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First Windows emulation, then the world! |
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 This was originally posted over at MacMischief while 2 Guys was down due to a power outage from a wonderful ice storm we had here in Ohio. We figure what the heck, post it here too.....
And 'lo the Headless Mac rode forth on it's fiery steed, frightening the Mac populace while at the same time making them wonder, wielding it's pumpkin head in it's hand...
Ok this has really got to stop. Whether the thinMac rumors are true or not, it's too hard to speculate on what sort of hardware Steve will bring forth on the day of his Keynote speech. At least if what I have written shortly before the past two keynotes is any indication. MacBidouille seems to do a better job of getting the concrete info on what is very likely to appear and which Apple products are sorely in need of an update (i.e. eMacs and PowerBooks).
But what about software? We know Steve is gonna talk about OS X 10.4 Tiger at least for a few seconds, right? Most likely he'll go over features of the kickass new OS and give us a target date that we can actually use it (finally, geez).
Plus there's ThinkSecret's report on iWork, which is said to include an application called Pages (formerly document) and possibly a suite of other Office-like applications as well. (We should note here that the iWork name has been cleared for use by Apple because the Software Formerly Known as iWork® is know called iBiz - see MacDailyNews for more info on this)
With iWork, Apple would be smashing down yet another barrier for people that might want to switch to a Mac. Now, we know that Microsoft Office doesn't come free with every PC, but there's a perception that Macs don't do the same thing that PC's do - and bundling iWork with every Mac would go a long way to wooing the Windows users into the wild and wooly world of the wonderful Macintosh. (Sorry, I got stuck in an alliteration and just had to go with it.)
Anyhow, as we've stated on this site several times, people are getting fed up with spyware and viruses, and many are ready to jump ship to the Mac. Apple has positioned themselves very nicely what with the highly visible retail stores, fantastic hardware, all the great features and usability of OS X, and the rest of those many reasons we use Macs. But one of the questions we've also asked is "why isn't Apple marketing OS X?" OS X has Windows beaten hands down in so many ways - so why don't they go for the jugular and have a wave of ads espousing it's great features?
Well I've thought for a long time that they're just not ready to yet. Apple is getting all it's ducks in a row before (probably) pissing off the Redmond behemoth. Apple has been beholden to Microsoft because of Office for some time now, but with iWork, users would not only have an alternative, but Apple could be free to market the proverbial horse turds out of OS X. I mean yeah, Microsoft and Apple keep claiming to be buddies, but how long would that last if/when Apple had ads all over TV, like say, during the Super Bowl, about how much better/easier/faster/virus-free OS X is than Windows?
But even if iWork is real, there would be one big hitch left. In my experience, many Windows users would switch in a heartbeat if only they could run that one application they need for work/school/home office/you-name-it on a Mac. Most of the time there's a real OS X-native alternative to whatever app, but sometimes there's not. Even if there is an alternative on the Mac side, some people don't want to change - they're used to the old way of doing things, they know how it works, etc. Or, in the case of some of my family who are in the realty biz, there is NO alternative to the software they use get listings for houses, and using Virtual PC just isn't an option (it's too slow and problematic).
Well what if Apple could build an emulator into it's OS?
Think like Classic mode, where the Windows emulation layer would run in the background, not giving you the ability to actually -run- Windows, just to run Windows apps in your OS X environment.
Now unfortunately, Microsoft - not Apple - bought Connectix, the company that makes Virtual PC, and that sort of software would take forever and a day for Apple's engineers to write, but all we have to do is reach back to September, pluck a rumor from the ether, and speculate!
Check it out - MacOS Rumors talked about Transitive, a company that "claims they can get about 80% of native performance, translating between x86 and PowerPC virtually across the board for any task you throw at them."
To throw another quote at ya, MOSR says:
There appear to be some elements of this story that many sources believe "haven't come out yet"; this may be something as subtle as the way Apple integrates Transitive's engine into Mac OS X (possibly as soon as Tiger).
Transitive mentions on their home page that they've signed agreements with six different OEMs (that's a fancy name for "computer company") - one of which could be Apple.
Built-in Windows emulation would be that last hurdle for Apple to jump in order to start their full-boar marketing campaign and take on Microsoft head-on. Will it happen this year, with Tiger? We have less than a week left to find out.
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January 10 2005, 11:36 AM EDT, by
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Comments:
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| iBong |
1/11/05, 1:54 PM EDT |
I'm glad to see that the Guys are back in Business!
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| mactheplanet |
1/11/05, 8:08 PM EDT |
Well, theres a lot of hype going around, the questions is whats going to happen, and whats not. Steve Jobs is not a man of consistency, Apple has had endeavors that have failed horribly and others that have blown the computing world away...who knows what Steve is going reveal, he loves change...so I think were going to see some of it, one way or another.
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Too bad Lassie didn't know how to ice skate, because then if she was in Holland on vacation in winter and someone said "Lassie, go skate for help," she could do it.
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