[OT] really?

[Rick Thomas]

On Jun 7, 2005, at 3:20 PM, Eric Dunbar wrote:

> Plus, what this means is that Apple's future doesn't have to be
> exclusively tied to its hardware. With Apple running on X86 Dell now
> has a much stronger stick with which to beat Microsoft into
> submission, and, if necessary, Apple can become the OS supplier of
> choice for one of the big manufacturers.


Don't get your hopes up.  Remember what happened to the PowerPC Mac 
clone makers.  Apple believes -- rightly or wrongly -- that selling the 
hardware their OS runs on is vital to their bottom line.

Also, consider this:  If Apple allows MacOS-X to run on commodity 
hardware, lots of people will decide to try it out on their own 
(commodity) PCs  - just "borrow" an install DVD from a friend and give 
it a go.  Some part of those people will be convinced that OS-X is 
better than Windows for their needs.  Microsoft will see this as 
competition.  Their monopolist reflexes will take take over.  They will 
immediately proceed to squash the competition (Apple) like an annoying 
bug.  All MS has to do is withdraw support for MS-Office for Mac, and 
Apple disappears in a cloud of slightly bad-smelling smoke.

Rick, the eternal pessimist