Where are all the drivers for hardware going to appear from so quickly? Windows has a massive advantage in that loads of hardware just works out of the box, or already has prewritten Windows drivers. I’m no expert, but isn’t the hardware selection on Macs more limited than on Windows, meaning less prewritten drivers?
Win-98se just ‘chugging’ along… 
Got a password on my Linksys …
Printer and scanner work good …
Firefox works good…
I don’t play ‘shootem-ups’ …
I don’t do ‘work’ work as I’m retired.
Almost all of my replacement hardware is free in dumpsters …
Have 4 working puters at this time…
Use my TV for tv …
Use my CD player to play CD’s …
Use my DVD player to play DVD’s …
Fastest satalitte connection I can buy is still slower than what my puter can do … ( Also the fastest hook up that can be had out here at 40th and Plum … )
Run 2-4 hard drives cheaper (free hardware, remember ) than the cost / danger of one 300 Gig …
I want to go faster but won’t move to town …
Just have to endure I guess…
Apple already makes OSX for Intel x86 chips, although it is designed for Apple architecture around this chip, not PC architecture.
Once upon a time, I was a Filemaker Pro developer, and the buzz at the 1998 conference, even from people with very good connections at Apple, prior to the initial release of OSX, was that it would be found in the store in three boxes, of which you’d buy what you neded: a yellow one that had the actual OS, a blue one containing the VM to run it on an Apple computer, and a red one with the VM to run it on a PC. So this “running MacOS on a PC architecture” is something that’s been on the radar for some time. I’ve seen speculation that Apple’s switch to Intel chips is part of this process.
There is a way to resolve this false-positive error message:
http://www.microsoft.com/genuine/downloads/FAQ.aspx?displaylang=en#Question5Label
Of course, some people will find it more satisfying to curse the darkness than to light a single candle.
There are people running OS X successfully in VMware on Windows XP today. Google for vmware mac os x for details. I’d link to it, but it involves piracy.
You can already run OSX on a limited range of non-Mac PC hardware, albeit with the occasional struggle with installing; I won’t link to any of the guides due to some of the advice being of dubious legality. The reason here is that you need to hack at OS X’s TPM-based protection scheme, which supposedly prevents OS X from running on a machine that doesn’t have a TPM chip. This is the Trusted Computing thing that everyone was going apeshit about and accusing Microsoft of evil doomy plans, incidentally; funny how you get this deafening silence when it’s Apple using it, but I digress.
Personally I’d be very surprised if Apple supported a transition of OS X to being a commodity OS product. For one thing, this would be just so utterly opposed to Apple’s historical strategy of vertical integration that it would beggar belief (more so, even, than the switch to Intel). Secondly, the barriers of hardware driver availability would be pretty high (albeit not insurmountable). Finally, and crucially, if OS X were widely available and installable it would almost instantly start to suffer from the problems of piracy experienced by Windows. Thus not only would Apple lose the benefit that people wanting to use their OS have to do so by buying Apple’s high-margin hardware, they would suddenly find that people aren’t even paying for the software in a large number of cases.
That said, when EFI and TPM find there way into commodity PC hardware, there will be very little that Apple can do to stop people installing OS X on random hardware; the only barrier to entry will be the drivers, and if there’s a demand from users then it wouldn’t be surprising to see manufacturers start to provide OS X drivers, particularly since this would then allow the manufacturers to sell into the genuine MacIntel expansion market.
scotandrsn, the only substantial difference between “Apple architecture” and “PC architecture” in the x86 arena (apart from TPM) is Apple’s use of EFI, Intel’s replacement for the positively ancient BIOS we all know and love; this is pretty much the only reason why Apple’s BootCamp is required to dual-boot Windows on a MacIntel machine. Otherwise, your MacIntel is pretty much a PC. Certain versions of Vista are slated to support EFI from the start (and all are intended to eventually), so even this gap is rapidly closing.
Q: What do I do if I fail to get light, but am certain that I purchased/have a genuine Microsoft candle?
A: Contact the reseller that you purchased your candle from. If your reseller is unable to help you, contact your local Microsoft candle center. The Microsoft candle center agent can help you verify whether the lighting system is a certified Microsoft Flint ‘n’ Steel. The majority of customers who fail to light their candles are using a non-authorized match or Aim ‘n’ Flame. The candles came with a genuine Microsoft Flint ‘n’ Steel, but users are attempting to use an invalid sparking method. For customers who have a legal Flint ‘n’ Steel, the candle center agent can point customers to a Flint Update tool…
There is really no legitimate reason why the customer should have to bear the burden of correcting Microsoft’s mistake. If Microsoft failed to create a system of validation that takes into mind the needs of PC distributors who want to install Windows on hundreds or thousands of machines, the consumer should not be the one to have to do the footwork.
This reminds me of the time a check we wrote to a contractor got stolen from the BofA ATM he deposited it into, and BofA made threatening phone calls to us, telling us we had better cancel payment on it and write a new one right quick.
Feh. Wishful thinking from Windows users who want to move away from Microsoft but can’t work up the courage to spend a little more coin for Apple’s hardware. Which is silly, IMO, since the extra cost is easily offset by the time and money saved from not having to worry about viruses, spyware, and stability issues.
Yeah but then once everyone switches over to a Mac operating system all the viruses and spyware will be written for Mac. So in reality Mac users should be actively discouraging people from switching over.
Is it actually within your capabilities to participate in a computer thread without implying that all Windows users are gullible morons?
In your opinion.
And while its certainly true that Windows boxes require more user input to prevent viruses and spyware, the trope of Windows instability is one of those little myths that some Apple folks love to repeat to themselves, despite the fact that XP is actually a stable and usable operating system.
Now i’m pissed off. Microsoft often annoys the fuck out of me with their overbearing tactics and their tendency to shaft their own customers, and WGA is an excellent example of this. I hate that i end up defending them against self-righteous and often incorrect sniping from adolescent Mac fanboys.
I also hate that this might give the impression that i don’t like Apple products. I happen to think Macs are great computers. But i’m almost at the stage where i would refuse to buy one on principle, simply because i don’t want to be counted alongside the idiotic Jobs acolytes who take so much pleasure in denigrating anyone who dares to run Windows.
I gotta agree with pretty much everything you said there, mhendo. What is it with certain Mac users that they act like religious fanatics?
Macs are not perfect. I’ve got a friend who’s worked in IT/Networking for about 15 years now supporting Macs, and I know for damned sure that Macs can have mysterious and catastrophic problems. Yea, but do Macs have fewer problems that PCs? Frankly, I don’t know, and I don’t care.
Yet I do like Macs. Worked on some of the first ones ever built back in college and loved them from the beginning. It just so happens that my first job out of college, nearly 20 years ago, was programming for PC’s. I’ve been there ever since. I know the damned things inside and out. I am well aware of a buttload of problems and drawbacks of “Wintel” systems, and I’m sure there’s a lot I don’t know as well. But what the hey, I can keep myself and my parents running just fine.
And I finally bought down and bought a MacMini a few months ago, and had a lot more trouble with it than I’ve had with a PC in, like, forever. Now if I was an unreasoning Windows Elitist, I’d be pushing that in you Mac worshippers faces as proof of Windows superiority. But really, the reason is that after 20 years I’m just not familiar with how the Mac interface works. I’m still getting used to it. That’s to be expected, and doesn’t “prove” anything about Mac or Windows interfaces one way or another.
So sheesh, rjung, get over yourself.
Where did I say anything in the quoted sentence that implied gullibility or a lower-than-average IQ? If anything, I was poking at the frugality of some Windows users, which I doubt you’ll dispute.
And I still think “Apple will release MacOS X for generic Intel-based PCs” is wishful thinking more than anything else. Such a move would be the corporate equivalent of cutting their own throat, since the bulk of their income comes from hardware sales.
Bullshit.
You spoke specifically of lacking courage, which is, in itself, a completely moronic reference in a sentence about buying computer equipment. Not only that, but you implied that this lack of courage was the only thing standing in the way of Windows users who reaaally, truuuly (of course, you know what’s in their minds) want to move over to Apple.
If this had been anyone else on the Boards, i might grudgingly accept the explanation you’ve given. Hell, if it were anyone else, i might have let the initial post slide without saying anything. But you can’t seem to help yourself from crapping all over Windows users and blowing Jobs and Apple in just about every computer-related thread you enter.
It just gets a little old after a while.
Soooo The place that built your PC fucked up, and you are pissed off at microsoft for offering a solution?
Also something to note…there are alot of very good fakes among the pirated software out there. More than a few legit companies have bought pirated stuff from legit vendors who did not realize it was pirated. Alot of that stuff is burned onto hard drives from images and nobody saw the actual CD was a little odd looking.
The place that built my PC was me in my house out of a variety of new and old components. And I know that my copy of XP is legit, even if some stupid piece of programming doesn’t think so. If Microsoft’s POS WGA can’t handle the idea that a guy would not only build his own computer but actually upgrade it from time to time while using just the one copy of an OS, I’d say they’ve got other problems. As for not having WGA installed, I don’t give a damn. I can get the patches I need easily enough through other sources if needed and I have no use or interest in the latest WMP or IE.
We get our Windows licenses from Microsoft through MSDN. WGA has reported more than one of them to be pirate.
So MSDN is handing out invalid licenses now?
I don’t believe the problems are being caused by upgrades; as the earlier linked Ars Technica story pointed out, most of the “false positives” are examples of people who really do have a mis-licensed copy that they have either purchased in good faith from a dubious reseller, or have an installation that has been repaired with an image for a wrong version of XP. The true false positives are apparently caused by data entry mistakes at Microsoft’s end, and while these might be irritating to sort out, MS seem to be handling them with alacrity.
I do agree that sneaking WGA on to your system in the way they have done (as a “critical” update? Psshhh) is annoying in the extreme, but essentially I think they do have a right to protect themselves from piracy. And to an extent, even their line about protecting customers from piracy has some truth behind it. There are undoubtedly quite a lot of unscrupulous box-shifters who charge their customers for Windows but use a dubious copy, and it’s not unreasonable for Microsoft to try and stamp this out in cooperation with users, who are being scammed just as much as MS. They’ve put a lot of manpower behind sorting out “failed” installations as quickly as possible, and in many cases will simply give the user a valid key if they explain how they came by their failed installation. Yes, their initial quiet approach to getting WGA out there was classic Old Microsoft, but their willingness to sort out the problems is fairly encouraging.
mhendo needs a new hobby. :rolleyes:
You’re not the only one: The great experiment
Dude, you’re the one who makes a hobby out of irrelevant and stupid pokes at Windows and Windows users. When you give it up, i’ll stop pointing it out.