If Apple releases OS X for PCs, how much would you pay?

[filmak]

And it doesn't work as hassle free as on a Mac.

Mine is ideal hardware according to tonymac: Gigabyte H87 board, gtx760, and the following problems i have encountered:

Audio doesn't work properly after wake from sleep
Shut down - it shuts down then powers back up after a second or two.

This sort of weird stuff is exactly what you don't get (or rather, what you're not supposed to get, and can take up with Apple) with a real mac.

Hello throAU,

...And this kind of stuff is what it stopped me from building a hackintosh.
In contrary of the multiple suggestions to build one, the underlying driver problems, the time needed to maintain it, and the OS update hassles, are what completely made me to buy our second nMP, finally didn't mind it's a bit older, it's a beautiful machine and it just works.....

 

[throAU]

Hello throAU,

...And this kind of stuff is what it stopped me from building a hackintosh.
In contrary of the multiple suggestions to build one, the underlying driver problems, the time needed to maintain it, and the OS update hassles, are what completely made me to buy our second nMP, findlly didn't mind it's a bit older, it's a beautiful machine and it just works.....

And thats pretty much what I'll be doing when i replace the PC.

At the moment though it still owes me a couple of years, Windows 10 is the reason I've hackintoshed it.

 

[filmak]

Windows 10, what a mess, a settings - control panel mess, unwanted pushed updates, personal data taken whenever, display problems, font blurring etc they 'may be a little faster but...

Tried them and return immediately using win7, for a certain application need.

 

[MacVidCards]

Apple will never do it.

They are an intergration company. Single source is the entire point.

And yes, third party garbage drivers is a big reason Macs have less issues than Windows. If you pick your hardware very carefully (NOT for spec - for software/driver support) and pick your drivers very carefully, Windows can be relatively hassle free as well.

Plug in bargain basement crap hardware with garbage driver support and Windows gets a lot more flakey.

Because apple only have limited combinations of hardware they supply they can be a lot more rigorous with their driver compatibility testing - and make sure that things like wake from sleep actually work properly.

I agree 100%


As much as we wish this would happen, simply watching the direction Apple and it's drivers have taken tells us the course lies in opposite direction.

If anything, by now walling off which GPUs are possible, they have made Hackintosh route even harder.

The Hawaii driver is now worse then a few iterations ago, the only frame buffer assigned to it (or Fiji) is a 6 DP one, so the retail cards with 1 DP aren't defined there. So, for a real frame buffer you would have to rewrite it for every OS update. And run unsigned (or whatever this is called today)

I just finished a long trip around several cities in US. One thing I noticed was iPhones everywhere, and I mean EVERYWHERE. Even up in Canada. So imagine getting $200-300-400 for each one of those MILLIONS of iPhones. What would the interest be in opening up the very OS that that have been so busy closing down. Nvidia drivers have barely moved since 10.8.5, just the absolute bare minimum effort put in. (not a single Nvidia card added since 10.8.5, including latest El Cap I looked at)

 

[neomorpheus]

SoyCapitanSoyCapitan:

I agree with you 1 million %, but as you can see for the lack of likes on your posts and plenty for the ones that are happily overpaying for their shiny altars to Jobs, don't waste your time, is a lost cause.

 

[SoyCapitanSoyCapitan]

SoyCapitanSoyCapitan:

I agree with you 1 million %, but as you can see for the lack of likes on your posts and plenty for the ones that are happily overpaying for their shiny altars to Jobs, don't waste your time, is a lost cause.

Just remember, Likes don't mean anything in the real world and you shouldn't ever make decisions by them.

 

[neomorpheus]

Just remember, Likes don't mean anything in the real world and you shouldn't ever make decisions by them.

In this case in particular, is just telling you that they agree with whatever the person said and if hell does freezes over and apple releases OSX for PC's, those people would be super offended and upset about it.

Personally, I think that apple could sell OSX and keep their desktops/laptops, since the fanatics will keep buying original Macs, the rest would buy a clone or build their own.
In my case, for example, I would never buy a sealed/un-upgradable Mac, they just dont have a machine that I want, so after my cMP 4.1, I'll go either Linux or hackintosh.

They could get into something similar to the clone days, they could charge for an EFI chip of their own to mobo/OEM manufacturers, etc.

The first ones should be workstations, since apple is clearly dying to get out of the Pro market.

 

[MacVidCards]

The first ones should be workstations, since apple is clearly dying to get out of the Pro market.

That particular ship has sailed. I wish this could happen, but I think we all know it won't.

Someone has to write and test the drivers. And "test" means in a variety of software and combined with a realistic mix of hardware. Imagine how much simpler if you know that the machine you are writing the drivers for will only ever have 1 specific WiFi card and one specific USB controller and 1 of 3 possible GPUs. Would save enough time to sic the testing team on new Emoji Facebook buttons.

 

[burne]

Apple won't go down that road again, where the endless clones nearly killed them off.

All four of them! (Four clone makers, not machines sold, mind you..)

 

[neomorpheus]

That particular ship has sailed. I wish this could happen, but I think we all know it won't.

Someone has to write and test the drivers. And "test" means in a variety of software and combined with a realistic mix of hardware. Imagine how much simpler if you know that the machine you are writing the drivers for will only ever have 1 specific WiFi card and one specific USB controller and 1 of 3 possible GPUs. Would save enough time to sic the testing team on new Emoji Facebook buttons.

Actually, as it is today, there are only 2 GPU families and both are somewhat supported by OSX, but most important, by their manufacturers (AMD and Nvidia), so that is more than possible.

Just look at today's hackintoshes, the only thing that makes them a pain in the ass are apple updates and unsupported hardware, which seems to be fewer as time passes.

The hardware industry is very narrow in options these days, for example, Realtek has almost all the network and audio components taken, Nvidia seems to be moving to be the one and only GPU manufacturer and Intel already won on CPU's.

 

[deconstruct60]

Actually, as it is today, there are only 2 GPU families and both are somewhat supported by OSX, but most important, by their manufacturers (AMD and Nvidia), so that is more than possible.

The most widely deployed GPU in Macs at this point is made by Intel. Yes, there are 3. If you loop in the shared foundation with iOS/tvOS there are four and would make Nvidia and AMD relatively niche players in the deployed GPUs that Apple is focused on. ( Intel is major player in general non-smartphone/tablet PC land too. )

The hardware industry is very narrow in options these days, for example, Realtek has almost all the network and audio components taken, Nvidia seems to be moving to be the one and only GPU manufacturer and Intel already won on CPU's.

There is little chance Apple is going Realtek any time soon (primarily a winner in 'race to the bottom' systems) . [ several more years out even more network and audio are going to get sucked into SoC and/or CPU+chipset implementations ] Nvidia is far from being the only GPU player. They aren't even the largest in general and in OS X space their position is even less so. If Intel stops performing to Apple's requirements they could be mapped out in a couple years time. Intel has competition. In the OS X space they are ahead but it isn't "over" (paranoid Intel usually does better than complacent Intel so a very good chance they will stay out in front in the OS X space for at least several more years. )


This general trend of integration and holistic systems going up over time is something this treads premise completely ignores. The number of component players are going down in part because the components are being encapsulated into fewer packages.

 

[ivoruest]

Why would Apple do this? It makes no sense. It would instantly crash the value of Macs. OSX machines would engage in an immediate race to the bottom and soon enough they'd all be plastic and icky. Nobody in the PC world is making Apple sized profits. Nicely designed aluminium alone isn't enough to command a price tags double the competition. The OSX exclusively drives up the Mac value.

And please don't say it would drive users to iCloud. iCloud revenue is nothing to Apple. iCloud exists to provide essential features to Apple users, and in return will periodly tell users their kit is too old and needs to be replaced. It's why their services are so sucky compared to those who make their living off it. It's not a genuine business, it's a hardware sales strategy. Free software like OSX and iOS exists also to drive users to iCloud for the same reason.

Agreed to it all. Plus iCloud is just to keep up with moving trends of storing everything where it can be seen by "The Great Eye"!