On Dec 10, 2003, at 09:56 am, Charles Martin wrote:
Well said. Very colourfully said, I might add. :)
I tend to call a spade a spade in situations like this ;-)
To address your concern, btw: I suspect that OS X will have better luck as a "designed for 64-bit" OS than Windows will have "bolting on" 64-bit compatibility. IOW, I think Apple will be quite a bit ahead of MS on that front.
Apple have in the past show a great deal of expertise in transiting from one code base to anther with practically no seams. The fact OS X is UNIX (or BSD or whatever) based is a bigger advantage as UNIX OSs are modular by design, where as Windows is generally an amorphous lump that either is or isn't and thus if it's half way between it doesn't work properly (see Win9x). Modules in OS X can easily be substituted for 64-bit versions as required, in fact to all intents and purposes future versions of OS X could include 2 totally different 32-bit and 64-bit versions that pan out to be the same OS regardless of if you have a G4 or a G5 (or G6).
MS will also have greater problems of compatibility. There are millions upon millions of PC users who won't upgrade because they cannot afford (or simply don't want) to lose DOS compatibility. That would be like Apple getting yelled at for losing Apple IIe compatibility.
The trouble with Microsoft is they suffer more issues of momentum than Apple, partly becuase they make it hard to upgrade, and partly becuase of the large installed user base and the resultant hand-me down compatibility issues.
This is a MUCH bigger factor for MS than it is for Apple, since Apple has already GIVEN us all the "pain" they needed to in the transition to OS X. MS's real "pain" is yet ahead of them -- one of the main reasons Longhorn won't be ready for quite some time.
The change factor is going to be only one of the pain shots MS are going to get with Longhorn (another will probably be me slagging them off for using a stupid code-name!). I have seen various reports on MS's 'revolutionary' ideas for software distribution. Customers won't either comprehend or trust a system based on them buying a license then downloading to their computer, especially given the already prominent fears about MS and security/privacy.
-- Mark Benson
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