Re: Apple's ways

[supertimer@aol.com (Supertimer)]

wbdesnoy@acs5.acs.ucalgary.ca (Byron Desnoyers Winmill) wrote:

>Supertimer (supertimer@aol.com) wrote:
>: If AMD bought Motorola's chip division, it could be the set-up for Apple's
>: transition to x86.  If IBM did, then the PowerPC chip may have a future.
>: IBM would certainly be more likely to preserve the chip as is but AMD might
>: be better for the future of the Mac.
>
>From what I have heard AMD doesn't want the PowerPC, and would probably kill
it
>on day one.  They want Moto's production facilities.

Why would they want to kill the PowerPC?  AMD wants personal
computer manufacturing partners more than anything else.
Resistance to AMD is why we don't see Dell Athlons and why
IBM stopped using these chips.  Unless it was completely dumb,
AMD would welcome the opportunity to be Apple's sole chip
provider.  No doubt they would rather be able to sell Apple the
Athlon instead, but it won't do this without giving Apple the
chance to adapt.  I don't think you fully realize that AMD is not
Intel.  It can't afford to do things just for pure ideology.  Instead,
it has to make sound financial decisions to survive.  AMD
already has the capacity to make all the Athlons and Durons it
can sell.  If it buys Motorola's chip division, it will be looking to
the future.

>As for shifting the Mac to iAPx86, I still don't think you understand: nobody
>is going to leave Windows for OS X.  NOBODY.

We are talking about AMD here, not a PC maker.  AMD could
care less if its chip went into a Mac or a PC.  What I mean by
x86 MacOS is an Apple made computer built around an Athlon
CPU with Apple hardware and Apple ROMs.  The x86 MacOS
we are talking about won't run on any hardware but Apple's.

Motorola or AMD, it doesn't matter.  G4 or Athlon it doesn't
matter.  That's why I mention PowerPC based IBM computers.
They exist.  My company has one and I've seen it.  But it is
not a Mac and doesn't run MacOS.  Similarly, if Apple
switched to the faster x86 processors like the Athlon, it
would not cease being Apple and NOBODY is leaving a
Windows platform for OS X.  It would be OS X moving to a
new processor but still Apple's platform.

By the way, if Apple DID release a MacOS X that ran on
any x86 computer, not just Apple's proprietary hardware, I'd
buy it.  Not to switch from Windows but to add to it.  If
MacOS then gained enough following to result in greater
numbers of software being developed, I'd make the switch.