“Are humans just naturally driven to want what they cannot have?” David Berlind asks in his ZDNet blog.
“Apple may be resisting the OS licensing model that has traditionally worked so well for Microsoft and perhaps that resistance is finally paying off as Macs nibble away (albeit very very slowly and from a distant blip in Microsoft’s rear view mirror) at the market share of Windows-based PCs. Apple goes to great lengths… to tightly control the relationship between its software [and] its hardware,” Berlind writes.
“But none of this seems to be phasing the tenacious mice (the hackers) who are managing to keep the Apple cat on its toes. Most recently, under the headline $399 Ultraportable Apple Laptop, Gizmodo has coverage of how OS X has been hacked to run on the Asus EEE PC. Based on the buzz around the Net, Hackintosh How-To author Adam Pash is already a folk hero in certain circles. But if a Hackintosh isn’t your speed, then maybe the Torrenttosh is. There’s apparently a pre-hacked version of OS X floating around on Bittorrent that takes most of the hacking out of Hackintosh,” Berlind writes.
“Perhaps its time for Apple to reconsider its Apple-hardware-only policy and once again look into licensing OS X. Clearly… there are no technical barriers. And, compared to selling hardware, selling bits is like printing money. There’s no question the demand is there… Apple could, if it wants, roll the program out on a limited basis. For example, it could pick one or two other hardware partners… and work exclusively through them in a way that those vendors shoulder the lion’s share of supporting users.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Note: “iPod success paves the way for Mac OS X on X86. People have argued for years for and against the release of Mac OS X on Intel (and AMD) commodity hardware, but Apple derives such a large portion of its revenue from hardware that doing so could potentially damage the company beyond repair. But, what if Apple replaces that lost Mac hardware revenue with iPod revenue? Steve Jobs would then be free to drop what amounts to a hydrogen bomb on Microsoft. Mac OS X that runs on ‘regular’ off-the-shelf x86 hardware. Or partner with a Sony, for example – to insure quality.” – SteveJack, MacDailyNews, March 04, 2004 (yes, 2004)