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They have incredible amount of cash reserves. An investment in Linux drivers would go against their mission of OSX penetration. It has nothing to do with being
by atomi 10y ago
They have incredible amount of cash reserves. An investment in Linux drivers would go against their mission of OSX penetration. It has nothing to do with being unable to do it.
- threeseed 10y agoIt's not about the money. Apple prefers and has done a lot better with smaller, more focused teams.
- SiVal 10y agoI agree that it's not a lack of resources, but I don't think it's about OSX penetration. They don't seem to care much about OSX penetration anymore. If they did, they would make a wider range of OSX devices and sell them at a more competitive price or license it to other hardware makers who would do so so they could get OSX into more hands. It's about control. Apple doesn't want YOU to replace OSX, they want to do it themselves with something they control, not let you gain control.
- pjmlp 10y agoJust like any other computer manufacturer, it was an historical accident that PC compatibles turned out differently. However thanks to the razor thin margins and the desktops being replaced by laptops with docking stations, they are a dying breed.
- astrodust 10y agoYou can't just throw money at a problem and it magically gets solved. Adding additional requirements puts strain on your core team, there's no way around it. If you could 100% compartmentalize this, have people working on it independently, maybe you could minimize impact, but how can you justify that spending? They know the open-source community is capable of working to fix problems like this.
- bluedino 10y agoThey could sponsor a developer or provide hardware to willing developers.
- astrodust 10y agoYou really don't get how Apple works, do you?
- DennisP 10y agoSeems to me your statements are contradictory. The open-source community has no contact with Apple's core team. Either the open source community can't do it, or Apple could do it without adding strain to its core team.
- astrodust 10y agoEvery employee of Apple adds to the organizational weight. If they're throwing money at something that money needs to be accounted for, there needs to be check-ins and reviews and... The open-source community can do it. Look, we got Linux on the PS4. This isn't even hard by comparison.
- gutnor 10y agoI don't think they care about OSX penetration, but they care about their competitive advantage of controlling both the software and hardware. Stuff like retina display was hugely easier to introduce by Apple than any other constructor thanks to having OSX in house and only their hardware to support. Investing in Linux would not be a problem it just means that is becomes just a tiny bit harder to do whatever they want on the hardware side. I'm surprised they still maintain Bootcamp.