5 ms·

Apple, in particular, is never (well, while Steve Jobs or anyone similar is in charge) going to rely on other people for essential parts of their platform again

by ptomato 16y ago

Apple, in particular, is never (well, while Steve Jobs or anyone similar is in charge) going to rely on other people for essential parts of their platform again. They've learned that lesson many times.

CamperBob 16y ago
As long as nobody comes along and closes your development platform of choice, there's really very little to be afraid of when it comes to cross-compilation and emulation. No man is an island, and certainly no corporation the size of Apple is one, either. Vertical integration shouldn't be considered a religious matter.
- ptomato 16y ago
  "Vertical integration shouldn't be considered a religious matter." Somewhat irrelevant, as Apple has demonstrated fairly convincingly that they do consider it such.
  - CamperBob 16y ago
    That's great, as long as their stockholders understand that they're investing in a church, rather than a corporation. (A church that actually has to pay taxes, no less.)
  - lsc 16y ago
    Really? I would argue that switching to what amounts to commodity hardware with custom bios in a custom case is a move away from vertical integration. Now, you could say that Apple didn't fab it's own PPC chips, but the x86 mac hardware is sure a lot more similar to everyone else's hardware than mac hardware has ever been before, and it's probably saving Apple rather a lot of money. Of course, you could also argue that this trend is reversing, with the Apple platform now being driven by ARM devices that are far more, uh, custom. but you kind of have to do that right now, because the market for cellphone chipsets/motherboard layouts isn't as mature as the market for desktop/laptop chipsets and motherboard layouts. I'm just pointing out, Apple is perfectly happy to use commodity stuff, when they think that commodity stuff is better/cheaper.

5 ms·

Apple, in particular, is never (well, while Steve Jobs or anyone similar is in charge) going to rely on other people for essential parts of their platform again

by ptomato 16y ago

CamperBob 16y ago
As long as nobody comes along and closes your development platform of choice, there's really very little to be afraid of when it comes to cross-compilation and emulation. No man is an island, and certainly no corporation the size of Apple is one, either. Vertical integration shouldn't be considered a religious matter.
- ptomato 16y ago
  "Vertical integration shouldn't be considered a religious matter." Somewhat irrelevant, as Apple has demonstrated fairly convincingly that they do consider it such.
  - CamperBob 16y ago
    That's great, as long as their stockholders understand that they're investing in a church, rather than a corporation. (A church that actually has to pay taxes, no less.)
  - lsc 16y ago
    Really? I would argue that switching to what amounts to commodity hardware with custom bios in a custom case is a move away from vertical integration. Now, you could say that Apple didn't fab it's own PPC chips, but the x86 mac hardware is sure a lot more similar to everyone else's hardware than mac hardware has ever been before, and it's probably saving Apple rather a lot of money. Of course, you could also argue that this trend is reversing, with the Apple platform now being driven by ARM devices that are far more, uh, custom. but you kind of have to do that right now, because the market for cellphone chipsets/motherboard layouts isn't as mature as the market for desktop/laptop chipsets and motherboard layouts. I'm just pointing out, Apple is perfectly happy to use commodity stuff, when they think that commodity stuff is better/cheaper.