- November 24th, 2009, 9:55 pm
#288302
Where Apple differs from other computer manufacturers, however, is that they offer an operating system written specifically designed to run on those limited sets of hardware. They write hardware drivers for their OS that are pretty much flawless. They can do that because they have a very limited set of hardware to focus on. They are dedicated to writing and maintaing an OS that works well on a very limited subset of PC hardware. The upside to this is that their OS works REALLY well on their computers. The downside is that their OS does not work AT ALL on other PC hardware.
Microsoft, on the other hand, takes the exact opposite approach. They do not build hardware (yet) and their entire OS design philosophy is that their OS should run on any piece of PC hardware that a the hardware manufacturer is willing to write drivers for. The upside to this is that their OS can run on a large variety of hardware, enabling lots of configurations at lots of different price points. The downside is that you're sometimes making tradeoffs in terms of integration and stability since you're depending on third parties to properly integrate their hardware with the OS.
As you can see, there are pros and cons to both models and they both have their place, in my opinion. However, Microsoft's business model means their OS can run on Apple's computers while Apple's means that theirs can't run on anyone else's. That's not a double-standard, it's just a consequence of the different technical approaches they take to writing operating systems. This difference is what defines these two companies and has since the 80's. It's what ultimately brought Microsoft to marketplace dominance and almost called Apple to go out of business. It's also what brought Apple back from the grave.
I don't see a double-standard. I just see a difference in approach. As for it being "ruthless"... I don't believe in mercy for competitors in business. I wouldn't invest in any business or entrepreneur that did.
mrmacphisto wrote:Seems kind of ruthless, and somewhat of a double standard, that they boast about Macs being able to run Windows but seem to be taking conscious measures (somewhat debatable, I know) to see that PCs are unable to run Mac OS. Business is business, but it doesn't mean I have to like it.I think you just don't fully understand Apple's business model. At this point Apple essentially sells regular PC's. They put a lot of work into the design and engineering of their machines, but the internal hardware is rarely any different than that in any other PC, except that there is very little (or no) variation in the hardware over the life of any given model of Apple computer.
Where Apple differs from other computer manufacturers, however, is that they offer an operating system written specifically designed to run on those limited sets of hardware. They write hardware drivers for their OS that are pretty much flawless. They can do that because they have a very limited set of hardware to focus on. They are dedicated to writing and maintaing an OS that works well on a very limited subset of PC hardware. The upside to this is that their OS works REALLY well on their computers. The downside is that their OS does not work AT ALL on other PC hardware.
Microsoft, on the other hand, takes the exact opposite approach. They do not build hardware (yet) and their entire OS design philosophy is that their OS should run on any piece of PC hardware that a the hardware manufacturer is willing to write drivers for. The upside to this is that their OS can run on a large variety of hardware, enabling lots of configurations at lots of different price points. The downside is that you're sometimes making tradeoffs in terms of integration and stability since you're depending on third parties to properly integrate their hardware with the OS.
As you can see, there are pros and cons to both models and they both have their place, in my opinion. However, Microsoft's business model means their OS can run on Apple's computers while Apple's means that theirs can't run on anyone else's. That's not a double-standard, it's just a consequence of the different technical approaches they take to writing operating systems. This difference is what defines these two companies and has since the 80's. It's what ultimately brought Microsoft to marketplace dominance and almost called Apple to go out of business. It's also what brought Apple back from the grave.
I don't see a double-standard. I just see a difference in approach. As for it being "ruthless"... I don't believe in mercy for competitors in business. I wouldn't invest in any business or entrepreneur that did.
mrmacphisto wrote:On another note, somewhat on-topic, has anyone here had success triple booting Mac OS, Windows and Linux?Yes. However, I immediately figured out that I had no use for Linux and Mac OS X on the same machine. Too much overlap.
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