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Re: Can Quix save Apple?
Clifford T. Matthews <ctm@ardi.com> wrote:
>MacOS on PC hardware could run very fast via dynamic recompilation*
>and could run blazingly fast if compiler tools were available** to
>allow CPU intensive routines to be compiled into 80x86 code by the
>software author.
[snip]
>What we have done is *much* more difficult than what QUIX has done,
>and infinitely more useful if Apple ever wants to reward their
>software developers and potentially take on Microsoft on Intel based
>PC hardware.
What ARDI has done is comendable, technically. *However*, from a marketing
standpoint, the day Apple decides to pull a 'NeXT' is the day it shrinks
from an $11 billion corp to Claris' Windows cubicals. Why? Guesses:
a) most developers will drop the Mac versions. In a major platform switch
such as this (PPC ** 2), there are going to be plenty of problems. Who's
going to want to put in the effort when their existing Win products
already run on the h/w? If DOS/Win only shops don't port to Mac now, why
will they bother w/ Mac/Intel where they're still going to have to use new
tools and libraries?
Sierra Hotel dynamic compilation or no, ARDI isn't going to pull Apple out
of that fire. MacOS apps would get killed in product review benchmarks
until they went native...if they ever got the chance.
Sure, developers bitch about having to ass-kiss MS...but who wants to risk
getting cut off from MS tech support when they really tried to do
something about it?
b) most customers won't make the switch. New customers will go with the
known quantity. The existing base won't like getting orphaned. Apple won't
be in the driver's seat for hardware changes anymore, and who knows how
well they'll do getting drivers written or support existing drivers for
all that crap out there?
c) most sales people in the channel are married to DOS/Windows. They steer
the customers away from the Mac now. It'll be even easier when they can
point out that Apple doesn't control h/w anymore, and after all, Bill
really runs things in *this* town.
d) the trade media will hang Apple out to dry. Consider the bad press
Apple gets now as a healthy vertical semi-monopoly. The Doubt, Fear, and
Confusion factor will skyrocket. Consider their sales departments. Who's
going to take an at least *perceived* risk pissing off MS by going out on
a limb for Apple? Spare me the platitudes, this is real business.
e) will the oems cooperate? It's pretty clear that MS has beat the rap
regarding trade practices, and I seriously doubt that Justice is going to
jump back into it. Apple would be virtually forced to get back into box
production...now w/ 'Intel Inside'.
Obviously, in a PPC to Intel platform switch, a transition period would be
necessary. However, the moment the market caught wind that there *was* a
transition, the existing merchandise would rot on the docks...Osborne all
over again.
>Intel is not the enemy.
The company? This much, at least, may be true. Whatever gets their iron
out the door.
Any real effort by Apple to go h/w compatible would kill the company w/in
a year, end of story.
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