On Jan 4, 2006, at 11:12 AM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
At 10:29 AM -0600 01/04/2006, Peter da Silva wrote:
I think there's a difference between running OS X on systems that
aren't supported by OS X but were licensed for Mac OS, and running it
on systems that have no connection however tenuous to Apple.
The retail version of the OS comes with a full license.
The only license that's "intrinsic" to the Mac hardware is for its
original shipped-with version.
Thanks for the casuist viewpoint. I will continue to regard these as
different cases until Apple chooses to make OS X available for PCs that
have never been licensed for Mac OS X.
Microsoft's agreements with the DoJ have no relevance here. At this
point in time, you can not buy a new unbundled Mac and you can't run a
copy of OS X on a machine that doesn't have an existing license for Mac
OS of some kind. Which leads to...
Retail == shrinkwrapped off-the-shelf OS package. Not an upgrade, and
not necessarily retail price. And not a gray pull from a Mac either.
Apple prices the retail package like Microsoft prices an upgrade, and
they can do this because approximately zero percent of retail OS X
purchases aren't upgrades. If Apple starts selling copies of OS X for
the $300+ that Windows XP full edition lists for, then I'll be willing
to treat it as a full retail copy and not an upgrade.
Yes, I know Apple has sometimes sold upgrade versions for even less.
But so has Microsoft made special deals for Windows on occasion.
Keep OS X locked to Macs == Keep the Mac as a small niche market.
Small, profitable, niche market. Apple's one of the biggest PC
manufacturers in the world, and their profit margins are on the order
of 40%, when Dell would be doing good to make 4%.
Open OS X to all x86 PCs == Explode OS X onto the scene, scare the
pants of MS, and take over the laptop and desktop world. But then you
have to deal with the politics of Apple being a hardware company (job
losses, angry stockholders, etc).
Apple would have to sell at least three versions of OS X to avoid
taking it in the shorts. Upgrade - priced like the current retail
version is, retail - at least twice as much, and multiprocessor - at
maybe $600.
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