The Cellar - View Single Post

mbpark · 09-03-2002, 08:12 AM

Jag,

Now you understand why Apple would not want to go x86. Who is to say some Chinese or Southeast Asian company, which does not honor US copyright law, would not build "unauthorized" clones like Emplant? Emplant barely skirted the law by making you buy Mac ROMs. Seeing as how the Mac OS rom now is contained on the OS installation media, there's nothing stopping you from running MacOS on another machine without a card.

In related news, people do have MacOnLinux running on LinuxPPC on the "new" Amiga boxes, the Pegasos from bPlan, and apparently the AmigaOne. These machines are G3's, and I think someone has a G4 in the Pegasos, and they are booting OS 9.2 now. It will not be long before they boot 10, and have MacOS running on a clone platform again, albeit one that just doesn't have the Mac experience.

There are clones again. I'm waiting for Apple to smack down Eyetech and bPlan for making them if they advertise MacOnLinux. Knowing the people behind these companies, and the lunacy defined as advocacy by the Amiga "community", I wouldn't be surprised if one of the companies was that boneheaded to do so and got smacked by Apple for it.

Looking at this, moving MacOS X to x86 would require a wholly different hardware architecture and chipset, and many other things that enterprising crackers would break. Apple's got the "clone problem" again because of enterprising Amiga users who want to run MacOS on their "flash" new Amiga HW.

Even then, who's to say someone's not going to set up an Emplant for X86.

Moving to Power4 is a good decision for them, if they've made it, for one important reason. They'll be the lowest-priced Power4 machines, and emulating them will reduce the user experience to the point where it's not worth it anyway. That, and no one's going to spend $8,000 or up on a similarly configured RS/6000 to run MacOS just to say they're not running it on an $2,500 Apple.

If they put it on x86, there will more than likely be a "sandbox" mod for Linux within 2 weeks to enable MacOnLinuxIntel, and the "Apple Experience" that Steve Jobs is so big on will be diminished because every script kiddie and "l33t hax0r" will be running MacOS on their White Box and Dell PC's. This would have the net effect of knocking down their main way of making money, which is packaging HW and SW together in one tested and reliable system package, and charging a lot of cash for it.

In other words, it would kill Apple worse than the clones did because this time, it will open MacOS to every PC without a licensing fee. Everyone knows how Linux users are. Most develop it "because they can", and combined with the outright encouragement of piracy to "share information" that places like Slashdot profess daily, the P2P networks where people trade XP corporate serial numbers and OS ISOs for every OS out there, the outright misuse of good intentions by opportunists for piracy gains (such as the pirate Dreamcast CD's running DCLinux, XMAME, and 1,500 arcade games), and you've got yourself a morass that would kill a smaller HW/SW company like Apple.

I hope that Apple's people aren't that stupid.

Mitch

09-03-2002, 08:12 AM	#12
mbpark Lecturer Join Date: Jan 2001 Location: Carmel, Indiana Posts: 761	So now you understand :) Jag, Now you understand why Apple would not want to go x86. Who is to say some Chinese or Southeast Asian company, which does not honor US copyright law, would not build "unauthorized" clones like Emplant? Emplant barely skirted the law by making you buy Mac ROMs. Seeing as how the Mac OS rom now is contained on the OS installation media, there's nothing stopping you from running MacOS on another machine without a card. In related news, people do have MacOnLinux running on LinuxPPC on the "new" Amiga boxes, the Pegasos from bPlan, and apparently the AmigaOne. These machines are G3's, and I think someone has a G4 in the Pegasos, and they are booting OS 9.2 now. It will not be long before they boot 10, and have MacOS running on a clone platform again, albeit one that just doesn't have the Mac experience. There are clones again. I'm waiting for Apple to smack down Eyetech and bPlan for making them if they advertise MacOnLinux. Knowing the people behind these companies, and the lunacy defined as advocacy by the Amiga "community", I wouldn't be surprised if one of the companies was that boneheaded to do so and got smacked by Apple for it. Looking at this, moving MacOS X to x86 would require a wholly different hardware architecture and chipset, and many other things that enterprising crackers would break. Apple's got the "clone problem" again because of enterprising Amiga users who want to run MacOS on their "flash" new Amiga HW. Even then, who's to say someone's not going to set up an Emplant for X86. Moving to Power4 is a good decision for them, if they've made it, for one important reason. They'll be the lowest-priced Power4 machines, and emulating them will reduce the user experience to the point where it's not worth it anyway. That, and no one's going to spend $8,000 or up on a similarly configured RS/6000 to run MacOS just to say they're not running it on an $2,500 Apple. If they put it on x86, there will more than likely be a "sandbox" mod for Linux within 2 weeks to enable MacOnLinuxIntel, and the "Apple Experience" that Steve Jobs is so big on will be diminished because every script kiddie and "l33t hax0r" will be running MacOS on their White Box and Dell PC's. This would have the net effect of knocking down their main way of making money, which is packaging HW and SW together in one tested and reliable system package, and charging a lot of cash for it. In other words, it would kill Apple worse than the clones did because this time, it will open MacOS to every PC without a licensing fee. Everyone knows how Linux users are. Most develop it "because they can", and combined with the outright encouragement of piracy to "share information" that places like Slashdot profess daily, the P2P networks where people trade XP corporate serial numbers and OS ISOs for every OS out there, the outright misuse of good intentions by opportunists for piracy gains (such as the pirate Dreamcast CD's running DCLinux, XMAME, and 1,500 arcade games), and you've got yourself a morass that would kill a smaller HW/SW company like Apple. I hope that Apple's people aren't that stupid. Mitch