> Two scenarios: > > 1) Ultimately Apple bites the worm and decides to compete head to > head with Microsloth. The unique Mac hardware that we know and love > goes away. Apple goes to "generic" PC hardware and you simply > switch-boot between the likes of Linux, Unix, Mac OS X, and Windoze. > IMO this isn't going to happen; Apple would fold a year or two later. > > 2) Apple produces their own systems as I described previously. > They'll directly boot Linux, Unix, or Mac OS X. Other OSies will run > as a *nix process, in an enclosing "virtual environment". The > "hosted" OS does whatever, but unbeknownst to it, it's actually > calling the uber OS (OS X in this case) to do it's i/o and such. > > First example of such a virtual environment is one you're probably > familiar with: Classic. It's a container that gives OS 9 access to > OS X's i/o services. > > Another example is products like Virtual PC. They're like Classic, > but they go one step beyond: they also provide x86->PPC translation. > > In x86-based Macs, the same products will provide the virtual > environment, but because the hosted OS is already x86, there's no > instruction-by-instruction translation required. So it will be much > faster. hum. Who knows. Apple often crushes 3rd party projects by > making their own clones in-house. Maybe Apple has such a virtual > environment ready to go, but just hasn't announced it... > > - Dan.
You know, the more I think about this, the less I like the whole plan, although I understand how it is driven by (apparent) business necessity, i.e. the need to get faster chips for marketing needs than IBM could or would invest in developing. Jobs' motivation is also said to be pique, which is often counselled to be a poor reason for business decisions -- but with the Reality Distortion Field in full functioning, who knows? He's pulled off stuff like that before. Also, remember that the PowerPC chip is not his baby, & that, as has been noted before, during his exile from Apple, while the PPC alliance was being formed, he moved NeXT off custom hardware & recast it as a development platform for x86. With some success -- no tremendous, but enough to keep NeXT alive as a product for several years, until Apple eventually absorbed it. A gutsy move, too. Many companies have fallen victim to the Abandoning your Core Competency syndrome, a.k.a. Quitting Your Day Job syndrome. This sort of reminds me of the MetaCreations Corp.-- remember them? They were a rising graphics software powerhouse of the 1990s, with a stable of hot products like Kai's Power Tools (their original product), Painter, Photo Soap, Bryce, Poser, Ray Dream, Infini-D, etc. (these later mostly by acquisition). By the mid to late '90s they were poised to sit at the big boy's table with firms like Adobe & Macromedia. Toward the end of the Dot-com Craze they got the notion in their heads that grasping the future by the horns required moving their entire R & D to some visionary 3-D web interface, called MetaStream, which would be the next Killer App. They bet the farm on this, & to raise the funds for it they sold off all their programs to various buyers: Corel got KPT & Painter, as well as Bryce, which DAZ eventually wound up with, Curious Labs got Poser, etc. Of course the Dot-bomb happened, & nobody ever has ever heard since of MetaStream. Of course there are differences -- there always are with historical analogies. MetaStream was a victim of the Dot-bomb, & MetaCreations was chasing a moonbeam, whereas Apple is going into territory that is well established -- at least the technology is, every PPC build of OS X so far having its x86 doppelganger. Its fate in the eyes of customers remains to be seen. Apple has way more "mindshare", anyway. It may or may not be of significance that MetaCreations was developing that MetaStream moonbeam in partnership with -- Intel. -- Bill Art page: <http://geocities.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]> -- G-List is sponsored by <http://lowendmac.com/> and... Small Dog Electronics http://www.smalldog.com | Refurbished Drives | -- We have Apple Refurbished Monitors in stock! | & CDRWs on Sale! | Support Low End Mac <http://lowendmac.com/lists/support.html> G-List list info: <http://lowendmac.com/lists/g-list.shtml> --> AOL users, remove "mailto:"; Send list messages to: <mailto:[email protected]> To unsubscribe, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For digest mode, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subscription questions: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Archive: <http://www.mail-archive.com/g-list%40mail.maclaunch.com/> iPod Accessories for Less at 1-800-iPOD.COM Fast Delivery, Low Price, Good Deal www.1800ipod.com
