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"The OS war is over," said Steve Jobs tersely. "Apple lost. Microsoft won." Game over. That was the 1990s. But that was then and this is now. Last week, John Dvorak argued in his column that Apple's OS X for x86 beta release was merely part of a strategy: that Jobs & Co. wanted OS X to run on x86 all along. And not just MacTel boxes either. Machiavellian? Not very. It's not as if Bill & Co. couldn't figure this out themselves. And they're not concerned – yet – that Mac OS X on Intel will take over the enterprise space, even if it does run on $199 white boxes, possibly even from Wal-mart. Now MacBidouille has issued a long editorial concerning their recent publication of OS X running on a plain-jane Intel-based PC. Apple Legal sent them a letter written in the strongest possible terms And, no, Legal are nothing like the friendly PR department. These guys will shut you down. Permanently. (Unless you're 'corporate media', obviously, not a blogger, responsible, wear a tie, don't queue up for $50 iBooks and live in a very nice suburb. And you wouldn't publish such drivel. But we digress). Now iPod has a gaping hole, and it was caused by Real's hack, aka Rhapsody, which let Real's tracks play on the iPod. Now Apple could sue. They might still sue. But they've had months to do it and they haven't. Doesn't hurt their hardware sales, you see. But could x86 white boxes + OS X lead to the extinction of Mac hardware, virtually overnight? Possibly, but not probably. Could Apple actually own a significant chunk of the highly-profitable OS market? Again, possible, but not probable. It's the Apps, stupid It still comes back to apps. Developers still have to write them for OS X-on-Intel. And people would have to buy them (or pirate them, which means $0 revenue for the developers). Why would you go Mac x86 when you have (i) a site license if you're a law-abiding enterprise or (ii) a pile of pirated Windows apps you downloaded, burnt onto various DVDs. In fact, you may as well buy a PC. A $199 PC box. Then run the hack to make OS X work on it. Then you can run pirated DVDSP, FCP etc. etc. etc... As MacBidouille notes, Apple can plug the hacks with OS updates, but if they're not going to use something like Intel's 'trusted computer platform', then there will always be a workaround, and Apple will be issuing patches continually. So it doesn't make sense for Apple to let OS X on Intel run loose in the wild, installable on any white box. MS probably wouldn't care, because they might sell more copies of Office for MacTel v. X.12 or whatever it'll be called. And if the hackers win, then RIP Mac. And then Apple truly will be the 'iPod Company'.
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