The lesson to be learned from those pictures, is not to let a cat piss on a power connector. Applying a conductive, corrosive fluid to any power connector is a bad idea, not just the MagSafe.
Most Apple customers never even deal with Apple customer service.
Which is, of course, the best service of all.
Apple pays very close attention to the issues that drive their support calls, and they get prioritized accordingly. The MagSafe power connector, for example, was developed because Apple knows exactly how many times they've fixed a machine because their users have damaged a laptop by snagging the power cable and dragging it off a table.
So if they killed the Longhorn project now and licensed OS X (vis-à-vis Copland/NeXTStep), it will have taken a decade to produce an OS release?
Oh, I'm not thinking of them killing SP4 (which they're calling vista) now, I'm thinking of the next OS development cycle. They'll have to ship something that they can pretend is longhorn, and they have to do it ASAP.
Let's also not forget it took Apple four years to release a stable version of OS X after buying NeXT.
Longwind is six years late, and counting. If it took MS four years to get a win32 penalty box running under OS X, they'd still beat their Longwind track record by a third.
X86 had to improve drastically before Apple switched to it. Do you expect windows to ever do likewise? I don't see that happening without MS first losing their top six layers of management in a shareholder revolt.
it's very easy to imagine a near future where Windows XP takes a role very similar to X11 today - That of providing a compatibility layer for apps that for whatever reason never get around to being made native to OS X.
I hope Windows gets relegated to such a role. Still MS has a lot of money, which gives them a lot of time to recover from the Longwind debacle. I'm not going to count them out quite yet.
Hell, they could probably afford two or even three more complete screw-ups like Alchin's Great Train Wreck before they were in serious trouble.
I honestly don't see Bill Gates giving up that much control to Steve Jobs even though it would benefit users who just want a stable OS to run their applications
You know, it's not clear that BG has much of an ego. If he can make more money, he just might do it.
Microsoft could buy out Apple
No, probably not. I can't see any way they'd get regulatory approval.
how long would it be before Ballmer start throwing chairs at Jobs?
Actually, I think Ballmer's days at MS are numbered. The shareholders are about ready to start rolling some heads.
Avie didn't lose any "internal battle". He stepped aside about three years ago, and picked Bertrand to succeed him. If I had a hundred million bucks like Avie, I probably would have left a long time ago.
Don't hold your breath for Apple to dump OS X. Remember, I was there for three and a half years. If Apple went to Windows, they'd have even more of a rush for the exits than NeXT had when they decided to ship OpenStep on NT.
-jcr
Consider the business case
on
Apple Joins BAPCo
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· Score: 5, Interesting
Maybe Microsoft should license Mac OS X.
You probably meant this facetiously, but if you look at the numbers for what MS blew on the Longwind debacle, and what it would cost them to buy a license for OS X, it makes sense.
When Apple was in the same boat with Copland, they were able to buy NeXT to recover from the disaster. MS has just spent several billion on a failed development project, they're going to ship SP4 six years late and pretend it's Longwind, and they really need to consider whether it's a good business decision to keep throwing good money after bad, trying to update their botched VMS knock-off.
The Evil Empire has killed off all of the other OS's they could buy, with the possible exception of Solaris. An OS-X license would cost them a couple of billion at a minimum, plus a hefty ongoing royalty, but it would cheaper than what they're doing now. As a bonus, life improves drastically for their users. Something to consider.
Slashdot Mirror
If ballmer want to kill google, he'd try to get them to take scoble. Trouble is, google's too clever for that.
-jcr
The lesson to be learned from those pictures, is not to let a cat piss on a power connector. Applying a conductive, corrosive fluid to any power connector is a bad idea, not just the MagSafe.
-jcr
Or perhaps I was making a point
Perhaps you thought you were.
-jcr
Most Apple customers never even deal with Apple customer service.
Which is, of course, the best service of all.
Apple pays very close attention to the issues that drive their support calls, and they get prioritized accordingly. The MagSafe power connector, for example, was developed because Apple knows exactly how many times they've fixed a machine because their users have damaged a laptop by snagging the power cable and dragging it off a table.
-jcr
As far as I can tell, it's a braindead Americanism, because in Britain, we always use the logical "I couldn't care less".
Nope. I've heard Brits get it wrong, too. It has more to do with education than nationality.
-jcr
its customer is RIAA, not us the people who buy & use their products.
How fashionably militant of you.
We are the customers. The RIAA is a cartel of suppliers.
-jcr
Remember when Apple entered that market. They did blow it away in 1975.
-jcr
you would have to be even more delusional to believe that even if Microsoft wanted to license OSX, that Apple would even let them.
You fail to realize the power of a ten billion dollar check.
-jcr
Its going to take far more than that just to get the codebases merged.
Merging the codebases is not what I had in mind; that would be a disaster. Win32 apps should run in a penalty box like Classic.
-jcr
So if they killed the Longhorn project now and licensed OS X (vis-à-vis Copland/NeXTStep), it will have taken a decade to produce an OS release?
Oh, I'm not thinking of them killing SP4 (which they're calling vista) now, I'm thinking of the next OS development cycle. They'll have to ship something that they can pretend is longhorn, and they have to do it ASAP.
-jcr
I'd take the other approach - if they choose rival manufacturers then study first hand why they do so.
Remember, this is Steve Ballmer we're talking about here: the greatest example of the Peter Principle in the history of business.
-jcr
Let's also not forget it took Apple four years to release a stable version of OS X after buying NeXT.
Longwind is six years late, and counting. If it took MS four years to get a win32 penalty box running under OS X, they'd still beat their Longwind track record by a third.
-jcr
It's not failed until they fail to recover their costs.
They had to rollback to the Windows Server 2003 code base. They'll never recover the costs from the work in progress that they jettisoned.
-jcr
No, it saved NeXT. They didn't have anywhere close to the sales volume they needed to make hardware manufacturing profitable.
-jcr
if anyone knows how to polish a pig, it's Steve Jobs and company.
OpenStep on Windows was actually surprisingly good.
-jcr
OS X is starting to base more things on top of Core Image (like iPhoto and Aperture)
Not to mention the AppKit itself..
-jcr
Apple will never go x86...
X86 had to improve drastically before Apple switched to it. Do you expect windows to ever do likewise? I don't see that happening without MS first losing their top six layers of management in a shareholder revolt.
-jcr
it's very easy to imagine a near future where Windows XP takes a role very similar to X11 today - That of providing a compatibility layer for apps that for whatever reason never get around to being made native to OS X.
I hope Windows gets relegated to such a role. Still MS has a lot of money, which gives them a lot of time to recover from the Longwind debacle. I'm not going to count them out quite yet.
Hell, they could probably afford two or even three more complete screw-ups like Alchin's Great Train Wreck before they were in serious trouble.
-jcr
The question is why would Apple license OS X?
For money, and to reach far more customers as soon as possible.
They stand to make MUCH more money as they become the dominant consumer platform.
They may be able to get there by themselves in the next 5-10 years, but cutting a deal with MS could cut that to just a year or two.
-jcr
Good grief, did you leave your sense of humor behind in the freaking office when you left Apple, or what?
Look at the other post Rosyna made in this thread. I don't think he was joking.
-jcr
I honestly don't see Bill Gates giving up that much control to Steve Jobs even though it would benefit users who just want a stable OS to run their applications
You know, it's not clear that BG has much of an ego. If he can make more money, he just might do it.
Microsoft could buy out Apple
No, probably not. I can't see any way they'd get regulatory approval.
how long would it be before Ballmer start throwing chairs at Jobs?
Actually, I think Ballmer's days at MS are numbered. The shareholders are about ready to start rolling some heads.
-jcr
wide commercial disinterest
Read the complaint. Be had plenty of interest from manufacturers.
-jcr
Avie didn't lose any "internal battle". He stepped aside about three years ago, and picked Bertrand to succeed him. If I had a hundred million bucks like Avie, I probably would have left a long time ago.
-jcr
I do believe my rationale is far more believable.
Don't hold your breath for Apple to dump OS X. Remember, I was there for three and a half years. If Apple went to Windows, they'd have even more of a rush for the exits than NeXT had when they decided to ship OpenStep on NT.
-jcr
Maybe Microsoft should license Mac OS X.
You probably meant this facetiously, but if you look at the numbers for what MS blew on the Longwind debacle, and what it would cost them to buy a license for OS X, it makes sense.
When Apple was in the same boat with Copland, they were able to buy NeXT to recover from the disaster. MS has just spent several billion on a failed development project, they're going to ship SP4 six years late and pretend it's Longwind, and they really need to consider whether it's a good business decision to keep throwing good money after bad, trying to update their botched VMS knock-off.
The Evil Empire has killed off all of the other OS's they could buy, with the possible exception of Solaris. An OS-X license would cost them a couple of billion at a minimum, plus a hefty ongoing royalty, but it would cheaper than what they're doing now. As a bonus, life improves drastically for their users. Something to consider.
-jcr