We all knew this was coming when Apple announced they were switching to Intel

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4880022.stm

Not sure how I feel about this, I can see the commercial sense in it as most people are put off Macs because of the lack of Windows.

 

Apple will sell a shedload more Intel Macs because now reluctant switchers have no excuse and a safety net.

It's great news for me since I was going to have to keep a PC once I got my iMac just to run 1 or 2 things that only run on Windows. Now I won't have to and it's going to save me a bundle.

Michael.

 

Great

I like PC hardware, I like OSX for every day use and Windows because I have some things that will only run on it. Sorted!

I take it you need to buy an apple mac to run OSX though, you can't just stick it on any equivalent Intel based PC?

 

Macs and PCs use a totaly different BIOS so the bootstrap will be completly different. However I am sure some genius may be able to tweak the BIOS so that it can work with PCs.

I would imagine it would not be that stable though and you have all the issues of drivers etc.

 

Would be great if someone could mod it to use with a PC BIOS. I'd reckon OS X would run like a dream on my A64 3000 with 2GB of RAM. Most Windows stuff that I needed to use, I could run under Virtual PC and then just boot natively into Windows for the odd game.

 

There are no decent graphics card drivers around at the moment for those wanting to run XP on a mac. I was reading a report today where a G4 mini beat a new Intel mac when running XP and 3d games.

 

Rob, I think BootCamp fixes that driver concern...

 

Apple used to provide a intel compile of OSX when it first came out as it was BSD (a unix clone) based they had no problems.

It would be "easy" to take a copy of BSD and put the apple interface on it if apple releases the code again to the community.

I am guessing they went BSD (Ok all the others are clones of this really ) in part as they would not be legally required to release the code.

 

BSD is much slower-paced than Linux (which is very closely related). Linux can be quite unstable with new and untested code, whereas BSD is stable and steady.

And yes, you can run BSD with an OSX-alike window manager and a lot of people won't know the difference.

 

I would imagine that is highly ilegal though, well certainly the software will be. I have seen OSX themes for XP as well

Oh and yes I am probably the only person here to constantly managed to crash an Emac

 

IMO it would make sense for apple to make OSX run on PC's. I am much more interested in that possibility than Macs running windows.

 

Leave that to the hackers, they are nearly there.

 

It is not up to Apple to make it work with the PC, it is up to the BIOS vendors. However there will be a huge issue with drivers.

It will be a pain like trying to get some obscure distro of Linux working.

 

Well Apple would be rather dumb IMO if they miss the chance to produce an OS version that will run on a bog standard x86 PC. They're hardly challenging the PC market with the MAC if we're all being brutally honest, but I'm sure they would have more success with their OS as a stand alone package in competition with Windows. Linux has had quite a bit of success if you consider just how much of a non starter it is for the non techies. So give joe public a true viable alternative to Windows and I think M$ would be in for a bit of a shock.


GTM

 

I agree and Apple are the only company which can give MS a shock in the domestic market.

It is quite ironic that MS originaly provided the software for Apple though

 

I dunno... they probably make a lot of money on selling the hardware and of course don't want to give that up. They see producing a Mac that can run Windows as the best way and I SERIOUSLY doubt they want to produce OSX for the PC as much as we would all love it. Drivers are not a problem if you buy a PC with the same hardware as a Mac has, but skip all the Mac expense and pretty case.

Linux hardly has driver problems anymore... but then the 'easy' distro's do seem to be more unstable than one where you have to work hard at setting it up yourself. Having said that if you run standard stuff they all work well. We have a Linux PC running on a 800MHz Intel PIII with Asus Intel based board that has run almost for 5 years without crashing. Only things like a Fan ceasing up in the PSU, hard disk failing, power-cut etc have made it need a reboot. It's only dodgy video cards and the latest go faster mobo chipsets that make it fall over.

Anyway, like you say maybe if you get the same basic mobo that the mac runs then get a 'hacked' BIOS flash it will all be groovy.

 

Personally I think they’d be incredibly dumb if they did allow OS X to run on any old PC. Apple have now very cleverly placed themselves at the top end of the personal computer market. Now that Macs can dual boot XP means that Macs can do everything PCs can, but the reverse is not true. In other words in OS X they have a unique selling point (stable, secure, supported, application compatible UNIX) and now just enough conformity / familiarity to attract the more conservative Windows users across. This may shortly get better still as Leopard (OS X 10.5.x) is rumoured to have the ability to run Windows apps natively under OS X without the need to dual boot etc. If Apple play their cards right they could snatch the high end of the personal computer market leaving the PC as simply being something you buy if you can’t afford a Mac. They are not far off that at the moment to be honest.

Tony.

 

I would tend to agree with Tony's analysis. Apple make their money from hardware (Mac) sales. Allowing XP to run on Macs can only improve those sales (IMO dramatically). OTOH allowing OS X to run on any old PC could really damage Mac sales.

Even if they did allow it the only way they'd make serious money from OS X sales is if they got into agreements with major PC makers (Dell etc) to pre-install OS X because, lets face it, most people aren't going to buy it on their own. It would take a vary brave PC manufacturer to pre-install OS X on their machines and the restrictive contracts they have with Microsoft would make it very difficult for them to do so anyway (and still ship Windows PCs too).

Allowing OS X to run on PCs would be the beginning of the end for Apple.

Michael.

 

Agree with Tony and Michael, besides if OSX were to run on PCs, it wouldn't be long before OSX might get the same sort of unreliable reputation as MS products simply because instead of running on well built and known to be compatable kit, it'll be running of the shonky rubbish that passes for most PC hardware these days.