Technics: Apple: Steve Jobs eases way for Intel-chip Macs to run competitor's Windows XP operating system

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This blog-entry for Apr4,2k6 was moved from Page 3 to new refWrite ...page 4 (Backpage), Jun19,2k6
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The news today out of Cupertino, California, has Apple Computers stock rising 6 points in value on the stock market, I gather. It's all due to Apple's switch a little while back to an Intel-chip for its new Mac computers, especially its laptops (I've never owned a laptop, and just may not get Intel-chipped for some time yet. But the sudden availability of the latest Mac machines running on IBM's faster, smaller superchips has raised the question whether the Steve-Jobs company will switch from its OSX operating systems (Jaguar, Panther, and the most recent Tiger) to something more Windows-like. The Windows operating system is put out by computer-industry leader MicroSoft, which renders both the Mac and other Unix-based systems like Linux and other OpenSource systems rather marginal as to total units sold by the industry as a whole. Total units sold = revenues accrued.

refWrite's TechNotes by Owlie Scowlie:

As I told my uncle Owlb the other day, Apple should not be so t+t about its new computers being able only to run Mac operating systems; it should instead use the Intel-chip to run the latest largest-selling MS Windows systems on the latest Mac computers. Well, Unc asked me to write up my thawts for the new backpage. In the meantime, of course, I got scooped by computer tech press–namely, ABC News' Money section which headlines "Apple launches software to run Windows XP" today.

But there's more than just the outr+t economic angle to this story. Constrained by the MicroSoft industry-leadership in personal computers, Apple claims it will not go back on its proprietary policy by Window-izing the Apple operating system now that it is using Intel-chips. But, claims the Jobs company, the demand has come knocking at its door for a Mac machine with Intel-chips that will run Windows instead of any of the native cat-OSs. Apple's come up with a way to keep its proprietary bias toward its Jaguars, Panthers, and Tigers by .... by .... by putting out a disk that will make the installation of the Windows operating system easier and apparently capable of being used in the same Mac machines as the native systems. It seems you get your make with, let's say, its pre-installed Tiger OSX, then you run the disk for installing the MicroSoft Windows opsys; and then whenever you boot up, you simply choose which of the two you want to work with during that session on screen. Something like the choice you had between booting up the Classical Mac opsys or the first of the cat opsyses, Jaguar OSX 1-2).

The draw of the Windows XP operating system for personal-computer consumers is that its market is so huge that developers of third-party apps have created a superabundance from which Windows XP users can choose. Some Mac users, in the past, have looked with envy on some of these apps and features of Windows XP, but settled for Mac beause of several distinctive qualities of both the Mac line of personal computers, its graphics, its iTunes and iPod relation, and more. But too many would-be Mac-users stayed with MicroSoft because of the Windows XP and the vast array of dainty to massive apps, more being developed all the time by third-party developer-entrepreneurs.

As for me and my house (Unc Owlb), we will stick with Mac and see what else comes down the line, mindful that if we upgrade from Panther (OSX 3.9) to Tiger (OSX 4.?) with the Intel-chippies, we can use the new disk and co-install Windows XP. Wouldn't that be loverly?...loverly....in the meantime, I'd be happy if Apple would improve both its Safari browser which doesn't compete well with Firefox 1.5, and improve its DotMac annual subscription features which again have valuable distinctives, but just don't compare with other independents like its website facility (via online storage faclity iDisk) called Homepage. Homepage is downr+t clunky, brittle, and impoverished.

But that's another story, and Unc Owlb has asked me to wr+t that up too. (I guess by now you can see that I've adopted Unc's NuSpell for the letter "i" when pronounced as "eye," in order to get rid of as many as possible "igh" spellings that clutter the English language. I keep telling Unc Owlb that he should put out in a computer font version the canonical Owlbirdbet he developed twenty years ago, but I don't think he's heard me on this one, yet.) - Owlie Scowlie

PS: Here's a late find on the Apple site: Boot Camp Public Beta. "Mac's do Windows, too."
And another one with danger alerts: Windows XP on Mac, "requirements, installation, frequently asked questions," just so you do't mess up.

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• technics
• computers
• operatingsystems
• apple
• osx
• opsys
• microsoft
• windowsxp
• intelchip