Windows Software On Mac

Team XLink Administrator Joined: 11 Nov 2004 Posts: 5024

Apple doesn't make money on OS X. Unless they start selling it as a standalone operating system, it's purely an expense to them. They make their money selling hardware. So if enough customers want a Powerbook with Windows on it, they'd be crazy not to make it. Especially in the business world people will NOT use OS X because it doesn't run the software that they need to do their work, and corporate IT departments typically do not waste money and resources supporting multiple operating systems.

Joined: 30 Jul 2006 Posts: 0

Interestingly, Apple do generate significant revenue from OS X upgrade sales. The fact that Tiger still runs pretty acceptably on G3 hardware is evidence of the fact that OS X isn't just a giveaway on new hardware.

If enough customers want a Powerbook with Windows on it, they'll simply buy a Powerbook and use Boot Camp to install Windows on it. Apple do not need to pre-install Windows - in fact they cast iron will not (in my opinion) - because if they did, MS could rope them into being an official OEM - which means that, like Dell and others, they would be the official First Line Of OS Support for customers using Windows on their hardware.

As somebody who has used every version of Windows extensively, and has been able to code to a commercial standard on it for a number of years, I can without hesitance tell you that OS X is a better platform - just look at the ease with which developers have been able to transition not just from Carbon to Cocoa apps, but from those apps running on Power hardware to Intel hardware. Place that in stark contrast with Windows Vista - which, as it no longer supports GDI acceleration of *any sort* renders perhaps 80% of graphics/DTP software useless from day one. I'm confident that if a user is exposed to both of these OS's, there is one clear winner on just about every single front - and Apple are gambling on it.

As for companies "wasting money and resources" with OS X, it's interesting to note that a massive majority of music post processing, video post processing and desktop publishing has been done exclusively on Apple hardware and OS's for the last 15 years or more. As for "running the software they need to do their work" - OS X runs Office better than Windows, and if the alleged virtualistation features in 10.5 are true, Apple could pretty much clean up here.

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Kai Spammer Joined: 21 Jul 2004 Posts: 1168

The thing is this.

Ship a powerbook to my wife, my brother and my parents who are all not in the computer industry and just simple consumers. Now tell them to boot into windows from a dual boot. Then tell them to learn how to use OS X which they havent used before due to the common spread of windows.

I garauntee you right there that they will all say, "Fuck it, I should have called Dell!"

I agree with the fact that OS X is a better operating system but Windows just seems more practical for the consumer and corporate world, today.

Joined: 30 Jul 2006 Posts: 0

Thats a fair point - people could just stick with what they know.

That's the gamble part of what I was saying before - but you're seeing things from more of a poweruser perspective.

For example, somebody I know recently switched to Mac - from Windows. You know why? He saw that, when I put a DVD in my MacBook, a small box popped up asking me whether I wanted to "Resume playing from where I was last" or "Start again". Seriously. He asked how easy it was to use the rest of it, so i let him have a go - Mail, Safari, Office etc - and now he's bought an iMac 20"

My point is, the argument that people who don't know what they're doing will not swtich from Windows is flawed. If somebody really doesn't know what they're doing, all OS's are pretty much the same - they all have buttons, lists, windows, etc. I think it's more likely that powerusers will be more likely to do the "Ah what the hell, I'll just use it for Windows" - the Unix like shell is quite different to the Windows command.exe etc.

We must remember, the majority of computer users just browse the internet, use email and look at digital photos - that's it. OS X comes with iLife, which makes all that stuff pretty simple, along with making it pretty east to make pretty DVD's of pictures and pretty websites of pictures etc.

Apple are gambling that OS X with iLife is going to make users say "Oh - that's pretty easy actually - it's still got buttons and menus and listboxes just like Windows, and it's pretty and fast.. I'll use this".

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Kai Admirer Joined: 21 May 2004 Posts: 470

I would consider buying a Mac, if it was sure to be able to run Windows flawlessly.

Kai Spammer Joined: 21 Jul 2004 Posts: 1168

I definately agree with you there that people will easily wish to convert once given the chance to find a feature about OS X that they like. My argument was just comming from the years of frustration that I had come across when I tried to sell computers to just average joes. It seemed like every person that walked through the door was just some plain idiot. Literally, these customers where a lot dummer than I thought anyone could be.

I dont know, maybe I'm just judging the average consumer on bad experience from when I was in computer retail but I can tell you right now that I switched to Mac right after playing around with safari and the widget dashboard on my mates Mac.

Overall I do believe that OS X offers something incredibly useful to everyone however I just dont see it knocking Windows out, atleast not for a while.

Team XLink Moderator Joined: 21 May 2004 Posts: 1536

boxorox wrote:

I would consider buying a Mac, if it was sure to be able to run Windows flawlessly.

Half Life 2 on Mac
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGGtrkZ6088

my PC even struggled Razz

Joined: 30 Jul 2006 Posts: 0

Windows itself seems to run perfectly on my MBP 2.0.

Given, there is no driver for the built in webcam and keyboard backlight -but as far as being a Windows box goes, it's perfect.

Performance is also excellent... seriously.. this thing is fucking *fast*. It runs VS 2k5 perfectly, and Halflife 2 runs pretty much flawlessly.

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Team XLink Administrator Joined: 11 Nov 2004 Posts: 5024

It's running very well on my iMac, but not as fast as my PC (FX55 + 6800GT). I do like having the dual-core processor though. Aside from the driver issues TD mentioned there are a couple of quirks with the sound driver, but nothing serious.

Some people have also reported problems booting back into OS X once they run the Boot Camp thing, so make sure you back your stuff up if you're going to try it.

Kai Lover Joined: 23 May 2004 Posts: 585

Wall street agrees with you TD: Apple's shares rose dramatically after hearing that it could boot windows.

If it had a working version of windows I'd make an Apple my next PC, without it...well I'm still apprehensive about dropping some serious cash on a computing solution that uses an unfamiliar operating system and then have to install mods to get windows to boot... frankly that sorta thing makes my palms sweat lol

Posted: Thu Apr 13, 2006 5:04 am

I agree A, XP on the 2.0GHz MBP runs extremely fast.

Team XLink Administrator Joined: 11 Nov 2004 Posts: 5024

John Dvorak's latest column: Apple Needs to Make OS X Open-Source