I can categorically assure you that, since their inception, there have always been more PCs running unauthorized copies of MS software than PCs entirely running authorized MS software.
Amonst the build-it-yourself crowd, I'm sure that's true. Even amonst home users, there are lots of pirated versions of Windows floating around. But don't forget that there are literally millions of corporate PCs out there running Windows and I'm sure well more than 95% of them are completly legit.
Usually, what happens is someone makes an intelligent sounding post, and it gets modded up. Later, someone replies to it and makes an intelligent sounding post that disagrees strongly with the first post. Then that post gets modded up, while the original post gets modded down. Who is actually right usually doesn't factor in at all.
Occasionally you get a "AltiVec Rocks!' thrown in, but Intel bashing's been out for years.
Don't you remember when the G5 processor was shiny and new? The Apple Zealots were bashing Intel (and AMD) any chance they could get. The only reason they shut up is that in the last couple of years, it was becoming more and more painfully obvious that the G5 was going nowhere while Intel was constantly improving their line.
The screen has the most space on the left and right side. How can you prefer having precious screen real-estate taken up by those top and bottom bars?
One of the first things I did on OSX was move the Dock from the bottom to the left side (I notice I'm not the only one either). Though I still don't get why the dock is so much better than the interface in Windows (cloned by Gnome and KDE). To me, it just seems like someone mashed the quicklaunch and taskbar together, which just confuses things and provides no benefits whatsoever.
Never figured out how to do it any other way. The modes were pretty buggy, and usually the calculator didn't last too long before crashing and needing to be "rebooted" (by pressing the AC/ON key).
Now, it is entirely possible that you are right that very few Linux users would prefer to use Word or Photoshop or some other MacOS X application. What I don't know is where you get the data to make that assumption so early on.
My assumption is that since you can buy OSX right now, if the user wanted to use those applications, they would already be on OSX (or Windows). The switch to Intel doesn't really mean much to potential OSX switchers either, the price of entry is going to be the same as it has always been (in other words, you need to buy a new computer with an Apple logo on it).
As for dual booting, you can dual boot on the Mac. People have been dual booting Mac OS and Linux for PPC for a long time. If someone wanted to dual boot Linux and OSX, they are already doing it. Same thing goes for dual booting Windows and Linux.
The only thing that OSX for x86 brings to the table is the potential to now dual boot Windows and OSX (and Linux!) on the same computer. I suppose this is where the real danger lies for Linux. It's not the Linux users who are going to switch - it's the Windows AND Linux users who might be tempted to dump the Linux partition and replace it with OSX. As you say, this could be a great timesaver, and they no longer need two seperate computers to accomplish this.
That is of course, if the haven't already decided to ditch Windows too and are currently running PPC OSX.
However, as you say, this is just pure speculation on my part.
I found back in middle school that you could do some strange stuff with the solar TI calculators if you starved them of light until they almost shut off, and then uncover the solar panels (works best while the calculator is busy computing 69!). Most of the time, the calculator would lock up with garbage on the display or simply shut off. But sometimes it would come back - but with the layout of a simular model (like the TI-30 would suddenly be a TI-30 STAT). Other times, it would enter modes not found on the TI-30, like octal mode (present on the TI-36).
My guess is that open source developers who currently work in an open source operating system are pretty unlikely to move over to a closed source operating system. If anything, Apple probably just pissed off the group of open source developers who like to run Linux on a Mac PPC box (Linus Torvalds being one of them) - who will mostly likely be buying a non-Apple x86 PC as their next computer.
Solaris doesn't run Word, Photoshop, iLife, Final Cut Pro and Apple's other pro apps.
And neither does Linux. If someone wants to run those applications, they are already on the Mac (or Windows, if you just care about Word and Photoshop). Most Linux users (except those that prefer to run Linux on PPC) could care less about Apple going to x86.
That's a problem with the major video card manufacturers not releasing specifications for their cards, so proper open source drivers can't be written. This isn't likely to change, so if you want 3D graphics under Linux, you've got to choose your video card carefully. Incidently, you also have to be careful about which card you buy a Mac too if you want it to work.
If you need libraries you're going to have to install them. OSX might want you to put everything into a single statically linked binary but it really doesn't work that way, except for very simple applications.. that's why you build.pkg scripts to install things into the right places on the hard drive.
Unfortunately because there's no uninstall your hard drive gets clogged up with all the apps you've installed and you eventually have to reformat. I've had to do this twice since I got my Mini due to libraries and whole applications sticking themselves on the disk and unable to remove them.
As with most draconian Big Brother initiatives this one won't work. What's to stop employees from just logging into a private webmail account over HTTPS and sending information out that way? Unless employers block browser access, search people for USB keys, iPods, floppies etc there's a dozen ways information can be leaked out of a building.
It's like locking the doors on your car. It's not going to stop someone who is even slightly determined. But it will stop a lot of casual theifs and people who are just plain idiots.
Maybe Yoda is just plain wrong about the age thing? (and the reason why Anakin went to the dark side is because of other reasons). Part of the reason why Luke was successful was because he actually disobeyed Yoda when he went to rescue his friends.
better taskbar Haven't noticed the tinyest difference. I noticed that the quicklaunch area seems to be off by default, which is ironic.
The taskbar in XP groups simular tasks, and when it gets full it groups them into one button with a pop up menu (simular to KDE). While I know this annoys some people to no end, I consider it one of the few good changes made in XP.
With a laptop, it could be a heat issue if you burn several CD's in a row. My Toshiba laptop hates it when I use the DVD/CD-RW drive for more than a few minutes at a time.
Many people did not *want* to upgrade to Windows 2000, but had little choice due to the lack of other options.
Windows 2000 is one of the rare times in the Microsoft world when you actually want to upgrade due to it actually being a clearly superior product than its predecessors. There is no question that Windows 2000 is a better OS than any of the Dos-based ones. It's also more stable and easier to install than NT4, and has better driver support, plus it adds some of the nice touches introduced with Windows 98. This is completely unlike the Windows 2000->XP "upgrade", or the essentially identical last 4 versions of Office.
The Reason Apple uses DRM is because: The RIAA wants them too.
RIAA? Huh? It pretty much goes without saying that there is going to be DRM in the new Intel-based Macs. Nothing is going to kill Apple faster than hoards of geeks running pirated versions of OSX on $300 Newegg computers, and Steve Jobs knows it.
The big question is, will the DRM actually prevent this from happening?
How is this insightful? Apple has been using "commodity" hardware for years now. They just happened to use their own Chipsets, motherboards and PPC CPUs. Commodity hardware is a "wide" range of hardware with differing quality and "price". Don't expect them to use onboard video any time soon.
And their own power supply, and cases. And that's the PowerMac. The only commodity parts in the Mini is the harddrive and the stick of Ram. The rest is propriety Mac hardware. The iMac is worse, where the screen is propriety and part of the computer. And no onboard video??? Have you even seen the insides of a Mini, iMac, eMac, iBook, or Powerbook?
There will definitely be an impact in the "average joe" home user market.
Average joe is not going to switch to Apple because Apple is moving from PPC to x86. Average joe doesn't even know what x86 and PPC means. In other words, Apple's change is not going to affect sales to the Average Joes out there at all.
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I can categorically assure you that, since their inception, there have always been more PCs running unauthorized copies of MS software than PCs entirely running authorized MS software.
Amonst the build-it-yourself crowd, I'm sure that's true. Even amonst home users, there are lots of pirated versions of Windows floating around. But don't forget that there are literally millions of corporate PCs out there running Windows and I'm sure well more than 95% of them are completly legit.
Phil Schiller is on record stating that Apple won't do anything to stop people from booting Windows.
That doesn't mean that Apple is going to make it easy to install Windows in the first place.
Usually, what happens is someone makes an intelligent sounding post, and it gets modded up. Later, someone replies to it and makes an intelligent sounding post that disagrees strongly with the first post. Then that post gets modded up, while the original post gets modded down. Who is actually right usually doesn't factor in at all.
Occasionally you get a "AltiVec Rocks!' thrown in, but Intel bashing's been out for years.
Don't you remember when the G5 processor was shiny and new? The Apple Zealots were bashing Intel (and AMD) any chance they could get. The only reason they shut up is that in the last couple of years, it was becoming more and more painfully obvious that the G5 was going nowhere while Intel was constantly improving their line.
The screen has the most space on the left and right side. How can you prefer having precious screen real-estate taken up by those top and bottom bars?
One of the first things I did on OSX was move the Dock from the bottom to the left side (I notice I'm not the only one either). Though I still don't get why the dock is so much better than the interface in Windows (cloned by Gnome and KDE). To me, it just seems like someone mashed the quicklaunch and taskbar together, which just confuses things and provides no benefits whatsoever.
I've always considered the IBM Thinkpad the premium notebook in the PC world. But now that IBM sold off its PC unit, who knows.
Never figured out how to do it any other way. The modes were pretty buggy, and usually the calculator didn't last too long before crashing and needing to be "rebooted" (by pressing the
AC/ON key).
Many today call these people libertarians, since the term "liberal" has been coopted by leftists.
Huh. And here I thought the term "liberal" was reserved for anyone the Republicans didn't like.
Now, it is entirely possible that you are right that very few Linux users would prefer to use Word or Photoshop or some other MacOS X application. What I don't know is where you get the data to make that assumption so early on.
My assumption is that since you can buy OSX right now, if the user wanted to use those applications, they would already be on OSX (or Windows). The switch to Intel doesn't really mean much to potential OSX switchers either, the price of entry is going to be the same as it has always been (in other words, you need to buy a new computer with an Apple logo on it).
As for dual booting, you can dual boot on the Mac. People have been dual booting Mac OS and Linux for PPC for a long time. If someone wanted to dual boot Linux and OSX, they are already doing it. Same thing goes for dual booting Windows and Linux.
The only thing that OSX for x86 brings to the table is the potential to now dual boot Windows and OSX (and Linux!) on the same computer. I suppose this is where the real danger lies for Linux. It's not the Linux users who are going to switch - it's the Windows AND Linux users who might be tempted to dump the Linux partition and replace it with OSX. As you say, this could be a great timesaver, and they no longer need two seperate computers to accomplish this.
That is of course, if the haven't already decided to ditch Windows too and are currently running PPC OSX.
However, as you say, this is just pure speculation on my part.
I found back in middle school that you could do some strange stuff with the solar TI calculators if you starved them of light until they almost shut off, and then uncover the solar panels (works best while the calculator is busy computing 69!). Most of the time, the calculator would lock up with garbage on the display or simply shut off. But sometimes it would come back - but with the layout of a simular model (like the TI-30 would suddenly be a TI-30 STAT). Other times, it would enter modes not found on the TI-30, like octal mode (present on the TI-36).
Yeah, I was pretty bored back then.
They will atleast need a basic Bios in there, if their computers are going to be capable of running Windows.
My guess is that open source developers who currently work in an open source operating system are pretty unlikely to move over to a closed source operating system. If anything, Apple probably just pissed off the group of open source developers who like to run Linux on a Mac PPC box (Linus Torvalds being one of them) - who will mostly likely be buying a non-Apple x86 PC as their next computer.
Solaris doesn't run Word, Photoshop, iLife, Final Cut Pro and Apple's other pro apps.
And neither does Linux. If someone wants to run those applications, they are already on the Mac (or Windows, if you just care about Word and Photoshop). Most Linux users (except those that prefer to run Linux on PPC) could care less about Apple going to x86.
That's a problem with the major video card manufacturers not releasing specifications for their cards, so proper open source drivers can't be written. This isn't likely to change, so if you want 3D graphics under Linux, you've got to choose your video card carefully. Incidently, you also have to be careful about which card you buy a Mac too if you want it to work.
People will notice that all of OSS's "New Features" have been in OSX for years.
On the other hand, many of OSX's features have been in OSS for a long time too.
If you need libraries you're going to have to install them. OSX might want you to put everything into a single statically linked binary but it really doesn't work that way, except for very simple applications.. that's why you build .pkg scripts to install things into the right places on the hard drive.
Unfortunately because there's no uninstall your hard drive gets clogged up with all the apps you've installed and you eventually have to reformat. I've had to do this twice since I got my Mini due to libraries and whole applications sticking themselves on the disk and unable to remove them.
Why am I suddenly reminded of Windows 3.1?
As with most draconian Big Brother initiatives this one won't work. What's to stop employees from just logging into a private webmail account over HTTPS and sending information out that way? Unless employers block browser access, search people for USB keys, iPods, floppies etc there's a dozen ways information can be leaked out of a building.
It's like locking the doors on your car. It's not going to stop someone who is even slightly determined. But it will stop a lot of casual theifs and people who are just plain idiots.
Maybe Yoda is just plain wrong about the age thing? (and the reason why Anakin went to the dark side is because of other reasons). Part of the reason why Luke was successful was because he actually disobeyed Yoda when he went to rescue his friends.
Nuke them from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.
Even better, ask Palpatine if you can borrow the keys to the Death Star for a couple days.
better taskbar
Haven't noticed the tinyest difference. I noticed that the quicklaunch area seems to be off by default, which is ironic.
The taskbar in XP groups simular tasks, and when it gets full it groups them into one button with a pop up menu (simular to KDE). While I know this annoys some people to no end, I consider it one of the few good changes made in XP.
With a laptop, it could be a heat issue if you burn several CD's in a row. My Toshiba laptop hates it when I use the DVD/CD-RW drive for more than a few minutes at a time.
Many people did not *want* to upgrade to Windows 2000, but had little choice due to the lack of other options.
Windows 2000 is one of the rare times in the Microsoft world when you actually want to upgrade due to it actually being a clearly superior product than its predecessors. There is no question that Windows 2000 is a better OS than any of the Dos-based ones. It's also more stable and easier to install than NT4, and has better driver support, plus it adds some of the nice touches introduced with Windows 98. This is completely unlike the Windows 2000->XP "upgrade", or the essentially identical last 4 versions of Office.
The Reason Apple uses DRM is because: The RIAA wants them too.
RIAA? Huh? It pretty much goes without saying that there is going to be DRM in the new Intel-based Macs. Nothing is going to kill Apple faster than hoards of geeks running pirated versions of OSX on $300 Newegg computers, and Steve Jobs knows it.
The big question is, will the DRM actually prevent this from happening?
How is this insightful? Apple has been using "commodity" hardware for years now. They just happened to use their own Chipsets, motherboards and PPC CPUs. Commodity hardware is a "wide" range of hardware with differing quality and "price". Don't expect them to use onboard video any time soon.
And their own power supply, and cases. And that's the PowerMac. The only commodity parts in the Mini is the harddrive and the stick of Ram. The rest is propriety Mac hardware. The iMac is worse, where the screen is propriety and part of the computer. And no onboard video??? Have you even seen the insides of a Mini, iMac, eMac, iBook, or Powerbook?
There will definitely be an impact in the "average joe" home user market.
Average joe is not going to switch to Apple because Apple is moving from PPC to x86. Average joe doesn't even know what x86 and PPC means. In other words, Apple's change is not going to affect sales to the Average Joes out there at all.