Of course it's quite clear what we will see - some kind of marrying of KDE and Apple like we've all vaguely been trying to do with Fink/OpenDarwin and X11. Unsurprising, seeing as there's been all that Apple contribution to KHTML over the past few months.
There will, of course, be X11 seamlessly integrated into the OS, and KDE apps will run, in beautiful native Aqua, just as any other Aqua app, with an icon in the dock (maybe blocky à la Classic, but still).
Geeks will of course adore it, and as professed by Apple's marketing for OS X, geeks are one of their target user bases.
It will be very interesting to see what happens to GTK now. I was just really starting to love some of GNOME's eye candy, but QT/Mac has the edge, I feel.
The death of IE, to be honest, shouldn't be much of an issue. Apple would have killed it in Panther anyway, surely...
The more concerning thing is Office. Office v.X is excellent and all, but what happens when the new PC version comes out and Microsoft decide that they're bored of updating Office for the Mac - will they just kill that too? One of the key points of the Apple sales strategy is that Macs have Office - without it, things will become more challenging, I'd have thought.
One could point out that anything different in file formats will break compatibility with older versions of Office on the PC too, but so what? It's all part of the Microsoft upgrade strategy anyway. PC users will always have the choice (albeit expensive) to upgrade. What if Mac users don't?
Zealots will, of course, talk about OpenOffice and the Aqua port, which Apple could of course assist in the development of, but it's got a fair way to go before near-perfect, nearly-all-the-time compatibility is achieved.
Will be interesting to see how this all plays out...
It was bound to happen. IE hasn't been updated for ages, and it's embarassingly out of kilter with standards, even in comparison to Internet Explorer for the PC.
I suppose they want everyone to get MSN for Mac OS X if they want the Microsoft "experience."
Might it not have something to do with the fact that Macs are about to get a whole lot faster when the G5 (allegedly) comes out in a month's time?
At the moment, Macs are for the most part embarassingly slow (I say this as a Mac user, so flame all you like, but you're flaming your own) and when the G5 comes out and things get a hell of a lot quicker, any PC emulator is going to speed up similarly - it might even become usable.
If one ever wanted proof that they were/are a monopoly and are just incredibly anal in their business tactics, it is all right here. *sigh* It could only happen in America...
This is kinda getting off the pointm, but Apple has shown that you can have both: OS X is blissfully easy to use and at the same time is a remarkably secure operating system, which also has unparalleled backward compatibility with legacy stuff - I can still play games written for the Mac 68k processor on my cutting edge iBook or PowerBook. M$ just tells you DOS is passé so move on and leave your old shit behind.
As regards the ease-of-use factor, few would argue that Macs are hard to use. I am a recent Mac convert after rather too many years of PC use and there is just something lacking about the whole PC experience - it really does just work on the Mac.
The most important thing of course is the underlying security. Yes, it's a BSD so all the M$ bashers can say UNIX rules therefore OS X must rule, but there's more to it than that. It's all very well having an über-secure core, but at the end of the day, it's what the user can do with the computer that matters. I found on Windows that you would have certain programs that you couldn't use if you weren't admin - what's the use in that? - and that Linux, although progressing greatly, still has too much dependence on the root user for certain things, which leads to situations like Lindows which run as root the whole time without telling the user that this is a Bad Thing.
On the Mac, I have to give a password to install software, but that's about it. It just works and at the same time, it's pretty secure too. And of course, as a Slashdot-reading geek, I have the luxury of that UNIX core which I can tweak to my heart's content.
In short, Apple are actually doing what people would like from Windows and PCs. When the PowerPC 970s come out, I can't see why anyone - certainly any geek - would bother with PCs any more, but then I suppose I'm biased.;)
Petrol is most certainly not sold in imperial units in the UK - we've been buying in litres for ages. True: some stations do still list the prices of unleaded in pence per gallon as well as per litre, but AFAIK it's only drink that remains imperial.
A quick look on netcraft.co.uk reveals that they are running an Apache on Linux setup. Interesting to say the least that Microsoft are quite possibly using Linux to host their downloads...
The whole thing is ridiculous. Obscene and ridiculous.
Surely the courts can only laugh at this case. That is if there is any justice in this crazy world.
May the RIAA and all who subscribe to its ways burn forever in hell.
Slashdot Mirror
Of course it's quite clear what we will see - some kind of marrying of KDE and Apple like we've all vaguely been trying to do with Fink/OpenDarwin and X11. Unsurprising, seeing as there's been all that Apple contribution to KHTML over the past few months.
There will, of course, be X11 seamlessly integrated into the OS, and KDE apps will run, in beautiful native Aqua, just as any other Aqua app, with an icon in the dock (maybe blocky à la Classic, but still).
Geeks will of course adore it, and as professed by Apple's marketing for OS X, geeks are one of their target user bases.
It will be very interesting to see what happens to GTK now. I was just really starting to love some of GNOME's eye candy, but QT/Mac has the edge, I feel.
iqu
The death of IE, to be honest, shouldn't be much of an issue. Apple would have killed it in Panther anyway, surely...
:s
The more concerning thing is Office. Office v.X is excellent and all, but what happens when the new PC version comes out and Microsoft decide that they're bored of updating Office for the Mac - will they just kill that too? One of the key points of the Apple sales strategy is that Macs have Office - without it, things will become more challenging, I'd have thought.
One could point out that anything different in file formats will break compatibility with older versions of Office on the PC too, but so what? It's all part of the Microsoft upgrade strategy anyway. PC users will always have the choice (albeit expensive) to upgrade. What if Mac users don't?
Zealots will, of course, talk about OpenOffice and the Aqua port, which Apple could of course assist in the development of, but it's got a fair way to go before near-perfect, nearly-all-the-time compatibility is achieved.
Will be interesting to see how this all plays out...
iqu
It was bound to happen. IE hasn't been updated for ages, and it's embarassingly out of kilter with standards, even in comparison to Internet Explorer for the PC.
I suppose they want everyone to get MSN for Mac OS X if they want the Microsoft "experience."
Woohoo! First post!
iqu
Might it not have something to do with the fact that Macs are about to get a whole lot faster when the G5 (allegedly) comes out in a month's time?
At the moment, Macs are for the most part embarassingly slow (I say this as a Mac user, so flame all you like, but you're flaming your own) and when the G5 comes out and things get a hell of a lot quicker, any PC emulator is going to speed up similarly - it might even become usable.
If one ever wanted proof that they were/are a monopoly and are just incredibly anal in their business tactics, it is all right here. *sigh* It could only happen in America...
iqu
This is kinda getting off the pointm, but Apple has shown that you can have both: OS X is blissfully easy to use and at the same time is a remarkably secure operating system, which also has unparalleled backward compatibility with legacy stuff - I can still play games written for the Mac 68k processor on my cutting edge iBook or PowerBook. M$ just tells you DOS is passé so move on and leave your old shit behind.
;)
As regards the ease-of-use factor, few would argue that Macs are hard to use. I am a recent Mac convert after rather too many years of PC use and there is just something lacking about the whole PC experience - it really does just work on the Mac.
The most important thing of course is the underlying security. Yes, it's a BSD so all the M$ bashers can say UNIX rules therefore OS X must rule, but there's more to it than that. It's all very well having an über-secure core, but at the end of the day, it's what the user can do with the computer that matters. I found on Windows that you would have certain programs that you couldn't use if you weren't admin - what's the use in that? - and that Linux, although progressing greatly, still has too much dependence on the root user for certain things, which leads to situations like Lindows which run as root the whole time without telling the user that this is a Bad Thing.
On the Mac, I have to give a password to install software, but that's about it. It just works and at the same time, it's pretty secure too. And of course, as a Slashdot-reading geek, I have the luxury of that UNIX core which I can tweak to my heart's content.
In short, Apple are actually doing what people would like from Windows and PCs. When the PowerPC 970s come out, I can't see why anyone - certainly any geek - would bother with PCs any more, but then I suppose I'm biased.
iqu
Petrol is most certainly not sold in imperial units in the UK - we've been buying in litres for ages. True: some stations do still list the prices of unleaded in pence per gallon as well as per litre, but AFAIK it's only drink that remains imperial.
iqu
You say Microsoft are using Akamai...
...or have I misunderstood?
A quick look on netcraft.co.uk reveals that they are running an Apache on Linux setup. Interesting to say the least that Microsoft are quite possibly using Linux to host their downloads...
ickoonite
The whole thing is ridiculous. Obscene and ridiculous.
Surely the courts can only laugh at this case. That is if there is any justice in this crazy world.
May the RIAA and all who subscribe to its ways burn forever in hell.