has joined up with Windows benchmarking consortium BAPCo as a full blown member. From the article: "This is significant because it means that Apple has now committed to Windows-based performance testing, and it will influence industry-standard testing methodologies going forward, possibly including Mac OS X testing."
Apple is in the process of migrating to Windows and the small number of people who buy Intel based Macs are funding it.
The Apple everyone has know over all the years is steadily going away. Avie Tevanian leaving the company is the latest step in the process. There were two major events that set the wheels in motion:
1) The iPod/iTMS explosion in popularity
2) IBM dumping Apple as a customer
Those two events mixed with OEMs looking at the end of the dominance of the desktop/workstation era signed the death warrant for Apple computer hardware and OS X.
The sales of the Intel Macs will allow Apple the time it needs to transform itself into a Windows based company. You don't know Steve Jobs if you think would never do such a thing. An overpriced Intel exclusive x86 OEM that has to fund its own OS development in fading desktop market where margins and prices are in freefall...it doesn't take a smart CEO like Jobs to see the futility of that business plan.
The next step for Apple will be migrating the Cocoa/Carbon API to sit atop Vista to support all of Apple's digital media apps. Along with the crappy but free Xcode dev environment. And if Apple is smart they are doing the same for Linux. One button targeting of Cocoa apps for Windows and Linux.
You aren't going to recognize Apple a year from now. And I sure as hell wouldn't be so foolish as to buy an Intel based Mac unless you plan on selling it on eBay a few years down the line as a novelty item.
If you're a Mac user you better start getting over your hate for Microsoft and Windows...
Apple used to have proprietary architecture for most of the hardware they build, or use high end standards not common among consumer desktop PC-s.
They used to use SCSI for hard drives, but switched to IDE when it became close enough, they also switched to Intel chips like any PC can have.
One of the selling points used to be it's "guaranteed multimedia experience", for few years already every PC motherboard has stereo ot 5.1 surround sound built-in on the the motherboard.
They used to push Firewire, while still claiming they are firmly behind the standard, but their latest iPods ditched the Firewire in favor of USB which is good enough and simpler to implement as electronics.
They use the same video cards, hard drives, monitors, processor, chips, interfaces and ports...
There are plenty of elite PC manifacturers that make slick designs such as the recently purchased by DELL, Alienware computers.
Now they joined BAPCo, to pull their latest ace: OSX, the only thing remaining that makes them unique.
We'll see a lot of tests proving how superior OSX is compared to Windows in terms of speed and reliability.
They lied before when they claimed G5 is the fastest CPU on Earth, they lied when they said the Intel chips are 2x faster than the G5 (I mean they lied at least one of the times, right), they'll feel right at home.
Bad enough some hackers booted that dreck on Mac hardware and even won a prize for it. And now we're supposed to run Windows apps under OSX? Yea, right! When I occasionaly have to use "Made-for windows-but-also-compiled-for-mac" stuff it is usually as ugly and instable as the OS it was designed for. Man and this will be standard from now on? Makes me want to puke!
Firstly, x86 is still shit and always will be; the design was bad from the start. Secondly, the least shitty x86's are AMD but Apple chose Intel instead.
TWW
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