Doesn't surprise me. Dell is completely mercenary. He will sell boxes with whatever technology he thinks people want. I don't know if this makes him a good guy or a bad guy.

Hear that, Billy? Hope you're listening.

n/t

Of course Dell would like to offer Mac OS in their future cases. Why not offer a proprietary OS to go with a proprietary system? Besides, why not increase the size of your slice of the pie if you can? From a business standpoint, it's the smartest thing Dell could do right now. The problem is going to be pricepoint. Dell LOVES to advertise some of the cheapest pricepoints for a full system. Now, Mac is definately going to want SOME control over a PC OS X, simply due to the competitive nature of the marketplace. Who will pay Mac $2500 for a G5 when they could get the same from Dell for $1500-$1800? Dude, your gettin' a Dell.

Your idol has an interest in the Mac OS X. Hope you don't cry yourself to sleep tonight.

He may want to sell OSX boxes, but very doubtful it will ever happen. Jousted with Jobs too many times in the past, and Apple doesn't want to be undercut by the bargain-basement Dell machines, nor have the nightmare of trying to support the inveitable complaints from those using the lowest-end hardware.

Apple cant license the OS until they have a viable alternative to office. Without an office type package they can not compete directly with windows. Ofcourse they are slowly developing one and hopefully will eventually present a challenge directly to microsoft.

We had a 5.3 earthquake about the time that this story was posted. The quake was triggered by a collective "Well duh!" uttered by Southern California Mac users upon hearing the Dell news.

Seriously, with all the positive attention Apple is getting over the last few months, the Windows related businesses may be wondering what is in the future. Michael Dell isn't stupid, he may see writting on the wall. To be sure the inertia of all the Windows users will keep things going for a long time, but I am seeing more and more switchers in my circle of friends and acquaintances.

I'd say Dell can license the Mac OS X when you pull the disc from my cold dead hands....

There is Office for Mac, I have it, It's great, Microsoft has a great Mac development team, it's a pleasure to use!

Pfft Of course, but Apple Works is a Viable competitor, and it's an all in one program, havent used it in a while

Quote

Guest wrote:
Of course Dell would like to offer Mac OS in their future cases. Why not offer a proprietary OS to go with a proprietary system?

But dont you think the minute Apple licensed their OS microsoft would pull their office for mac. Apple does not have an office right now. That would be a major blow to apple.
In the end microsoft will protect its market share.

Apple can't license OS X out to Dell. Apple makes its living on hardware, not software. So if they're selling the software, but someone else is selling the hardware, Apple will die.

… that said, a few years ago, that the best thing S.J. could do was sell the company and distribute the proceeds to shareholders ?
F>U>N>N>Y …
Just a cheap shot at MS, though, to get their attention …

I would like to put MAC OS X on a dell and Windows XP on an apple machine. Why not? You know Apple could sell a lot more machines if they had windows installed on it also. And why not let dell offer the option to have mac os x installed. They allow linux.

I don't know what apple is up to quite yet, but if I were them I would let others like dell ship with mac os x and then try to sell them an apple later once they are hooked on the OS. It would only drive more sales.

Also to get one hooked on the quality of their hardware, let them have windows installed also. Dual boot. That is the machine I am waiting for. I will probably buy their first development machine and make that work. I want to write and test apps that work on both OS's. This is the future.

But why would Dell need to sell Mactels?

Why not just build them for Apple?

They still get their cut and don't spend energy on selling.

If Apple's business continues its year on year growth, Apple will need to ramp up its production. If its current manufacturers can't cope with the load, it would make sense to me to approach someone like Dell, although I think it may more likely be hp, to pick up the build orders.

Why is it even surprising that Dell would like to license Mac OS? They'd have everything to gain from the deal. Apple would have a lot to lose, since they'd then be competing directly with Dell in the hardware market in a way they aren't today. And if they decided to abandon that and become an OS company, they'd be competing directly with Microsoft in the software market in a way they aren't today.

Uncouple the OS and the machines, as many analysts want them to do, and it's a question of blatantly going head-to-head with one giant or another. More likely they'll try to stay in something like their current niche for as long as they can. Using completely commodity parts does make it a little harder, but they probably figured the benefits were worth it.

Maybe what Apple could do to allow it on a Dell is come up with a dumbed down OS X - Home edition for generic PCs. Or, a better idea, to protect the bottom line, they could charge Dell $500 a copy. No $299 Dull with OS X on it.

Of course, once it's out there, the p2p networks will get it into the filthy hands of the masses.

Apple would lose their shirt in a direct fight with either MS or Dell. No amount of licensing fees could correct for the revenue loss as people stop buying Apple machines in favor of cheap plastic Dells.

As for Office, yes there is an Office for Mac, but no it is not 100% of the Office for PC - ignoring the bugs in Word, the difference is that there is NO OUTLOOK FOR OSX.

Entourage is a glorified POP e-mail program that lacks full functionality with an Exchange server. No amount of 3rd party plugins have been able to give Entourage 100% compatability - I've tried so many, it's sad.

What about Classic Mode, you ask? Well if you still have Outlook Mac for OS9, that works fine under Panther in Classic mode, albeit slowly, but now under Tiger it will no longer function.

The worst part? MS has repeatedly said that they will not make a version of Outlook for OSX. Ever. Why? My bet is it's to prevent exactly what we've been talking about from happening. With no Outlook, an OSX machine (no matter who makes it) is an inconvenient anomaly on a company's network. No IT person will want to work with 3rd party jury-rigged Mac machine for anyone who doesn't absolutely need one. Who absolutely needs one? About 5% of the computing population.

That's our 5% market share, folks, and it looks like that's where Bill wants us to stay.

The irony is that Outlook Express is so filled with security holes that it's one giant exploit, and shouldn't be found within a hundred miles of a network owned by a company that has any idea what they're doing.

What does "Outlook Express" do exactly? It's just e-mail as far as I can tell. How many people really use this for anything that Mac's "Mail" and "Calender" apps can't do?

why hasn't RC posted on this topic yet?