POll - WIll the mac OS run on PCs?

maccor · 21-11-2005 2:35pm #1

Do you think the Mac OS will commercially run on PCs?

(By commercially I mean being promoted and supported by Apple as an OS which will work on an intel PC. I dont mean a hacked copy of OSX that runs on a PC.)

zAbbo · 21-11-2005 2:48pm

Rather strange poll, have you missed all the news about apple working on x86 ?

maccor · 21-11-2005 3:47pm

personally I think it'll be even stranger if apple release a version of OSX for intel PCs.

Theres a lot of guessing going on at the minute, plus theres many pc users who think they've struck lucky with OSX on an intel machine. whereas I dont doubt in anyway that OSX runs just fine on an intel PC (theres a How To at http://www.uneasysilence.com/archive/2005/08/3937/ ), I just dont think apple will shoot themselves in the foot by officially releasing such an OS. they're going to use intel to make chips for their machine - they didnt actually say they were making a windows version of OSX

The only thing you can be sure of with Apple is that you dont know what they plan to do, as Im sure many round here will find out.

halenger · 21-11-2005 4:10pm

I'm not sure you're aware of this but they did this for a few years. Have a look around for "Mac Clones". There was talk of it lately too but that was quashed as far as I remember.

When Steve Jobs came back to Apple if was one of the first projects he nuked. It was losing them money and even costing them in a bigger way. They make their money on the hardware, not on OS-X, and with people buying the OS from other manufacturers it didn't work out well...

That said, if they bring it out I'll be buying it.

maccor · 21-11-2005 4:12pm

ha - remember it? i almost bought one at the time. Thats exactly why I dont think apple will rush to repeat the same mistake, this time on the software front - as though they dont make money from OS X, if you're running it from your PC, then you wont be buying apple hardware.

HomunQlus · 21-11-2005 5:42pm

Well... it is already running on Intel hardware, in case you missed the news. In the future, Apple will be selling Intel based Macs, PCs if you will. However, Apple said that their OS X runs on Intel based Macs, but not on normal PCs. The OS is looking for a certain chip in the machine.

This is already bypassed by experts. There are certain images out there, that allow you to run Mac OS X Tiger on a normal PC today. It is illegal for me to tell you what the name of the image is and what to look for.

Fans of this project call it "Mac OS X86".

Intel Macs are supposed to be out from 2007.

Wired: Mac Hacks Allow OS X on PCs

OSx86 Project

maccor · 21-11-2005 8:06pm

well in case you missed it,. theres a link on how to hack OSX for the pC in a post above ... you are completely missing the point though in all reality.

You are telling me that OSX will be released for windows in 2007 or are you saying intel chipped macs will be available in 2007? if you say the first, I'll bet you are wrong. The second will be more correct.

Is this place made up of windows users by any chance? There seems to be many wishing that apple will release osx for windows commercially. My gut feeling is that you'll have to stick to the backdoor hacked versions as apple wont be releasing a non-mac version of OSX> they will have chipsets designed by intel specifically for the mac. I'll bookmark this so I can go 'na naa na naa naa' in 2 years time.

Also, whats the point of a few screenshots. Plus have you tried the x86 version yet? is it as stable, or as fast as the mac/unix version?

Ham'nd'egger · 21-11-2005 9:38pm

Excuse my ignorance, maccor, but I think Homun is telling you what everyone else is, and it is shockingly simple to take in; Apple will use Intel chips in the near future on Apple computer. It is kind of like the way a Powerbook has a different CPU to say, a new Tower, it is nothing to do with operation systems or anything like that. Nothing more nothing less.

And before you say "But they have OSX or whatever running on a Dell, Gateway etc etc in a coal bunker in Steve Jobs pad, we all know that has ben going on for ages; hell I knew about that before I got my first Mac 2 years back. That's called research, man. Same way they get Beagles to smoke Johnny Blues and cats to wear lipstick. Just because it's done in a lab doesn't make it the done thing, does it? Besides, think about this one... if they issue Tiger etc for Windows, two totally different operating systems, two lots of software (Like your WMP, iTunes, Word, and that) to configure and allow for, and different pressures on your computer. Asks a lot of a computer, doesn't it?

maccor · 22-11-2005 11:02am

I was asking if people think OS X will be released for the PC or not. We already know that apple are switiching to Intel for the chips, but i get the feeling many people also think that means there'll be OS x for the PC - which is a different thing altogether.

I'm amazed at how confusing that seems to be as both yourself and HomunQlus dont seem to have understood the question I m putting forward.

maccor · 22-11-2005 11:03am

one thing though - tiger on windows? thats an operating system within an operating system. why would anyone do that?

HomunQlus · 22-11-2005 3:28pm

Mac OS X will not be sold as a stand-alone version for normal PCs. If Apple did that, I think Mac sales would be going down, people would only buy the system. but then again, it couldn't be called "Mac OS" anymore.

The system was designed only to run on machine that Apple develops. It would be very foolish to sell OS X for normal PCs.

These hacks that are out there, are really just hacks, done by some people who wanted to proove that it can be done...

However, Apple does not pursue the intentions of selling OS X for PCs alone, that will never happen I think.

What you said before, about operating system in operating system:
There's a lot of software out there, that allows you to run multiple systems at the same time. The most famous one is VMWare. This is quite effective and interesting for companies.

You can run OS X on PCs with PearPC, which is free software. However, the big downer is, that it's very very very slow in the moment, as an emulation from PC to PowerPC is done.

Hugh_C · 23-11-2005 11:00am

HomunQlus wrote:

Do you think the Mac OS will commercially run on PCs?

and...

Mac OS X will not be sold as a stand-alone version for normal PCs. If Apple did that, I think Mac sales would be going down, people would only buy the system.

I think you answered your own question there dude. And just as a point of clarification - the intel iBooks and possibly PowerBooks will be out probably Janurary 2006 at MWSF, and end of 2nd quarter 2006 at the latest.

I read somewhere about a method of writing something into the system which will cause the windoze hacks to break at every minor upgrade, so in other words it'd be a complete pain in the ass to run on a non-approved machine.

hc

Dr_Teeth · 23-11-2005 11:20am

A Mac with an intel chip in it is NOT a PC. Jeez..

They will never support MacOS on a PC, it would be a complete nightmare for Apple.

HomunQlus · 23-11-2005 11:48am

Aha...

Well, everything with an x86 processor inside, is, in the end, a PC.

The Intel Macs actually can run Windows XP without any problems on the Apple Developer Kits (Intel Macs).

And as far as I know, Windows XP runs only on PCs.

SouperComputer · 23-11-2005 12:48pm

oh sweet lamb of jeasus, lets not get into the discussion of what constitutes a PC!

I think its unlikely Apple will release MAC OS for non-Mac hardware in the next three years. If they do, it will be a hardware-limited platform, which might work well actually.

Im pretty sure its not on the horizon for Jobs TBH.

Dr_Teeth · 23-11-2005 5:33pm

HomunQlus wrote:

Aha...

Well, everything with an x86 processor inside, is, in the end, a PC.

The Intel Macs actually can run Windows XP without any problems on the Apple Developer Kits (Intel Macs).

And as far as I know, Windows XP runs only on PCs.

The Developer Kits aren't Macs, they are bog-standard PCs - they even have BIOSes! ewww.. these machines are hacks made by Apple to get MacOS for Intel into developers hands as quickly as possible.

Apple have insisted that all the kits will have to be handed back to them to be destroyed once the Intel Macs are available. They do *not* want these machines in wild for any longer than is strictly necessary because they are cludges.

When Apple release Macs with intel chips they will not be able to run Windows as the motherboards/firmware etc will be completely different.

Neither will MacOS for Intel be able to run on standard PCs out of the box - it will require some messing around that I'm sure lots of nerds will be happy to do but which Apple will never condone or support.

Laguna · 26-11-2005 5:53am

I wouldn't be surprised if Apple released a future version of their OS that will install on a PC or MAC, as for the person who said it would be a nightmare for them, does Linux not install on most computers irrespective of its hardware differences?.

It makes perfect sense for them to do it anyway, they are a corporation after all and the key goal in any corporation is to expand your market share, something which is severely impaired if their software is limited to Mac users only.

HomunQlus · 26-11-2005 2:57pm

"Leopard" 10.5 will be for Intel Macs as well as for PowerPC - if it's that what you meant... Possible is this with so-called Universal Binaries that run on both architectures.

Linux basically runs on anything, but the Kernel architecture has to be built for the desired architecture. Today, most distributions are for x86, some major distris also provide support for other archs, like PowerPC, Sparc and so on.

Dr_Teeth · 26-11-2005 4:28pm

Laguna wrote:

I wouldn't be surprised if Apple released a future version of their OS that will install on a PC or MAC, as for the person who said it would be a nightmare for them, does Linux not install on most computers irrespective of its hardware differences?.

*Technically* there is no problem - like I said the computer geeks will get it working on PCs with or without Apple. The nightmare is Apple trying to provide commerical support for all the myriad PCs out there that they didn't build. They will not do this.

rsynnott · 26-11-2005 11:54pm

maccor wrote:

You are telling me that OSX will be released for windows in 2007 or are you saying intel chipped macs will be available in 2007? if you say the first, I'll bet you are wrong. The second will be more correct.

Er, you know MacOS X is an operating system, right, as is Windows? I think people are asking will it be available for non-Apple manufactured x86 machines. The answer is, of course, at least officially, no, as Apple have made very clear.

It would be quite damaging for Apple to let it run on random x86s; there would then be little incentive to buy Apples (at least not the desktops).

Although everything with an x86 is certainly NOT a PC, the devkits for the x86 Apples are PCs, and there's no particular reason to think that the final product will not be, especially as Apple have said that it will be able to run Windows.

Dr_Teeth · 28-11-2005 3:23pm

rsynnott wrote:

Although everything with an x86 is certainly NOT a PC, the devkits for the x86 Apples are PCs, and there's no particular reason to think that the final product will not be, especially as Apple have said that it will be able to run Windows.

Can you provide a source for this? I cannot imagine Apple would ever sell someone hardware and then support its use with Windows.

POll - WIll the mac OS run on PCs?

Will the Mac OS run on PCs in the future? 6 votes

Comments