The MHz wars are over—and this could be great for Apple
Posted by Dennis Sellers 
Jun 20, 2005 at 12:35am
Now that Apple is transitioning to Intel chips, the megahertz wars are over. There are lots of potential speed bumps (no pun intended) along the way, but there’s certainly one major advantage Apple has in this scenario: the playing field is now level and Apple can go toe-to-toe with Microsoft and Dell and its other competitors in the two areas at which it excels: the design of its hardware and the elegance of its operating system.
And on those two fronts, Apple is well prepared for battle. Look at the Apple hardware line-up: the Power Mac, iMac G5, eMac, Mac mini, iBook and PowerBook (not to mention the iPod, but we’re concerned about computers right now). Is there anything in the Wintel world that can measure up to these designs? Are there any computer systems that have won as many awards? The answers are, obviously, no and no. Only Sony has made any serious headway into designing truly “cool” and stylish computers.
When it comes to operating system, there’s nothing out there that can compete with Mac OS X 10.4 (“Tiger”). Linux is good for a certain audience, but still lacks the end user friendliness that will get it into home and creative environments. Windows is kludgy and prone to bugs and viruses. Longhorn, whenever it finally arrives, may offer some improvements. But does anyone really think that it will measure up to Tiger, much less surpass it? And by the time Longhorn finally stumbles onto the scene, Apple will most likely have released Mac OS X 10.5 (“Leopard”). And the Mac OS will leapfrog ahead of Microsoft yet again.
I expect the next 12-18 months to be somewhat trying for Apple and Mac users. Transitions always involve some hardships. But if Apple handles this transition well—and I don’t doubt they will—the platform and those of us who love it have some truly exciting times ahead.
(By the way, the idea for this column popped into my head during a round table discussion I had with Bryan Chaffin of The Mac Observer and Jim Dalrymple of MacCentral. We did it for a special upcoming audio segment at The MUG Center, the online resource for Mac User Groups. I’ll keep you posted as to when the round table discussion is available.)
Thoughts? Write me at dsellers@macsimumnews.com
gene Says:
apple does not make hardware as much as anyone would like to think. they are simply not a hardware company anymore.
they are a design, marketing and operating systems company.
what about the ipod, powerbook, mac mini you say?
three words : made in china.
the mac mini is based on a design at least 15 chinese manufacturers have been showing off for a few years now, and at computex 2005 they showed even smaller 3.5 inch motherboards(CPU, sound, video, ram, HD and all)
powerbook hardware is nothing special. great design, great operating system, great look and style, but the hardware is pretty standard compared to what sony, toshiba, NEC, BenQ, sharp, Fujitsu can whip out (especially the only-in-asia models). Actually powerbook hardware has become substandard since centrino and pentium M models came out. they heat up fast, and G5s for powerbooks was not going to happen. they just didnt have the bang for the buck the Pentium M did.
on the other end of the spectrum, looking back everyone knows now G5s could not keep up with pentium Ds, apple put a lot of work into convincing everyne it did, but they stopped pushing those ads because they knew it wasnt a good argument to say G5s were faster “in general,” and they definitely were not faster in terms of speed per dollar.
Powerbook g4s were a dead end, G5s couldnt keep up, it was obvious to make the switch.
Its not a good argument to compare the operating system release scheudles of microsoft and apple. Apple has a very small, select audience on very specialized hardware, it is easy to tell mac users to cough up 200 dollars every 10 months for a 0.1 release. Imagine telling coporate users with thousands of Windows licenses to update everything, on all sorts of different hardware and networks, updates and all. Thats not a market apple would be willing to touch.
Posted on June 20, 2005
Martin Proud Says:
Apple’s primary focus is not enterprise, but on consumers and professionals. Solaris 10 is not a better OS when compared to Mac OS X, because you can hardly compare the two.
Posted on June 20, 2005
Mike Galardi Says:
>>"And the Mac OS will leapfrog ahead of Microsoft yet again.”
Are you actually serious? I’m not trying to defend Microsoft’s masterful success in the OS arena, but are you even trying to be objective? I would say that is a woefully misguided and alarmingly ignorant comment, Mr. Sellers.
Posted on June 20, 2005
james o'den Says:
the only thing that keeps apple behind is Steve Jobs. a smart move would be to lease out the OS when they get it converted just like microsoft did. but thats about anothe 10-20 years away sadly.
Posted on June 20, 2005
DL Says:
Are you kidding? My G5 crashed again for the upteenth time, and this is with the replacement processor that broke. Mac hardware sucks.
Posted on June 20, 2005
Bob Dobolina Says:
“Longhorn, whenever it finally arrives, may offer some improvements. But does anyone really think that it will measure up to Tiger, much less surpass it?”
Uhm… yeah. I do. Considering the vast majority of computer users already prefer Windows over Mac OS, I’d say Longhorn will probably have a pretty decent running start. Macophiles are fond of claiming that the only reason people use Windows is because of Microsoft’s abuse of their monopoly power. It’s a convenient rationalization. It’s also a great example of the naive arrogance that Mac users often display.
I installed Tiger on my G4 a few weeks ago. It’s a pretty great operating system. Dashboard is sort of a yawn (and since the kind folks at Pixoria have just released Konfabulator for Windows, I can clutter my Windows desktop with crap just like in Tiger if I really care to). Spotlight is clearly not ready for prime time (and Copernic, Lookout and MSN Desktop Search blow it away anyway). Otherwise, it’s a pretty great operating system. But it’s not any better than XP Pro. They’re both good, stable operating systems. I’ve never gotten a virus using either OS. And Windows is far, far easier to administer, in my book (plus, although the software situation has improved for Mac users, Windows still has Mac beat all to hell in the cool apps department--with the possible exception of Final Cut Pro).
I use them both, and I like them both. But I’ve bought my last Mac. They’re overpriced and vastly overrated. And when Longhorn is released, I’ll be the first one in line to get a copy.
Posted on June 20, 2005
ryan bateman Says:
i think he was talking more about hardware designs...but maybe thats just me.
Posted on June 20, 2005
Ken Says:
james o’den,
The only reason why Apple is still AROUND is Steve Jobs. Or have you not been watching the events of the past few years. Even Michael Dell has switched from “I’d sell the company” to “I’d sell OSX”.
Longhorn, whenever it finally arrives, may offer some improvements. But does anyone really think that it will measure up to Tiger, much less surpass it?
I don’t think it will and furthermore it might not be able to. IF they INSIST on maintaining backwards compatibility with programs not written specifically for Longhorn, then at best they’ll be more new stuff kludged on top of the same aging API’s.
In the final analysis it doesn’t matter if Longhorn is better or not, it’ll be “good enough” and that’s all any Microsoft OS has to be.
Posted on June 20, 2005
hmurchison Says:
Wow what a start for monday.
We got one guy hawking Solaris 10.
Another guy saying OS X should be leased out.
Bobby telling me that Windows users actually “prefer” running Windows and that MSN Search blows Spotlight away yet gives nary an example.
Everyone has a freakin’ agenda. Apple will do fine. They’ll remain a niche company and continue to sell high design computers. Moving to Intel just eases their design needs and ensures an adequate supply of processors amongst the whole lineup.
MS has a potential “decent” upgrade in Longhorn. However let’s be honest with WinFS gone and other components being stripped of complexity I see Longhorn excelling in some areas but behind Tiger/Leopard in others.
Most businesses are still using Win2k so I don’t really expect Longorn to go gangbusters anywhere but the home markets.
Posted on June 20, 2005
Chris Says:
Just because Apple announced that it’s migrating to the Intel platform doesn’t mean that it can’t offer PowerPC server or even SPARC server product in the future.
I really doubt that there is a big enough market for Apple to invest into the premium server product.
Besides, how many SPARC chip does Sun sell a year? And how many does Apple need? Can TI meet this additional demand? There is a reason why Apple didn’t go with AMD (yet)
Most companies are moving to use more and more commodity machines to build their server farm anyway. Not to say that there is no more need for reliable Sun’s machine though.
I had a chance to chat with an ex-Sun field engineer who got called in a lot of times to fix Sun’s hardward. Those “reliable” hardwards broke down after a couple years… So, even Sun has reliability issues, at least in some of their products.
Posted on June 20, 2005
macbrett Says:
gene wrote:
“Apple has a very small, select audience on very specialized hardware, it is easy to tell mac users to cough up 200 dollars every 10 months for a 0.1 release.”
Excuse me.
Tiger was released 18 months after Jaguar.
It costs $129.00 (Amazon was selling it for $99).
With OS X, Apple has broken with tradition, and uses “point” releases to designate it’s major upgrades and .0x releases for it’s free upgrades. That’s only so they can continue to leverage the trade name “Oh-Ess-Ten” for a long time. The version number has no bearing on the product’s actual worth.
Plus, nobody holding a gun to your head, forcing you to upgrade. If you don’t like the frequency of Apple’s OS releases, just skip a cycle and buy every other one.
I personally like seeing continuous progress and having the option to upgrade (unlike Windows users that are stuck in limbo waiting for Longhorn).
Your exaggeration discredits your argument. Too bad. Some of your post actually made some sense.
Posted on June 20, 2005
james o'den Says:
Dear Ken,
my problem is that its just “around”. hell Jobs had ot get help from Bill Gates to keep it afloat. he can make computers but his business skills are abhorred.
Posted on June 20, 2005
Ken Says:
James,
When you’re in a business that seen as competing against Microsoft you’re either “around” or you’re not. With No Steve there’d be No Apple today and this would be PCSIMUMNEWS and as such would not be as catchy.
So the business skills of someone who brought Apple from the brink of certain destruction to be more profitable than they’ve been in YEARS are in question?
Posted on June 20, 2005
JuggerNaut Says:
Bob Dobolina wrote:
Uhm… yeah. I do. Considering the vast majority of computer users already prefer Windows over Mac OS, I’d say Longhorn will probably have a pretty decent running start. Macophiles are fond of claiming that the only reason people use Windows is because of Microsoft’s abuse of their monopoly power. It’s a convenient rationalization. It’s also a great example of the naive arrogance that Mac users often display.
Most users prefer Windows over Mac OS. Most users would be lucky enough to know there are alternatives out there. Trust me when I say Microsoft only dominates because of its monopoly power (added with IT bureaucracy and consumer ignorance derived from IT bureaucracy), not technical superiority, or we’d all have been Mac users before Windows 95 ever reared its ugly head.
One thing you Microsofties overlook is how most K-12 schools and Colleges/Universities teach computer related curriculum on Windows-based systems, including a lot of technical courses going beyond basic computer literacy (which the US Gov’t, namely the US Dept. of Education needs to fix or else it is only helping Microsoft remain in its monopolistic state), which helps give Microsoft/Windows WAY more exposure to the general public than it deserves. Then you have websites across the web discriminating the very foundation the Internet was envisioned to deliver; OPENNESS! So instead of living in a World Wide Web of harmony, we have a bunch of high tech thugs building proprietary websites that only work in a single web browser; Internet Explorer that runs on a single operating system; Windows. HELLO!… The days of “IBM compatible” are over!!
Spotlight is clearly not ready for prime time (and Copernic, Lookout and MSN Desktop Search blow it away anyway). Otherwise, it’s a pretty great operating system. But it’s not any better than XP Pro. They’re both good, stable operating systems. I’ve never gotten a virus using either OS. And Windows is far, far easier to administer, in my book (plus, although the software situation has improved for Mac users, Windows still has Mac beat all to hell in the cool apps department--with the possible exception of Final Cut Pro).
Are you kidding me?! Running ‘locate’ in BASH is better than MSN Desktop Search. At least Beagle for Linux gives Spotlight a nice run for its money. And speaking of Linux; Linspire 5.0 is better than Windows XP Pro and yes, I’ve tried it and it works. Windows is also terrible to administer (unless you love the endless array of tabs and properties, don’t get me started on the System Registry???), and even for simple administration. I’d rather hack at the CLI all day then delve into the deep thick mud of MMC anytime.
Posted on June 20, 2005
Hao Ye Says:
macbrett:
By Jaguar (10.2), you mean Panther (10.3).
Also, there are also educational discounts (my copy was $69).
Finally, OS X is sold as complete software, not as both upgrades and stand-alone releases of Windows. This means you can do a clean install with each new copy, instead of having to upgrade and deal with remnants of old operating systems. This also means that I have a separate copy of Panther and Jaguar should I choose to (legally) install them on other Apple hardware that I own or emulate on Intel using PearPC and the like.
Bob:
Maybe for you (and other power-users), there is no reason to use Tiger (or its successor) over Longhorn, but I pose to you the following question:
How many (percentage-wise) OS X users have gotten viruses/adware/spyware in the past year?
How many (percentage-wise) Windows XP users have gotten viruses/adware/spyware in the past year?
I think it is clear that for the average user, there is a big advantage to having a more secure OS like Tiger with Dashboard and Spotlight built-in over Windows XP, which may be more customizable, but you have download Desktop Search utils and Konfabulator yourself.
Posted on June 20, 2005
james o'den Says:
Ken,
dont forget who sent it to the brink of destruction. still took microsoft ot bring it back to hang around.
Posted on June 21, 2005
JuggerNaut Says:
dont forget who sent it to the brink of destruction. still took microsoft ot bring it back to hang around.
I sure hope you don’t think Microsoft’s monetary donation (investment) of a $150 million had anything to do with it. Let us not forget Apple spent $420 million to acquire NeXT and bring Steve Jobs back to the helm and his wizardry of engineers. If you read up on the investment bit, it was Bill Gates who made the kind gesture that followed the Apple-Microsoft Alliance that was formed. Apple received WAY more on the IP dispute from Microsoft, which was the terms from Steve Jobs before an alliance could be formed.
Never buy into what the mass media tell you, they always get it wrong.
Posted on June 21, 2005
Ken Says:
Steve Jobs was also the reason Apple was late to the digital music party AND the reason why they’ve surpassed all competition in that same realm.
I’ll never claim to understand what Steve Jobs does. I can’t even say that I agree with a lot of his choices. But the man gets results. For every Apple that defies the odds and logic, there are about 20 companies that attempt to run a business as it’s taught in MBA courses (people that know all the “smart moves") and fail.
Right now there’s a FREE operating system that runs on the same hardware that Windows runs on and it isn’t taking over the desktop. Are we to expect that if Apple SELLS an operating system that it’s chances will somehow be greater?
Posted on June 21, 2005
james o'den Says:
JuggerNaut
monetary as it may have been current investments at the time were dropping and this monetary investment was well needed.
“If you read up on the investment bit, it was Bill Gates who made the kind gesture that followed the Apple-Microsoft Alliance that was formed. “
if you knew you could own part of your competition to help control it wouldnt you? smart business i’d say.
Gates 1: Jobs 0
Posted on June 21, 2005
Night Owl Says:
Steve Jobs is one eclectic and crazy executive.
In his younger days, when he was forced out of Apple, he was a crazy
and egotistical bastage. I read a biography of him called “Steve Jobs: The Journey is the Reward” and it detailed all the innovation and chaos that boils within Steve Jobs.
Just so everyone is aware, Steve Jobs is NOT THE FATHER of the Mac. The real papa is Jef Raskin, may God rest his soul. In the book, Jef Raskin wrote a memo detailing Jobs managerial shortcomings, and I’m surprised no one tried to beat Jobs senseless with all the dumb things he did. I guess in those days he already was senseless, and people knew it.
But it looks like he has matured as a manager and a leader, and he now has a sense of strategy to go with his creativity.
Its not clear to me whether Apple can build a machine around an Intel processor that gives them the market differentiation they want, while still allowing them to benefit from the economies of scale that go with a processor made for John Q. Public, and Jane Doe.
Anyone who knows about processor architecture is aware that the Intel
X86 line is a big bloated fat ass design with dozens of hardware bugs,
and its the VLSI equivalent of urban sprawl, with a clumsy and inefficient
instruction set. The only reason it performs well is because of the manufacturing process that its built on, with its small feature sizes. By any objective measure of processor design elegance, its a real dog. Trust me on this.
Apple always prided itself on design excellence. At the heart of the new Apple, there is a worm.
Night Owl.
Posted on June 21, 2005
Observer Says:
Gates were allowed to be on the board, but had no voting rights!
Gates 1 / Jobs 1
Posted on June 21, 2005
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Dennis Sellers
Dennis has been a newspaper editor/reporter (seven years) and teacher (seven years). He has over 4,000 magazine, newspaper and online articles to his credit. He has also covered the Mac and tech industries for over a decade for such online publications as MacCentral, MacMinute and now MacsimumNews.
Night Owl Says:
There is a better operating system out there than Mac OS X, which is itself based on a BSD Unix.
The best operating system in the world right now is Solaris 10.
Highest performance, most scalable, GNOME desktop, and multiprocessor support, and also secure and stable.
Personally, I think Apple should have considered SPARC chips. Apple’s
elegant software could have been easily grafted onto Solaris, just as it
was with basic BSD, to create OS X in the first place.
Sun’s hardware is known for its high quality, and scalability, from radiation hard processors on spacecraft to systems up to 1024 CPUs. Intel processors will not offer this kind of scalability for the enterprise unless they make Itanium work.
This decision to go with Intel does limit Apple to the desktop, and does
place them at the mercy of an external supplier, whereas the SPARC architecture is an open architecture, so Apple could try to design one of their own if they chose, in the future.
Night Owl.
Posted on June 20, 2005