Why doesn't Apple design an operating system for PC?

[avello500]

i think apple will make marklar but keep it under wraps. if everything goes to pot, they'll introduce the os. then bill will give birth to a 32ton brick.
then the skies will part and light shall riegn down from the heavens. or something.

[worker201]

Maybe i was smoking crack, but I thought one of the great things about the Mac was the total hardware/software integration.  The reason print designers used Macs exclusively for so long is that the Mac monitor gamma was consistent, compared to the different gammas resulting from clashing monitors and video cards on win machines.  Probably a lot of the stability of the Mac platform is based on the consistency of the hardware to the software specs.

And another thing: since Microsoft and Intel are basically married, isn't it really a Wintel issue?  If you put OSX on a Wintel platform, you might be dissing MS, but you're patting their friends on the back.  Keep Apple clean.

[ August 05, 2003: Message edited by: worker201 ]

[avello500]

i think they should still sell harDware.
i also think it would be nice to use osx on my pc box.

[jasonlane]

Part of the success of Apple is that it has control over it's hardware, I don't think that if they ever did produce a PC based OSX (by that we mean X86, don't we) that they could guarantee it the way they do under current hardware controlled conditions?

I'd like to see them try something though, I think it could destroy M$, if it worked. Otherwise it could seriously backfire and damage Apple.

[bigsleep]

quote:Originally posted by Zardoz:
I don't think that if they ever did produce a PC based OSX (by that we mean X86, don't we) that they could guarantee it the way they do under current hardware controlled conditions?

I don't know much about Macs, other than I used to use one, but I do know something about machine language, and to me this is like apples and oranges - Motorolla being the apple, Intel being the orange - the language is completely different.
This would be like porting Amiga (a ROM OS system) to x86 (a RAM OS system), doesn't make much sense really - though they are doing that now with AmigaOS, but it's really not Amiga anymore.
I think Apple would risk making themselves look bad by porting over, and probably be wasting a lot of money doing it. Porting the GUI over would be quite easy, but acheiving the same reliability would be impossible.

I may be a little behind the times, but UNIX only runs on Solaris, doesn't it?

[jasonlane]

quote: I may be a little behind the times, but UNIX only runs on Solaris, doesn't it?

Hmmm, what do you mean by UNIX (UNIX V USL, AT&T > BSD)?? OS X is 'UNIX' based.

UNIX is a much overused word, but essentially it's not only Solaris.

[ August 07, 2003: Message edited by: Zardoz ]

[suselinux]

How come you can't just make a cocoa compiler for Linux?

[bigsleep]

quote:Originally posted by Zardoz:


Hmmm, what do you mean by UNIX

Sorry, that's Solaris UNIX on SPARC. Just seems that I always see Solaris and UNIX together, when shopping for servers and such.

[gump420]

quote:Originally posted by Faust:
I don't think Apple has to beat Microsoft to survive - I just wan't to see Microsoft beaten and I think Apple can help.

I don't want to see Apple risk it and die trying, myself.  (-;

[Stilly]

maybe someone should put this in the FAQ

[billy_gates]

well let me ask you this...  Would you be OK with the very limited ATI and NVIDIA only support for an X86 OSX.  You may have one sound card choice.  Sound Blaster Live for Mac.  Etc. Etc.  Essectially Macs are PC's with different Mobos and CPU's.  However would you and the general population accept that OSX for PC would only support very limited hardware in the name of stability.  I personally would.  But I think it would make Apple look cheap.  "Why didn't you add support for Random Video Card #4583498?" and although Apple would have a genuine answer, the people would still bitch and moan.  Making Apple seem like a cheap company who doesn't work hard.  I would personally love OSX for PC, but I don't think it would help Apple.

[Laukev7]

Not on topic, but I was wondering about graphic cards. Does the Mac support other graphic cards than nVIDIA and ATI?

[billy_gates]

quote:Originally posted by Laukev7:
Not on topic, but I was wondering about graphic cards. Does the Mac support other graphic cards than nVIDIA and ATI?

In the new macs I have never seen any others, so OSX probably does not.

[suselinux]

With AMD making a 64 bit desktop processor are the x86 and the ppc getting any closer in architecture?

[Laukev7]

quote:Originally posted by suselinux:
With AMD making a 64 bit desktop processor are the x86 and the ppc getting any closer in architecture?

No.