After all the columns and talk by John on how Apple will drop their OS for Windows and others on the reverse, here’s a guy who takes the middle approach. He may be on to something here. Notwithstanding what Apple and Microsoft might want, of course.
True followers of the computer industry know that there is no time for idle allegiances. In the pursuit of faster, better, or more efficient computing, we must simply evaluate each new technology on its own, regardless of its corporation of origin. Such silly “knowledge” does not appease the fanboy, though. My, how I’ll miss them when they’re gone. Yes, that’s right… I think there will be a time (perhaps in a not-too-distant future) where they will disappear. Because I believe that Microsoft and Apple should push themselves towards a meshing of their operating systems. And before you all grab the pitchforks and light the torches to hunt this blasphemer down, I’m going to tell you why.
So, there are just two huge differences between Windows and Mac-OS. Now, why do I think they should merge? It’s smart business. Each has something the other wants and they’re just now starting to wade into each other’s territory. They are about to find out exactly how much greener the grass is on the other side, and for the first time ever, they’ll have the technology to work with each other’s strengths.
Merge? No I think Micorosft should drop Windows and license Mac OS.
Hmm, its a thought but you run into pride issues. Just look at the display Jobs put on when anouncing the intel mac and the subsequent ads.
Hah! Found some wi-fi.
I actually clicked the link and read the details of this guy’s article. Well, he’s literate and filled the space and probably was paid for it. He also tailors many of his premises along the way to fit the conclusion he wanted.
M$oft is working hard to meld the look and feel of OS X to a klunky bloated OS that deserve to be put out of its misery — and ours. But, they’re tied into corporate purchasing structures which will not allow the fresh start Apple got away with when they moved to Unix.
At least, not yet. Tech articles about virtualization look like making more sense for individual and corporate users who have to use packages rooted in any of the 3 useful OS’.
I thought the article was interesting until I got to the part where he says Windows is less stable than OSX because people can connect things to it using USB while the computer us up and running.
He ignores the fact that MAC’s use USB devices the same way as Windows systems do.
I wonder if he ever used the computers he wrote about.
First off, NO. My mac works, doesn’t need rebooting, doesn’t crash, and has a solid, unix-based OS behind the gui (which I really like, btw – Apple understands usability, MS does not).
Second, he’s an idiot.
Third, this would never benefit Apple as they would be introducing a turd into their currently stable and quick OS.
It’s dumb. And Dvorak needs to get off his wrong-headed idea that Apple wants to dump their one REAL asset, OS X. Why does everyone think Apple’s just a hardware company when the reason most people switch is for the OS? Dumb.
Possibly. Msoft isnt really that bad, you guys are just over-reacting. The whole world does not use MacOS and quite frankly, not many people in the world can afford a Mac.
Try to think of other people for a change rather your own Mac ok? By the way this is just a theory of Dvorak, no need for hostility. Mac Kultists should just stick to worshipping their ipods and powerbooks.
VERY interesting idea. not sure if i agree, but it’s interesting. i think i’d hate to see what gates did with os x, but i’d like to see what jobs does with windows.
for sure.
I foresee that within 5 years, Apple will buy out MS and drop every project except Offic. OS’s merging, nah.
Some might say Apple won’t buy MS, but 5-10 years ago, would you have believed the Pixar (S.Jobs!) would buy out Disney!?
Mandarin,
You need to crawl out of that early 90s rock you’re living under. Have you seen the affordable $499 mini. How about the $1100 iBook?
I’m an ITDirector at a major midwestern university and I can tell you time and time again the macs prove to have an overall lower TCO and support cost. Not to mention I can have less staff managing those systems proactively versus the constant firefighting with MWindows PCs. FYI–we support both platforms, but have been moving more and more to macs due to low hardware/support costs, performance and stability.
Hmm …merger … wouldn’t the fact that the two are entirely different code bases hurt some? They’d have to make a completely new OS, retrain all their programmers to be understand said new OS, and layer in a whole pile of backwards compatibility crap before it would work (you have to have the backwards compatibility … mby virtualization?, or it goes the way of Itanium on the desktop)
MacOS X, four versions and years after its introduction, still suffers excessively from the legacy of NeXTisms that have yet to be worked out of the system. Everything from selection of text to whether background clicks or click-holds select or are acted upon, as well as more common things like dragging and dropping are still very inconsistent. Merging Windows would compound that problem immensely, and would probably lead to an intersection, not a union, of the functionality.
The business community can’t see past their single-minded market ideology. This is why they come to absurd conclusions, like replacing the Mac OS with Windows. They value market share, stock prices, etc. In short, the profit potential of the product trumps its use, even if that potential was created through peculiarities of market-based economies. Dvorak is right. From a business perspective, Microsoft is the obvious choice, although this is changing. Notice how their opinion doesn’t switch until and unless the market shifts toward Apple. Mac fans value the inherent ease of use that translates into less frustration and more productivity.
I hope Apple never wins a dominant market share. If it does, it will be subject to the same pressures as Microsoft and inevitably succomb to that influence. It’s not about particular individuals or dynamic CEOs. All those engineers working at Apple and Jobs gets all the credit, as if he personally coded or designed any of it .
It’s about living in a market economy. At least as the hated underdog, Apple has more creative freedom.
Proud member of the cult of Mac.
Why are you guys blaming this on Dvorak? Dave Drews posted it and Brett Thomas wrote it. I’m guessing Dvorak might think it’s a dumb idea. I do.
I read Mr. Brett Thomas’s article.
He argues that a merger of Mac OSX and Windows would produce a OS superior to either alone. That is, by analogy, if one merged an eagle (OSX) with a horse (Windows) one would get a beautiful Pegasus (winged horse). I think, however, it is more likely that the outcome of the merger would be a ornery donkey with the wings of a dodo….. with the cost of a race horse to boot.
The argument is based on a failure to understand the situation. Once again Windows people don’t get it. There is a desire among Windows-users for the benefits of OSX but an unwillingness to dump Windows. Think different, be different, soar like an eagle.
A merger of this type ain’t gona happen!
Don’t waste your time on this idea/article.
I have two predictions:
Unfortunately, Microsoft will learn from Apple’s model: forget about the previous customers, just worry about new sales. This will eliminate their greatest strength: backward compatibility. However, sales should increase anyway, because what can the world do, stop upgrading or using computers in business? The “competition” will upgrade, have more abilities to do business, and then you’ll be out of business.
Unfortunately, Apple will learn from Microsoft: lie, cheat, steal, and stomp the competition. Let the lawyers sort it out. Apple currently has the kind of money from iPods to finance this business model, and Jobs is probably PO’d that other CEOs are doing better financially. While he’s a good marketter, Steve Jobs continues to be a half-assed businessman. He’ll make a good lap dog for Billy Boy, though.
End of predictions.
#6: My XP system works, and works with far more software than your Mac, including about 99% of the software the business world uses. Look around, the business world runs the global economy. Your Mac is really neat for loading up an iPod, running Photoshop, Quark, and a few other things my Windows system do as well. My XP system doesn’t crash, and doesn’t need rebooting. My 98 system did, just like your OS 9 system did. That’s called “past history”, get over it. Apple doesn’t want to ditch OSX for any reason other than to reduce OS development overhead, and increase sales by offering Windows XP. Enjoy your world, I’m sure it has a pretty rose color – just don’t count on transferring those Mac skills to a real job when you get out of school.
Everybody have a good weekend! 🙂
The author may be literate, but his understanding of how these OS’s work appears shaky at best. I wouldn’t ask him to troubleshoot my computer, let’s put it that way.
Anyway, the argument appears to be that Windows is extendable, while Mac is user-friendly. Computers are getting more powerful now, so both OS’s should be now able to be both extendable and user-friendly. So therefore there will be no substantial difference between the two systems and they should merge. Wow. Pure genius!
The thing is that computers have always been getting more powerful, so the argument is no more true now than it ever was (even if the premises weren’t so shaky in the first place). Also, I don’t see any benefit to a merger other that a brief bump in shareholder value.
Strong reasons against a merger would be things like Competition spurs better development, Pride in one’s own product, not wishing to alienate one’s user base, less diversification leads to targeting the lowest common denominator.
there is a BUY out in the future.
And neither side will have learned much.
I’m so glad your home computer is able to run all that business software. If I decide to turn my home into a business, I’ll remember that. Perhaps a good one to start would be an ANTI VIRUS company for PC users, since the leading ones seem to be as vulnerable as the machines they are supposed to be protecting. Eww, Windows, brrr.shudder….
“Unfortunately, Microsoft will learn from Apple’s model: forget about the previous customers, just worry about new sales. This will eliminate their greatest strength: backward compatibility”
And out of the ashes will come a better, more stable, more secure OS that M$ should have made years ago. I don’t see this as a bad thing. Backward compatibiltiy is the reason why windows has more holes then a piece of swiss cheese. The only people that will be upset over compatibility issues would be business, but if they fork over $500+ just for M$ Office, then I think they will get over it.
“Enjoy your world, I’m sure it has a pretty rose color – just don’t count on transferring those Mac skills to a real job when you get out of school.”
Heh. I use a Windows machine at work and a Mac at home for this reason. And I doubt I’d hire someone who ONLY knew Windows– if you’ve never peeked over the fence you’re probably not the type of person we hire. Anyway, the fact that you buy a Mac, plop it down and plug it in, and you can do all the home stuff you need to is reason enough for me to buy it for everyone from myself to my grandmother.
The day I feel comfortable giving a Windows machine to my grandmother, Apple will have probably lost something significant.
Doesn’t M$ already owns Apple stocks?
Macs run BSD Unix, with a non-standard window manager. No major story there. Unix occasionally dies with what’s known as a “panic screen.” It may well be true that this doesn’t happen often with Macs, but I do remember the “bomb” screen that would appear fairly regularly under the old MacOSes.
I won’t even pretend that Win9x OSes were particularly stable.
The crash screen for Windows NT and newer is the Blue Screen Of Death (BSOD). WinNT 4 would get them all the time, though it was much stabler thn Win9x. I ran Win 2000 at my former job for three years without seeing a BSOD. The only time I’ve seen BSOD on my XP Home system is once when, as an experiment, I installed two pieces of hardware (two WiFi cards) that competed for the same system resources, and got a BSOD. Removing one of the cards brought the system back to stability.
gquaglia–you’re right, Windows would probably be even more stable if it didn’t have to support DOS apps and 16 bit apps. However, I work at a place that runs 16 bit Windows apps successfully, along with 32 bit apps, under XP Pro. They would not buy new PCs if (for instance) Vista no longer supported those 16 bit apps.
The O/S fanheads are beginning to sound like Muslim/Christians forming up for their own little goofy Armegeddon (sic; who cares?). What the world really needs is a stable, one size fits all and can do anything generic O/S. I started with Windows because I couldn’t afford a Mac, and hell, it just works. I build my personal computers, and what I like about the wintel thing is you can do a major upgrade in a couple of hours, load everything back up and be running at lightspeed before Southpark comes on. And since I tossed ME for XP I haven’t experienced anything like the BSOD, and that’s running two high end video cards (two monitors), sound card, recording software and a bunch of other stuff that probably could choke a goat but works ok on my wintel, even though the case itself is over five years old.
They tell me that a Mac can do all I do right out of the box, but when I price the damned things I leave’em right there, in the box. And I seriously doubt a mac mini can record thirty-two tracks of Acidized and data rich tracks.
Thing is, there is no “better” computer, it’s what works best for the individual. I personally don’t think I’d be completely happy with something that did anything and/or everything straight out of the box, as at the bottom of my Zen lake I feel the machine isn’t really mine until I’ve cussed it with some real nasty, original cuss words.
Until it was mentioned here, I don’t think I’ve seen the Blue Screen of Death on this computer since I put XP Pro on it three + years ago, except for one time when I picked up a virus. My wife’s, running XP Home, and the Kid, with ME, get it occasionally. I keep meaning to switch over to Linux, but just haven’t gotten around to it.
I still think Apple will end up spinning off it’s computer division to Google within the next 12-18 months. Apple will get a piece of Google and Google will try to meet M$ head on. If Google can’t get Apple’s computer division, then they just might come out with their own version of Linux, much more user friendly then current iterations.
I have a dual-boot MacBook Pro and I am looking forward to virtualization. I have been a UNIX user since the inception of UNIX and the Mac it the best desktop implementation of it. I like Solaris for servers. I have never liked the look-and-feel of Windows, but I have not used Windows much until now. Having used Windows out of necessity for two programs, I simply don’t understand how people can stand it. The file system is terrible and not intuitive, the mouse is not stable, text is ugly, the interface if not sensible, etc. It is worse than I imagined. My main programs are LaTeX and R and I program in Java as well as R. If a Windows advocate has truly learned UNIX and the Mac OS X and has been in these systems for months, just as I have been in Windows for months, I will be more inclined to their criticisms of UNIX and OS X. If OS X would merge with Windows, which I know will not happen, but if it would, then hello Linux.
No merge required. Microsoft doesn’t make any money with Windows anyway. They do have a fairly good office suite that keeps them in business though. M$ should just drop Windows altogether and concentrate on supporting Apple’s steller OS. No need to spend all that money on trying to copy Steve Jobs’ every move. And Apple can concentrate on making the platform more stable and secure. The only thing it would hurt is the overcrowded PC (personal crapmachine) vendors who would just adopt Linux or something.
“Microsoft doesn’t make any money with Windows anyway.”
Oh yeah, 80% profit margins on Windows is nothing! Sure, Microsoft makes a little more on Office, which has 85% margins, but to say that Windows creates no profit is beyond idiotic!
Why merge all the problems with Windows into Mac OS X. Most of Windows will have to be dumped – viruses included.
It is far easier to run Mac OS X as the host OS. Windows can then be run in a virtual machine window. If it crashes, then it won’t take the whole machine down. If viruses occur, they won’t infect the Mac OS X host. Voila! Peace at last!