[opendtv] Speaking Of Macs on Intel Silicon ...

From: John Willkie <johnwillkie@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Tue, 11 Apr 2006 05:26:47 +0000 (GMT+00:00)
I seem to recall last year or so, there was much heated discussion hereabouts 
about Apple going to the Intel platform.

I seem to recall that Kon Wilms and I were of the mind that it was a good idea, 
and I seem to recall that Kon and I were saying that the machines would (by 
architecture) be able to run Windows software, and in short order Windows boxes 
(were the owner desperate or foolish enough) could even run future Mac software 
on Wintel machines.

I also seem to recall that one of Apple's victims, uh, I mean, fans, said 
hereabouts that Kon and I were smoking something illegal, or words to that 
effect.

Now, I don't follow this area very closely (just like I don't pay much 
attention to fringe economics like Marxism or fans of Henry George), but here's 
what I've learned in the last few weeks:

There is a "Hackintosh" os available on bit torrent, that, with a bit of work, 
permits one to run a bootleg version of the Mac OS on Wintel boxes-- a TV 
engineering friend told me he made two work wintel boxes run Hackintosh, bu 
there was just a bit of work to get around Apple's attempt to prevent that from 
happening.  (He's not a programmer.)

Then, last week,  why Apple made it difficult became clear, when they released 
"BootCamp", that, with a patch to the OS, permits Apple on Intel users to run 
windows applications directly (not through Virtual PC) directly on their Macs.

On all pertinent points, Kon and I predicted the future on this pretty well,  I 
can't speak for Kon, but for me, the hack was predictable when one understands 
the ingenuity of programmers presented with a challenge.  As for Macs running 
Windoze apps, that was even easier: pure economics and the relatively small 
marketshare of Apple versus Wintel.

Here's my next prediction (and I hope it's not one too many): Apple will be out 
of the personal computer manufacturing/sales business before this decade is up 
(Jan 1, 2011).  Pure and simple economics; going to Wintel was the first part 
of the process, and now they've given the victims their exit strategy: buy 
Windows software, and it will run on apples and real PCs.  So, the reason for 
buying a mac is the fancy industrial design.  

Funny how the victims talk about the speed increase in the new machines.  
Reminds one of the "merits" of the old arguments on64/640k, segmented memory.   
PCs have been faster than Macs for more than 20 years; marketing and smoke and 
mirrors just made the playing field appear to be level.
 
John Willkie

P.S.  Can't wait to hear the results of the British trial of Apple Corps versus 
Ipod.   Pretty clever not to put the Apple name on the Ipod; if only they had 
done the same with the apple logo, they wouldn't be in court now.



 
 
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[opendtv] Speaking Of Macs on Intel Silicon ...

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