Posted on 04/12/2008 2:04:10 AM PDT by Swordmaker
A recent upgrade to the Mac operating system moves Apple closer to challenging Microsoft for overall computing dominance, even in the corporate market
The 20-year death grip that Microsoft has held on the core of computing is finally weakening—pried loose with just two fingers. With one finger you press "Control" and with the other you press "right arrow." Instantly you switch from a Macintosh operating system (OS) to a Microsoft Windows OS. Then, with another two-finger press, you switch back again. So as you edit family pictures, you might use Mac's iPhoto. And when you want to access your corporate e-mail, you can switch back instantly to Microsoft Exchange.
This easy toggling on an Apple computer, enabled by a feature called Spaces, was but an interesting side note to last fall's upgrade of the Mac OS. But coupled with other recent developments, the stars are aligning in a very intriguing pattern. Apple's (AAPL) recent release of a tool kit for programmers to write applications for the iPhone will be followed by the June launch of iPhone 2.0, a software upgrade geared toward business users.
Taken together, these seemingly unrelated moves are taking the outline of a full-fledged strategy. Windows users, in the very near future, will be free to switch to Apple computers and mobile devices, drawn by a widening array of Mac software, without suffering the pain of giving up critical Windows-based applications right away. The easy virtualization of two radically different operating systems on a single desktop paves a classic migration path. Business users will be tempted. Apple is positioning itself to challenge Microsoft for overall computing dominance—even in the corporate realm.
(Excerpt) Read more at businessweek.com ...
Wrong lawsuit, Discostu. The Look and Feel suit was still being appealed but the lawsuit that was settled for the $150 million was the Quicktime - Video for Windows lawsuit where Microsoft and Intel had lifted code from Apple's Quicktime and not filed the serial numbers off... if it had gone to trial, it would have been worth billions... and Apple had the goods on Microsoft; Apple's proprietary and patented code was in what would become Windows Media Player.
They were caught with their fingers in the cookie jar, stealing proprietary intellectual property, something that was not new with them. The purchase of the stock was NOT to bail out Apple... it was to settle a lawsuit that would have cost them billions... and probably would have required them to disclose proprietary secrets of their own.
By establishing the myth that they were merely bailing Apple out, who didn't need bailing out at that time, they make themselves look better... and spread FUD about Apple at the same time. Why do you think this false story is repeated over and over again despite the facts being easily determined?
To this day you see reports that "Microsoft bought 10% of Apple" and that "Bill Gates owns Apple" and that "Apple was about to declare bankruptcy when MS saved them." I have posted the facts numerous times WITH SOURCES on FreeRepublic and still it comes up. It's a MYTH, Discostu!
Why do you think they were threatening to pull off the platform? They were using it to attempt to force Apple into dropping the suit because they were losing. Instead the threat got them into a settlement negotiation in which they essentially gave Apple everything in exchange for what? Apple's agreement to put Internet Explorer on Macs... a free browser? Microsoft was taken to the cleaners in this negotiation because THEY wanted the lawsuit they were losing over and done with.
Was that the one with the thumb trackball? I loved mine... and in fact found a USB version that I still use... going on seven years now.
“Oh, that’s rich. There is not a single company out there with worse support for Windows users than Parallels. The rage among Windows-host customers who’ve plunked down their “bargain” $49 for the buggy, virtually unmaintained 2006 piece of utter garbage that is Parallels Workstation 2.2 is unmatched in the entire PC marketplace.”
Well sounds like MSFT software - perfect fit. LOL
Seriously, I think you miss my point. Parallels is a great way to run windows apps on a Unix kernel. I do it every day. With this version of Parallels MSFT could offer backwards compatibility for “legacy” (XP) apps.
“Mainframes were not a special issue for OS/2, “
Not true, some technical issues but many more politically. I have had a lot of direct experience with IBM field reps poo-poo-ing OS/2. We needed a small database server at a large bank and the entire IBM team and some sent in from HQ dissuaded us. We got a Sun. Ran ORCL which actually had much better DB2/DB2 integration!!! Worked great. This was ORCL 6.32 the most solid ORCL ever.
This was part of IBM’s attempt to moat CICS and kill C/S computing.
That’s anecdotal...besides, all new systems have *some* issues at integration. And all new systems will have a few places where they either can’t be made to work, or will create an obvious opportunity for a good competitor to step in and fix it with their stuff.
All I am saying is that mainframe integration was absolutely *not* the core problem that doomed OS/2. They had Communication Manager/2 (a high performance SNA stack) and DB2/2 (a horribly named OS/2 version of DB2) and a “host” (hahaha) of other mainframe era apps ported to OS/2 and keeping a high percentage of their big iron customers (like Ford, Fireman’s Fund, and others) happy from the beginning.
What doomed OS/2 was the absolutely retarded decision to design it for the 286 processor using the 286’s “protected mode” for OS/2 and then resetting the processor into real mode on the fly to run legacy programs in the single “Dos box.”
Then what followed during the divorce from Microsoft were a cascade of retarded decisions made by really bad IBM management.
I have Parallels and VMWare on my Macs had have used both (in production and test) a lot.
Observations. All of the windows apps I have tried have better or equivalent Mac OS products - to my tastes. Both Paralllels and VMWare work very well with a few exceptions (USB support is not perfect.)
The only reason, besides curiosity, I keep them on my Macs and the most legitimate complaint widows users have, or should have, about Mac inferiority is the real nasty truth that many, many websites use special IE features and plugins.
Far to often, in order to do my job, and even to keep my farm running, I have to fire up IE in windows.
I’d say the proliferation of Windows only websites is AAPL’s soft underbelly and I have had conversations with senior AAPL officials and they really don’t give a crap - frustrating.
Spktyr did it with a link.
All is every Mac head on every Mad thread.
I never said Bill owned Apple, I never said MS owned 10%, I said they gave them a bunch of money, which they did. There is no myth there. Try not to ass-u-me, stick with what I said not what you wish I said.
Let’s understand how MS was “taken to the cleaners” here:
After the suit they continued to sell their $150 product to 8 million paying customers (1.2 BILLION dollars worth of revenue if everybody bought 1 copy)
They got their browser as the default on Macs during the height of the browser wars, and remember Netscape was ahead in 97
And they got all that stock they later sold at a profit
You call that being taken to the cleaner?! They made at least 10 to 1 profit on that settlement possibly as much as 15 to 1, if that’s being taken to the cleaner where do I sign up.
I was at Common in Nashville last week and all the old IBM internal political BS was on display.
The WASCE is a great product but the boys in Rochester cannot leave well enough alone and are doing a whole new server!!
They renamed the AS/400 - or what ever you refer to it - to just simply “i”!!! Great concept in a “google” world. NOT.
Finally are charging the same price for identical server components that they charge to users of AIX.
There is a major war over dev tools and software server products. Rational seems to be winning the wars taking over what looks like all development products and websphere “family” is secure. But Notes family and eclipse look threatened. Missing was a good RAD tool.
“
That’s anecdotal”
Not just anecdotal. There is and was tremendous infighting at IBM. I was at Santa Teresa and Toronto and Hursely. This was WAR.
Have you ever seen FRED? Do you know what it is?
Oh man I know there is always tremendous infighting at IBM. I was there in RTP working on CM/2 and supporting base devel in Austin and Boca.
But all I am saying is that there were fundamental architectural mistakes made with OS/2 that underpin the normal “how on Earth does this company ever make money” stories that one can always say about IBM.
Ah, I never saw the architectural problems except the problems with database integration, support and common APIs between the various databases which ORCL and others (SY) had mastered many years before.
What I saw was all the political nonsense that forced OS/2 to a subservient role in the family. There were very, very powerful people in IBM that treated it like a virus.
I caused a furor when somebody leaked me a copy of FRED and I shared it with a few people. IBM was livid and tried hard to get me fired. I was doing mostly database work and was rather agnostic - except ORCL 6.0.32 was a killer product.
I still keep very close tabs on the database world. But not the focus anymore. I’m much more interested in the business and investing aspects and doing a lot of work in open source. Another very, very contentious area for IBM.
No, it appears they are indeed, all logging in as Admin, and the password for that account is the same on every machine.
Actually, for programmers, it WAS 64K. You had to deal with the way the Intel 808x (and later the 80286 and 80386) dealt with memory in 64KB segments. It was a huge pain. If you wanted to deal with data structures larger than 64KB, it was a major hassle for those of us doing intensive searches in DBMS programming (in C and assembler).
Mark
Wow. They found the one possible solution that is even worth than AD. They should be congratulated.
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