probably a stupid question

[Doom Machine]

watching leapord vids, i think it looks very nice and intuitive. i'm just curious
how come Apple doesnt make it for all hardware? i mean i know you can illegally patch it and make it work but without proper drivers its worthless.

i'm gonna guess some answers would be to sell more apple hardware. if there was that much money in it i'd guess MS would have done same thing. surely theres another reason why they arent trying to take more of the gaming market...etc?

 

[ChAoTiCpInOy]

Apple is a Hardware company, they make money off selling computers. They don't need to spend extra money making it compatible on all computers if they are just trying to sell their computers.

 

[umrigar]

You see all the problems Windows has running on all the myriad hardware mixes that people like to cobble together.

Same reason - for OS X to run well, the hardware needs to be constrained, to some degree.

RAM, hard drives & optical drives are typically supported without special drivers - which is cool.
Where you run into constraint/expense is video cards, logic boards and processors... although the Mac Mini does allow for processor replacement.

 

[Nothinman]

You see all the problems Windows has running on all the myriad hardware mixes that people like to cobble together.

And just about all of them can be tracked back to the producers of said hardware myriad.

Same reason - for OS X to run well, the hardware needs to be constrained, to some degree.

OS X would run fine as long as you made sure to do research before buying random hardware, just like Windows. And in the case of problems Apple would just do the same thing that MS does: "Contact the manufacturer of the device giving you the problem.".

 

[SoundTheSurrender]

Because Apple would go down as a company if they released their OS. Their business model is great, why change it.

 

[Nothinman]

Their business model is great, why change it.

Because it's really not that great. Their platform is still in the single digit percentile and one of those reasons is because of how draconian they are with control of the hardware on which it runs.

 

[randomlinh]

Originally posted by: Nothinman

Their business model is great, why change it.

Because it's really not that great. Their platform is still in the single digit percentile and one of those reasons is because of how draconian they are with control of the hardware on which it runs.

and they are raking in the profits... so I doubt they really care about matching microsoft's dominance. they are currently playing their cards fairly well, but they need to innovate more with the ipod to keep it going (the ipod touch is cool, but the lost of single handed no-look use really hurts it IMO.. but I have a feeling 'cool factor' may trump it )

 

[SoundTheSurrender]

Originally posted by: Nothinman

Their business model is great, why change it.

Because it's really not that great. Their platform is still in the single digit percentile and one of those reasons is because of how draconian they are with control of the hardware on which it runs.

It's not that great? Probably not great for you. They are profiting. They not trying to get everyone and their Mom to own a Apple computer. I can almost bet that for every one Macbook Pro they sell new, HP or any other laptop company needs to sell 3 or 4 to have the same profits.

 

[jhu]

Originally posted by: SoundTheSurrender

Originally posted by: Nothinman

Their business model is great, why change it.

Because it's really not that great. Their platform is still in the single digit percentile and one of those reasons is because of how draconian they are with control of the hardware on which it runs.

It's not that great? Probably not great for you. They are profiting. They not trying to get everyone and their Mom to own a Apple computer. I can almost bet that for every one Macbook Pro they sell new, HP or any other laptop company needs to sell 3 or 4 to have the same profits.

oh yes they are. why else would they have those pc vs. mac commercials? their business model is great so long as they're able to sell "coolness". and before they're unable to sell "coolness" anymore, they'd better get their computers and software entrenched in major corporations and businesses.

 

[Doom Machine]

i just want to see some real competition,(alright one could argue linux but its not very valid for most computer users for various reasons) but OSX gets noticed from most home users to various degrees but alot of people of course dont bother and buy a Dell or the enthusiast will build one and others like me dont use it cause it cant game and cant use bleeding edge hardware. having to buy more expensive apple hardware just to use the OS isnt really competitive, yet they keep making OSX vs Vista advertisements, thats not really toe to toe so i dont get it really.

i remember when Mac's used to have games, lots of them like deja-vu, myst...etc, some games went there first before being ported. i'd like to see them try to take some of that back and get in good with developers but it cant happen as they are now.

 

[jhu]

real competition? ha! apple tried that once back in the mid-90s. apple got trounced by the clones so they stopped licensing the os. apple is in the perfect sweet spot right now. they can be as microsoft-like as they want within their little niche and not get nabbed by the feds for illegal abuse of monopoly.

 

[Nothinman]

so I doubt they really care about matching microsoft's dominance.

If that's true then they're doing themselves and their stockholders a disservice because the primary goal of every for-profit business is to make money and the main way to do that is with more marketshare.

i just want to see some real competition,(alright one could argue linux but its not very valid for most computer users for various reasons)

OS X isn't valid for just about all of the same reasons.

 

[TheStu]

Originally posted by: Nothinman

so I doubt they really care about matching microsoft's dominance.

If that's true then they're doing themselves and their stockholders a disservice because the primary goal of every for-profit business is to make money and the main way to do that is with more marketshare.

i just want to see some real competition,(alright one could argue linux but its not very valid for most computer users for various reasons)

OS X isn't valid for just about all of the same reasons.

You mean OS X also has a fairly unintelligible installation system that fails half the time forcing you to resort to the command line, the one thing you were trying to avoid?

Oh, you must have meant that OS X comes with incomplete documentation too!

No, I think what you really were talking about the completely bass-ackward folder structure that leaves system folders sitting in the open, completely useless to the end user, but there they are.

Maybe you meant how in order to get something as simple as running a graphics card above 1024*768 is either impossible, or requires you to edit 3 different files, each one having to be specifically modified based on your monitor, graphics card, distro, location of Jupiter, and/or state of mind.

You're right, OS X is such a pain that way.

 

[jhu]

Originally posted by: TheStu

Originally posted by: Nothinman

so I doubt they really care about matching microsoft's dominance.

If that's true then they're doing themselves and their stockholders a disservice because the primary goal of every for-profit business is to make money and the main way to do that is with more marketshare.

i just want to see some real competition,(alright one could argue linux but its not very valid for most computer users for various reasons)

OS X isn't valid for just about all of the same reasons.

You mean OS X also has a fairly unintelligible installation system that fails half the time forcing you to resort to the command line, the one thing you were trying to avoid?

Oh, you must have meant that OS X comes with incomplete documentation too!

No, I think what you really were talking about the completely bass-ackward folder structure that leaves system folders sitting in the open, completely useless to the end user, but there they are.

Maybe you meant how in order to get something as simple as running a graphics card above 1024*768 is either impossible, or requires you to edit 3 different files, each one having to be specifically modified based on your monitor, graphics card, distro, location of Jupiter, and/or state of mind.

You're right, OS X is such a pain that way.

although those things may be valid, the fact is that mac os x cannot be legally installed on anything but a mac. if you install mac os x on a mac, it's rather painless. if you try to install it on a dell, it's much much more difficult than installing linux.

 

[Nothinman]

You're right, OS X is such a pain that way.

Oh there's pain, it just comes in different flavors. But since you seem to like the kool-aid so much just keep on drinking.

 

[TheStu]

Originally posted by: Nothinman

You're right, OS X is such a pain that way.

Oh there's pain, it just comes in different flavors. But since you seem to like the kool-aid so much just keep on drinking.

I'm not saying there isn't pain... sharing files on Tiger... stupid hard. Getting drivers for something that isn't immediately recognized, also really annoying bordering on idiotically difficult. I had about 3 other things in my head... but i completely forgot them

Anyway, I like OS X, I think it is much, much easier to use (without a loss of 'power') than either linux or Windows. I may give linux 1 more try on my desktop now that I have a new one with a different graphics card, but I don't expect much, and frankly do not like the layout or some of the UI decisions.

What pains were you referring to?

 

[umrigar]

I'm not sure Apple is marketing "cool." It's more like accessible, non-work / fun things, and ease of use for non-technical people.

Think of your parents or grandparents. Think of trying to explain to a 70 year old (or even 50 year old non-tech) how to do things in a way that computer-types find easy.

There is simply no way that GUI folks are going to want to dick around with command line (Linux).