Used to be: Re: Linux in business

Craig White wrote:
...
>>I really do think it'd be spiffy if Apple released X86-flavored OS X -
>>Not for "me" necessarily, just to compete with You Know Who. I think
>>it'd stomp XP Pro like iTunes does WMP.
>
> ---
> say what?
>
> iTunes doesn't compete with WMP - Quicktime is the competitive product
> from Apple

Ew. Fwiw ($0.02?) I dislike QuickTime for Windows mostly because it
insists on running at startup (and forcing me to kill it) - previous
versions could be housebroken.

In my world QuickTime = Flash = WMP = animated gifs... whichever one
makes the hamsters dance is OK, as long as it doesn't suck CPU cycles,
apply stealth DRM to my files, or get in my way when I haven't asked it
to. iTunes is nice not only for the reasons Gary listed, but I can also
share music collections between my PC and my wife's iMac with no more
effort than clicking the "share my stuff" button. That said, I actually
launch it about 6 times a month -- oh, killer "visualization" effects
too :-)

> And an Apple OS X runing on intel based hardware wouldn't do much good
> simply because it would have to run legacy 'DOS' and 'Windows' apps.
> That ain't gonna happen. Apple's hardware is quite good, some of it is
> cheap enough. The problem isn't the hardware, it's the perception that
> Apple isn't Microsoft that drives people to stick with Apple.
>

I was thinking of the "Grandmother Who Wants a Computer" user
demographic. Gramma doesn't want or need legacy DOS or Windows apps. She
wants an information appliance - ideally without BSODs, registry
corruption, viruses, trojans and popup porn. A simple, predictable
interface, pretty... A Mac, but dirt cheap like a legacy PC - for people
who've outgrown WebTV. I further decree that Apple should follow the
Lindows app-selling model: she doesn't like to browse around Fry's
either :-)

OS X *is* the very first version of MacOS that doesn't (somewhat
inexplicably) piss me off from the moment I start using it, but I don't
use it enough to have a real opinion on most of the features. The way
apps are installed kicks butt over Windows, and Linux too when I think
about it for too long.

I think it'd be a better fit for The Masses than any current Windows
offering, and I don't begrudge Apple taking a large chunk of Microsoft's
non-corporate-user revenue.

I think it's bedtime again...

Steve