“Steve Jobs’ announcement Monday will be analyzed to death by the likes of me and every technology watcher and blogger out there. Most of the analysis will focus on the future of Apple and whether this Intel decision is a benefit or a disaster,” John C. Dvorak writes for MarketWatch. “I’m on the side of benefit as Apple can now champion its design and aesthetic strategies in the world of Intel and allow people who prefer the Windows OS to actually buy a Macintosh for its design and run Windows on it. Nobody in the Mac community would suspect this, of course, but it is one of many foreseeable but unintended consequences of this announcement.”
“The most important consequence, however, will not emerge immediately, but its impact may be formidable. It’s quite possible that this new Apple strategy while obviously harmful to the computer makers in general and to Microsoft somewhat could actually be most dangerous to the emerging Linux OS environment. In fact it could kill Linux and in some ways actually benefit Microsoft in the long term,” Dvorak writes.
MacDailyNews Note: Dvorak never actually explains how Microsoft would benefit in the long term and, in fact, contradicts himself as he concludes his article.
Dvorak concludes, “Microsoft will be affected because of this new competitor and the possibility that people will more readily switch to the Mac. But it seems that Linux has the most to lose. Linux was the only X86 alternative to Microsoft and now it has both Bill Gates and Steve Jobs to contend with — two ‘last man standing” types. I think Red Hat and all the other Linux distributors have a problem.”
Full article here.
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I use both OSX and Windows, but given equal, or near equal access, I would never use Windows except when the application requires it.
That is the bottom line, and when people find out that they may be able to do it, Microsoft had better be very concerned.
It will not happen overnight, but maybe faster than we think.
but….Linux… is… free…
One of the main differences between Linux and Apple is that Linux runs on damn near anything. Linux doesn’t suddenly dictate a change in hardware like Apple just did. Apple more than anything bolstered Linux by up & switching hardware platforms at considerable expense to businesses.
While you all have your wallets out buying new hardware next year, Linux will keep cruising right along.
dennis:
don’t get me wrong. I like Linux and i’ve been using for more than 6 years. but KDE and GNOME still need LOTS of work. Mac OSX is waaaaay ahead of them.