If Apple was to open up its hardware they better do a better job than linux to get compatable drives out that is why linux isn't up there in market share if they pushed the developers to make the drivers linux would be at probaly the 25% mark for home users maybe more.

Mind you once the ps3s hard drives come with linux preinstalled (a few interviews i've read mention they're considering doing this as a bonus) linux might finaly just catch on.

I think that everybody should just switch to Linux

Read this http://www.tomshardware....ws/20050620_095352.html

Not everyone shares that opinion...no surprise though as it comes straight from the FreeBSD founder.

Apple does not make money from OS sales...
It make's it's money on selling hardware.

Apple does not make moeny selling music.
It makes it's money on selling Ipod's.

WinTel computers access to there os would be a very bad thing for them.

Working with Dell the "Walmart" of computer sellers would be worse thing.

WOW, this should put shiver down the Microsoft spine!!

Apple have stated, that they are becoming a software company rather than a hardware company, I think it's innevitable that OSX will run on non apple equipment, the market is impossible to ignore.

At the same time, Steve Jobs has to deny it, as there is no product today to buy, so he does not want to alienate his current Apple buyers, with nothing to fall back on.

No product today, and no product in two years. After that though, maybe we'll see somehing. In the meantime Apple has two years to iron out any bugs they know of, to make their OS work with any piece of hardware and drivers.

If Apple does this right, they could seamlessly transition OSX, so that it runs on any x86 in the future. If they do it wrong though, they'll release it before it's ready with lots of problems(ie. what microsoft did).

We've already got one microsoft. A smaller, less powerful microsoft would crumble before the larger one.

Apple said in their statement last week, they have been building OSX for X86 every day for the last 3 years in the labs, alongside PPC builds. This is not a whim announcement, this has been building for some time.

Now it's public, Its going to happen very quickly.

You think they'll open it up to any hardware quickly? :/

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"If Apple decides to open the Mac OS to
others, we would be happy to offer it to
our customers,"
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I don't think Apple will make OS X available to run on any Intel chip.

Isn't much of the stability of OS X relying on the fact that it doesn't need to support hundreds of different hardware makes and models? Wouldn't this threaten the stability of OSX if Apple "opens it up"?

I can understand that the consumer wants to run OS X on any harware, but the uniqueness of the Apple brand and their "elite status" is founded on the fact that their OS only runs on their hardware.

Secondly, if Apple does "open up" OS X, how will they be able to prevent the sudden mass amount of pirating? They'll simply be put on par, side-by-side with other operating systems, and the only difference will be the quality.

Apple have more leverage in only making OS X available on it's own hardware.

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Now who will be the first to sell a tri boot
Solaris, OS X and Windows system ;)
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Well.. it seems to me that Apple is the only company in the position to do this at the moment!

If the Apple hardware can run OSX and Windows, what will stop it running Solaris!

That's a very good point. Considering that XP has to run on so many configurations, it's pretty impressive it's as stable as it is.

I have to agree here, Microsoft has done a fabulous job with regards to Windows XP's stability. I was skeptical at first, but they have proven that they can build a stable desktop platform.

I hope they perform equally well with the security initiative they have underway today.

If they do this the software pirates and Microsoft wil slaughter them. Also what there's one thing the idiots at Dell are failing to see. Apple has not said that they are going to use true x86 or even x86 at all for that matter.

If Steve Jobs would talk to Michael Dell they could make for a serious threat to Microsoft.
Also if HP-Compaq, would also join in then we would see many new things and bring Competition and Fun back into the PC world.

Question is well Steve actually do it? I kinda doubt it but hey perhaps these people should contact Steve and say hey thats all make history!

Now there is a Open Aqua project how ever since OsX is further advanced it would open many doors and eyes.

Now if we through SUN into this as well with Open Office I bet you would see many changes again for once.

BP

I doubt steve will do it. The guys already taking a major step in the opposite direction as it is. I realy expected Apple to take advantage of the fact IBM is working with all 3 major game companys. I mean if it was me I would stick with PPC and 6 months after the Xbox 360 and PS3 were out I would go up to the game developers and say "You have been working with that and look I have this. It's similar and you now have experiance working with it."

I just think apple blew a chance to try and cause a s*** and make the Mac a gaming machine. Lack of games is one of the major causes for people not to have switched over to Apple. The whole idea just totaly fits Apples young more sophisticated user base and I think they blew it hard.

The only thing I see saving them is allowing OS X to run on 3rd party machines and thus compete directly with Microsoft. Apple and Microsoft have never been real direct competitors becose of the major hardware diffrences. But now Apple is on the same playing field as MS, and if they try to go solo again and lock the OS on Apple branded x86 machines only I dont think they have a chance.

consider that with universal binaries in place, apple is free to release their OS X builds on either ppc or x86 machines for the forseeable future. I'm not an applications developer, but from what I understand of the keynote address, if you're building applications with X-Code2 (apples free application building program) it's less of a task to have programs that will run on both platforms. The real question is, will game programmers want to use apples compiler or will they refuse and stick with Visual C++ or whatever it is they use in the pay to play microsoft universe. Poses an interesting question. Don't know what the limitations are for X-Code or how Open GL compairs to Direct-X these days.

It's surprising that there hasn't been more coverage of the history of "universal binaries." Ten years ago Steve's NeXT Computer was shipping its NEXTSTEP, then OpenStep, OS (the direct ancestors of OS X). The Project Builder app supported the compilation of "fat" binaries which could run on all supported architectures: NeXT's Motorola-based hardware, Intel x86 chips, Sun's SPARC and HP's PA-RISC. I myself used NEXTSTEP on 68040, x86 and PA-RISC platforms. OpenStep was developed with Sun and a version shipped for Solaris; there was also a remarkable product code-named Yellow Box that installed a subset of the OpenStep environment on Windows!

As a result, I expect the PPC -> Intel transition to go more smoothly than most people expect.

Then Microsoft isn't a monopoly anymore... and competition returns... and consumers win...

Am I missing something here?

There has always been competition... it's just that the alternative options like Apple and Linux have been unappealing to the mainstream.

Now Linux is improving (still a ways to go though, IMO) and Apple seems to be changing to be a little more open-minded by finally following their own slogan and thinking differently. It seems to prove the fact that Microsoft bundling of software has done nothing to stifle competition, but in fact has created the security concerns in their products and made people reconsider their options.

Your not missing anything except.

If Microsoft feels threatened, they will crush Apple.

Maybe they're just trying to get better prices from Microsoft by "scaring" them like this.

Not saying it's true ... just something to ponder.

Apple neds to allow it. They are not going to survive trying to stay by themselves on a platform MS dominates. It's time Apple became a software company.

It isn't all that easy to become a software company when your software will be cracked and pirated within minutes of being released.

I do agree that Apple should work with Dell though. Dell wants to be able to sell dual boot system (OS X and Windows) and Apple want more people to switch from Windows to OS X. If they lock people to a specific Dell model and get a good cut of the hardware profits (as these special OS X/Windows systems will cost double what a normal computer costs obviously!) they should be able to move into the "home pc" market pretty easily but it won't be a quick thing.

The one thing that scares Apple (and rightly so) off being a "sofware company" is that you can't pirate hardware (at least not like software) so as long as they keep the updates rolling frequently they will keep getting money on new hardware purchases. They could give OS X away for free if they wanted it makes very little difference to they financially.

One thing I know for sure. I would buy a dual boot OS X/Windows system no questions asked. It is a very exciting time at the moment. For the first time ever you can run all 3 major OS on the same platform (the 3 being Solaris, OS X and Windows).

Now who will be the first to sell a tri boot Solaris, OS X and Windows system ;)

"Dell wants to be able to sell dual boot system (OS X and Windows)"

When has Dell said this?

Use of a PCI expansion card with any required ROMs has been suggested as an option to resolve that problem. The card would be sold with the OS and could be installed in any x86 compatable machine the user wished, and the OS would not run without it as data on the ROMs would be missing.

Thats not going to totaly solve the problem if PlayStation and Xbox mod chips have tought us anything, but if it had some kind of encryption lockout chip that Apple owned the patent on I think it would stand a chance. Something to make it un economical for pirates but not annoying for lagit users.

Anyway if I know anything about the rest of the people on the internet, this idea is proly going to come off a bit scary. I just find it interesting.

they didn't say it, or they haven't, but it's clearly written on their face.
but i don't think apple would allow that... if apple ever consider permitting dell to distribute it's mac.

make it 4 for that matter, add Linux too. But what will that do? confuses.

I think it would be a sad day if Apple releases its OS to other hardware vendors. The whole platform will end up like the windows platform. Confused consumers with little control of software and hardware = bad products, bad user experience. I know they are a niche company the way it is, but it serves a function.

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This will never happen (as much as i would like it to). It is just stupid speculation by Dell and news reporters. Apple would never do this because it would kill them. They would no longer sell computers because they are so overpriced and people would go with the much cheaper dell machines, which in turn would probably make apple loose alot of money.

What if HP and Apple did this. HP already has a good relationship with Apple.

Also, Apple could make drivers specific to the HP hardware thus makeing piracy less of an issue.

I think this would double the market share overnight. I know I would switch tomorrow.

I don't think it would kill them. Apple has always been very strict. Thus one would expect that this will not change. If they were to work with HP for example. Apple already has a great relationship with HP and that will make things much easier. HP (Compaq) is also much more strict about the hardware standards they follow.

I can see Apple and HP joining forces and creating a HP system that will run OS X. If Apple only makes drivers for specific HP or Dell gear, you will still not have the problem of piracy, but will probably double the market share overnight. I know I would switch tomorrow.

Agreed to what mbucky said :)