Will Apple open up their OS?

[demonic]

Im interested to know, if Apple will open up their OS. But that I mean, make it work with more hardware than the standard Intel MacPro boxes they are/will be rolling out.

Whats to stop them from approaching manufacturers of top end products and asking them to write drivers. That way they can either control which devices will are certified and will run and what they will support. But obviously overtime they will have a much larger bases of mobos, soundcards, network cards, usb devices, etc.

And at least they can start offering their OS to the masses as a Vista alternative.

I mean with the virtualisation from parrallex is it? They offer software for pc games to run under osx. Without too much penulty.

I for one would love to see the OS and also have an alternative from M$. Ensure they deliver better systems in future.

Anyone know if this is a reality or pie in the sky. Also sorry for any mistakes in grammar or spelling or whatever, have a major headache!

 

[nutball]

But that I mean, make it work with more hardware than the standard Intel MacPro boxes they are/will be rolling out.

I don't see why it's in their interests to do so. One of the reasons their OS is in the "It Just Works" category is precisely because it isn't the dogs breakfast that Windows or Linux need to be in order to support the 10^12 possible combinations of hardware found in PCs. Apple control what goes into their boxes, and by keeping the variety small they massively simplify their task of verifying that everything Just Works(TM).

I'd argue that a lot of people who buy Macs do so because they want a solution that Just Works out of the box. They're not interested in messing about replacing various bits of hardware, building their own boxes, etc. If you want to do that, you buy a PC!

I doubt Apple are interested in offering OS X as an alternative to Vista on PC hardware. Why should they be? Ask yourself who is interested in running OS X on a PC ... geeks basically (who probably also don't want to pay for it!). It's a tiny market. And geeks are precisely the sort of people who *will* have a massive array of combinations of hardware -- a lot of money spent to support a product for a small minority of the market.

How many "normal" Windows users would be interested in replacing their current Windows install with OS X? Not many I'd suggest. And if you're buying new and want a PC with OS X on it, buy a Mac!

 

[Maintank]

/shrug

I would like to have the option for OSX on an x86 desktop.

 

[BRiT]

/shrug

I would like to have the option for OSX on an x86 desktop.

You do. Just buy an Apple Mac desktop.

 

[StefanS]

Not going to happen. Apple is at least as restrictive as MS about opening their products to its competitors or the open-source community. Remember, Apple didn't open its I-Tunes store to other competitors. Moreover, what could Apple possibly gain from opening their OS?

 

[abbaon]

No. Apple's a hardware company. Following the IBM route and turning Apple-compatible hardware into an interchangeable commodity would lead Apple to the same place it led IBM: out of the hardware market.

 

[senas8]

There seems to be more features build into os X at a price 4 times less of its competitor.

 

[nutball]

How are you judging the price of OS X? Last time I bought OS X it cost me £1800. Granted, it came with a free laptop, but it was still an expensive piece of software.

 

[demonic]

Not going to happen. Apple is at least as restrictive as MS about opening their products to its competitors or the open-source community. Remember, Apple didn't open its I-Tunes store to other competitors. Moreover, what could Apple possibly gain from opening their OS?

sorry i didnt mean open as in open source. i meant open up the hardware side as in allowing multiple vendors of all the devices that can be used on a pc, to be available to use on osx.

As currently, yeah it runs on intel hardware now, but the devices supported are small and restrictive.

I with what Maintank says, but alas, i doubt it will ever be so.

 

[demonic]

Unless of course. Apple then decide to use AMD as well. Which we can all dream about since AMD are going the one-stop-shop route.

AMD could always write drivers for osx.. and ta-daaa.. you might be able to install osx on certain amd/ati parts

 

[zsouthboy]

From what I've experienced, not that i've done anything illegal , OSX will indeed work on hardware other than Apple, with some hacks, of course.

You're asking whether or not Apple will negate the need for hacks and just allow everyone to install it; that, no one knows. It's possible Apple sees its business model moving that way.

Hell, more and more things support OSX every day.

 

[Maintank]

You do. Just buy an Apple Mac desktop.

That isnt what I consider a "choice". I have never been fond of Apple hardware and even with the switch to Intel based platforms, I am still not interested.

 

[Sonic]

Apple has no good reason to open their OS for other vendors to use. It would require them to support multiple hardware configurations and would incur a large cost unto them. It makes little sense for them to do such a thing. If the Macintosh marketshare grows, then the OS X marketshare grows with it. OS X is an operating system designed for the Macintosh platform. The two go hand in hand, both hardware and software.

Some may not like that they can only gt OS X on Apple hardware, but that's the way it's going to be for the forseeable future unless Apple reveals it is going to open it up. I have a choice to use a Mac platform or a PC. I choose Mac, and with that I get OS X to use. Apple shouldn't have to let Dell or HP sell computers with OS X, and I wouldn't ever want to see that.

 

[Diamond.G]

That isnt what I consider a "choice". I have never been fond of Apple hardware and even with the switch to Intel based platforms, I am still not interested.

I'm confused, what kind of hardware would you like it to run on? Because as far as I can tell Apples new platform is x86 hardware. Actually another question can think of is if Apple condones running OS X on non-Apple hardware should they be responsible for support when people have issues?