AntiTrust

[Sean]

On Sun, 14 Jan 2001, RJG wrote:

> Corporate America does not replace it's hardware every 3-4 years.  They
> UPGRADE to larger processors and newer versions of the same OS. 

replace == buy new machines. which they do actually I believe the average
was about 3 years on the X86 side and 4 years on the Apple side. 
He wasnt referring to switching platforms every 3 years. 

>  They do not change their
> architecture because a new OS has arrived, ever hear of BEos?  If so, why
> didn't people
> switch?

BeOS simply put doesnt have any applications worth a shit to become a
major player. They are great for certain vertical markets and embedded
systems. Without being purchased by Apple (which was their original plan),
they couldnt get enough of the marketshare to get application support.  
 
> Additionally, Windows does not support a billion different hardware
> platforms, 

Windows has been ported to run on Alpha, SGI, Sun, PPC, etc hardware. I
wouldnt call it a billion but it is quite a few. 
 
> expect everyone to adhere to their APIs, hence plug and play.  Do you really
> think
> Microsoft sends people out to Kingston, Compaq, Hp to see what they are
> doing so
> that they can write code to support them?  

They don't have to anymore. They have enough of the marketshare, they
couldnt care less. 

> You mention when people buy a new OS they assume that the new OS will
> support
> their current apps.  What people?  

Consumers. Specifically Mac People, Apple supporters are the most finicky
group of people usually because they are usually intelligent, creative,
detail orientated people who bought the machine not only because it runs
the apps well, but because it is quite simplistic leaving them to think
about their work rather then the OS. 

> Does Corporate America assume?  I don't
> think so.  They do not switch without good cause, not cause it's cool

Corporations are inherently stupid. (i forgot who Im stealing that quote
from but I love it.) They switch because it benefits them. And yes I have
seen corporations make rash decisions based on heresay from some 13 y/o
son of the President. Not based on any real facts. I mean I see people use
spreadsheets when they should be using a database product, I see people
using Access for literally databases that it was not made to handle. I see
people using databases that are 10 years old, because that is all they
know how to use. I have seen consultants (overpaid) make horrible
decisions and when you inform people of it they scoff you off because they
paid them an outrageous amount of money and the bottom line is they dont
want to look stupid. 

> The "big deal" of X OS is it's isolation, Darwin is the base, it interfaces
> with the hardware,
> it's the only layer that needs to be modified to accommidate new hardware.
> The
> rest runs without modification.....

I can't even argue this point for the fun of it.. =)
All of MacOS X is portable. It was written that way intentionally.