Mac on PC
Archives Forums/MacOS X Discussion/Mac on PC
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| Do you think that Apple will ever release a version of OS X for the PC user? |
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| Yes |
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| The only way at the moment I can use Mac OS X on my PC is through emulation. Which isn't very effective. |
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| MacIntel port had much coverage some months ago. Mac Unix runs on Intel processors right now, it will take some time before they port the GUI, but it seems that they will make the eventual switch. I'm guessing at around 10.6 or 10.7. |
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| I really wonder... Part of MacOS's power lies in the fact that OS and hardware are from the same manufacturer, and thus perfectly made for each other. I hope that transferring MacOS to Intel systems will not make it less stable... |
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| I've always used AMD Athlon chips, so I hope I can run it. |
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| OS X already runs on Intel processors, GUI and all. It's unlikely it'll ever be officially supported on anything other than Apple-supplied (or licensed) PCs due to driver support. |
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| OS X already runs on Intel processors, GUI and all. A friend of mine is interested in this. But how must I see this. A special PC version, or if I just run the install CD (which is supposed to install Mac OS on an Apple computer) on an intel machine it'll install? |
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| I have a copy of Tiger running on a PC, most applications work if they are supplied as a FAT exe. BMax does not compile FAT exe's so don't try to go that route. |
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| Is it running under emulation or natively? Emulation has been possible for a while, but natively is a new possibility with this x86 stuff popping up. |
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| It is running natively although the GUI is not hardware accelerated and the driver support is a waste of time. TBH it's not worth the trouble that's why I'm typing this on MY BRAND NEW MAC MINI that got delivered 5 mins ago - Yipeee.. |
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| The current PowerPC MacOS can be emulated (very slowly) on a PC using the free PearPC emulator. It has some limitations such as no full-screen OpenGL support and the likes, and the software OpenGL emulation is very slow, but you can compile & build programs with it. A few months ago when the first Intel-based development Mac's were sent out, it didn't take long for people to copy the OS and to have it running on a 'normal' PC either using VMWare, or even natively on some Dell's. However, Apple has since apparently added a bunch of other protections to prevent that from happening, at least not as easily. The OSX for intel Mac's apparently does run (as expected) at native speeds on these normal PC's. No official Apple builds though -- keep in mind that Apple is primarily a hardware company, that has always used a fairly closed platform, for which they are the only provider (aside from a very short stint where they licensed the Mac hardware stuff to some 3rd party developers). Historically, they haven't been pushing a Mac as a means to run OS-X, but OS-X as a means to use your Mac. It is unlikely that they are going to be selling OS-X for 'normal' PC's anytime soon -- so far they've always made a lot more money on the premiums for the mac hardware than they would make on just selling the software for people to run on a different brand PC. Supposedly they have kept a parallel Intel-based version of OS-X under wraps for many years now, so had they wanted to they could have released a PC version a long time ago -- yet they haven't. another big benefit that Apple has over, say, Microsoft, is that since the Apple is afairly closed system, they have almost full control over all the hardware components their users can have. Part of Windows' problem is that there are a bazillion different possible hardware configurations, not all of which work reliably. OS-X has to work with a lot less variables than windows does, and benifits stability-wise from that aspect. Personally I doubt that Apple will release a version of their OS for generic PC's any time soon, but there are bound to be 3rd party 'emulators' that will be able to run it on a generic PC with little to no speed loss. Since the CPU architecture is would be identical for an intel Mac, you don't have the massive slowdownthat the current emulators have, which need to virtualize an entire PowerPC CPU that has significantly more registers at its disposal than the emulating PC hardware does. 'emulating' an identical CPU is a lot more efficient. |
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| I intend to get a Intel Mac from apple - the hardware will all work great, and it will have a non-sketchy non-bootleg supported version of OSX. Then I'll just stick in another drive, and install windows on that and boot in whichever I need. |
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| xlsior, that is the most profound reply to a forum topic I've ever read. Thank you very much. |
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| FYI: There's been a challenge (with prize) out for anyone who can post instructions on how to dual boot an Intel Mac into XP (and OS X). So far, no dice. Vista should install without problems, but that's a ways off. OS X has been "cracked" to run on generic PC hardware, but tends not to get full benefit from the GPU unless it matches that found on Intel Macs (so Intel GMA950s, Radeon X1600s etc. work dandy; other GPUs not so much). The Core Duo (Pentium T2x00) CPUs used in most of the new macs (the base Mini uses a Core Solo) have been benchmarked against AMD desktop CPUs and other Intel CPUs and hold their own very well. The 20" iMac is, running native software, probably the second fastest Mac available (after the Quad G5) when running native, optimized software -- and consumes no more than 120W (for the entire system, including monitor and 256MB x1600 video). |
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| The prize has been won: www.winxponmac.com. For the other discussion, I think Apple feels not yet strong enough to enter the Microsoft market with OS X for "normal" PCs. Microsoft could squeeze them like bugs. Maybe in a few years from now when Apple holds a bigger market share they will do it. Or when Steve Jobs no longer is the CEO and somebody else with a different attitude takes over. But maybe none of this will ever happen. My advice for the moment simply would be to simply buy an Intel Mac instead of a PC the next time you want to get a new machine... :-) |
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