4 ms·

I wonder if Apple could sell a developers edition of MacOS that supported a vetted list of non-Apple hardware? Even if that was a short list and it was $999 a s

I wonder if Apple could sell a developers edition of MacOS that supported a vetted list of non-Apple hardware? Even if that was a short list and it was $999 a seat, I'm thinking people would pay the price to stay with their preferred OS and run the latest hardware.

Longhanks 10y ago
They certainly could, but Apple makes most of the money based on hardware. They'd probably shoot themselves in the foot.
- technofiend 10y ago
  Yeah obviously they do make huge money on the hardware, but the question remains: is there some price point where they'd like MacOS run on non-apple hardware?
  - cmurf 10y ago
    No, the supply and demand curves don't overlap.
vbezhenar 10y ago
> I wonder if Apple could sell a developers edition of MacOS that supported a vetted list of non-Apple hardware? Even if that was a short list and it was $999 a seat, I'm thinking people would pay the price to stay with their preferred OS and run the latest hardware. How that situation would be different from now? It's not like Apple actively trying to defend itself from hackintoshes, they just don't care at all, so you can use hackintosh if you want. Apple supports selected list of hardware which is present in their products and it's not something proprietary, so you can buy those parts and build computer. For $999 I bet most people would just torrent it. For $99 there wouldn't be enough purchases to justify a lot of additional work, especially support, because selling product presumes that you're going to help customers with their issues. What Apple probably would do is just to release their OS X free without legal restrictions and with some working installer, loader, etc. It's not a lot of work and you're not getting support if you're not buying their hardware. Then hardware manufacturers would build drivers, at least for some of their hardware. Now hackintosh doesn't exist for manufacturers, because it's not completely legal and community around hackintosh isn't good enough to write their own drivers.
- anonnyj 10y ago
  >It's not like Apple actively trying to defend itself from hackintoshes Really? Going off sample size of 1 / gut feeling, OSX is the only OS that was seemed actively hostile at every step for emulation / dual boot. Win XP/Win 7/several flavors of Linux were all a relative walk in the park.
  - Jonnax 10y ago
    They're not suing people unless they try and sell things. Also they aren't sending Cease and Desist or DMCA notices. Softwarewise it's only designed to run on Mac hardware and it is in breach of the licence to run a hackingtosh
- technofiend 10y ago
  >How that situation would be different from now? There's no non-apple branded hardware certified by another manufacturer to run MacOS? That's the difference. You better believe Dell would sell XPS devices targetted to that market if they could. >For $999 I bet most people would just torrent it. For $99 there wouldn't be enough purchases to justify a lot of additional work, especially support No doubt people would torrent it - they always do... they do it now! But for $999 or somewhere above your $99 strawman there's a place for Apple to support non-apple hardware and deal with support issues. That's the point of it being so expensive. >What Apple probably would do is just to release their OS X free without legal restrictions and with some working installer, loader, etc. It's not a lot of work and you're not getting support if you're not buying their hardware. Of the two I think selling their OS for use on non-apple hardware is more likely than open sourcing. In my humble opinion I don't see them giving away their OS. Honestly I don't ever see them selling their OS for non-apple hardware either but at some hypothetical price at least they'd be opening up a new revenue channel. That wouldn't happen with an open source give away.
sfifs 10y ago
haven't Apple made quite clear with the new MBP they don't really care about the developer market? The scale market is in upselling to "power users"
- freehunter 10y ago
  Hey it's been a really fun three months of this meme, but I think it's time to let it go. The whole "MBPs aren't for professionals" and "Apple doesn't care about developers" is getting more stale than Apple's hardware lineup. Use their computers or don't, I don't care. But it's time to let this one go.
- technofiend 10y ago
  You can call it MacOS for researchers if that makes it more palatable. Really it's just one of those "wouldn't it be nice" exercises because there's IMHO pent-up demand for running on MacOS on more powerful hardware than Apple make available.

Longhanks 10y ago

They certainly could, but Apple makes most of the money based on hardware. They'd probably shoot themselves in the foot.

technofiend 10y ago
Yeah obviously they do make huge money on the hardware, but the question remains: is there some price point where they'd like MacOS run on non-apple hardware?
- cmurf 10y ago
  No, the supply and demand curves don't overlap.

vbezhenar 10y ago

> I wonder if Apple could sell a developers edition of MacOS that supported a vetted list of non-Apple hardware? Even if that was a short list and it was $999 a seat, I'm thinking people would pay the price to stay with their preferred OS and run the latest hardware. How that situation would be different from now? It's not like Apple actively trying to defend itself from hackintoshes, they just don't care at all, so you can use hackintosh if you want. Apple supports selected list of hardware which is present in their products and it's not something proprietary, so you can buy those parts and build computer. For $999 I bet most people would just torrent it. For $99 there wouldn't be enough purchases to justify a lot of additional work, especially support, because selling product presumes that you're going to help customers with their issues. What Apple probably would do is just to release their OS X free without legal restrictions and with some working installer, loader, etc. It's not a lot of work and you're not getting support if you're not buying their hardware. Then hardware manufacturers would build drivers, at least for some of their hardware. Now hackintosh doesn't exist for manufacturers, because it's not completely legal and community around hackintosh isn't good enough to write their own drivers.

anonnyj 10y ago
>It's not like Apple actively trying to defend itself from hackintoshes Really? Going off sample size of 1 / gut feeling, OSX is the only OS that was seemed actively hostile at every step for emulation / dual boot. Win XP/Win 7/several flavors of Linux were all a relative walk in the park.
- Jonnax 10y ago
  They're not suing people unless they try and sell things. Also they aren't sending Cease and Desist or DMCA notices. Softwarewise it's only designed to run on Mac hardware and it is in breach of the licence to run a hackingtosh
technofiend 10y ago
>How that situation would be different from now? There's no non-apple branded hardware certified by another manufacturer to run MacOS? That's the difference. You better believe Dell would sell XPS devices targetted to that market if they could. >For $999 I bet most people would just torrent it. For $99 there wouldn't be enough purchases to justify a lot of additional work, especially support No doubt people would torrent it - they always do... they do it now! But for $999 or somewhere above your $99 strawman there's a place for Apple to support non-apple hardware and deal with support issues. That's the point of it being so expensive. >What Apple probably would do is just to release their OS X free without legal restrictions and with some working installer, loader, etc. It's not a lot of work and you're not getting support if you're not buying their hardware. Of the two I think selling their OS for use on non-apple hardware is more likely than open sourcing. In my humble opinion I don't see them giving away their OS. Honestly I don't ever see them selling their OS for non-apple hardware either but at some hypothetical price at least they'd be opening up a new revenue channel. That wouldn't happen with an open source give away.

sfifs 10y ago

haven't Apple made quite clear with the new MBP they don't really care about the developer market? The scale market is in upselling to "power users"

freehunter 10y ago
Hey it's been a really fun three months of this meme, but I think it's time to let it go. The whole "MBPs aren't for professionals" and "Apple doesn't care about developers" is getting more stale than Apple's hardware lineup. Use their computers or don't, I don't care. But it's time to let this one go.
technofiend 10y ago
You can call it MacOS for researchers if that makes it more palatable. Really it's just one of those "wouldn't it be nice" exercises because there's IMHO pent-up demand for running on MacOS on more powerful hardware than Apple make available.