i want virtual pc mostly because i spent such a premium on it with the office "professional" to begin with, if they phase it out, i don't think it's possible for them to roll enough features/improvements into the next office foursome to take up the investment slack. it'd be hard to just say "well, we're killing it off."
What's sad, and most people don't really see it that way, is that MS is trying to find every reason to abandon the Mac.
They've abandoned IE for Mac...the excuse was Safari.
They've abandoned Media Player for Mac...they admitted they suck and it wasn't worth the trouble anymore to try and fix Media Player for Mac.
They're about to abandon VirtualPC...excuse is likely to be Boot Camp or Parallels Workstation.
And believe me, they'd drop Office for Mac if it wasn't for the contract Apple is always signing with MS. I keep hearing that Office for Mac is a big money maker for MS...possibly...but I still think MS would rather sack the MBU.
I dunno what Apple is paying MS for Office for Mac but this is probably the last 5 year contract it's signing. I'd be surprised if Office got updated more than once within those 5 years.
In 2011, MS won't be making anything for Mac OS X. And it won't matter...Apple will have 10%+ market share and iWork will be a solid contender...oh...and I'm thinking people will have wizened up.
I think you're really off base. MS dropped IE and Media Player because they'd put all of their development efforts into Vista OS hooks that simply do not translate well into the Mac OS. The fact that they then decided that some of those hooks were never going to see the light of day is irrelevant. They'd already made the business decision. Also, the software didn't make MS any money.
About Office. Apple signs no contracts for MS to continue developing a Mac version of Office. MS continues to make it because it makes them money. When it stops making them money, then they'll stop creating new versions.
VPC may be dropped. Or not. It all depends on whether or not MS feels that they can make money by selling it.
Will MS stop developing Mac software by 2011? Not if there's still money to be made!
Sorry to be so repetitive, but it really is all about the money.
I think you're really off base. MS dropped IE and Media Player because they'd put all of their development efforts into Vista OS hooks that simply do not translate well into the Mac OS. The fact that they then decided that some of those hooks were never going to see the light of day is irrelevant. They'd already made the business decision. Also, the software didn't make MS any money.
Huh? The Windows version of both IE7 and Windows Media Player work on Windows XP and they are both free downloads. They aren't tied to Vista and don't make MS money.
If you'd argued they were strategically important to Windows but not to the Mac you'd have a case.
ummm...isn't it a LOT easier to make a virtual machine when you don't have to deal with going from X86 to PPC?
Yep but the problem was VPC for Mac had a lot of coding done at very low levels. It's quite likely true that they will scrap VPC for Mac's code and start again. With hardware support for virtualisation that does seem the logical way to go. I strongly suspect they will actually port VPC for PCs back to macs.
As a web designer I'd have to argue that it already is.
But I am not a "web designer". I'm just a guy that has a few web pages. Big difference between us. I think there are more of me than you out there, which is a downer.
And being slow on everyone's computer doesn't make it any better. Enough rants off topic.
I am not confused. Unless Microsoft pulls off a miracle I doubt Windows will run nearly as fast in a virtual state inside Mac OS instead of being diretly booted up on it's own.
Any VM solution is going to be slower than a native one, but nothing like the slowness of emulating a completely different processor architecture.
Besides, who cares if Microsoft does it? VMWare and Parallels are coming out with commercial products. There are multiple Open Source initiatives, and I wouldn't be surprised if Apple includes something like it in a future OS release.
Rather than a PC emulator, I'm hoping for a generic system emulator so I can install multiple versions of Mac OS X, the linux flavors, and Windows. This way, developers can test for OS and browser compatibility without the overhead of multiple partitions and reboots, etc.
Huh? The Windows version of both IE7 and Windows Media Player work on Windows XP and they are both free downloads. They aren't tied to Vista and don't make MS money.
If you'd argued they were strategically important to Windows but not to the Mac you'd have a case.
dws is correct. Microsoft has been in the process of killing non-revenue generating products for quite some time. When it killed IE:mac, Microsoft also killed IE as a separate application on all other platforms. Safari had nothing to do with it. Microsoft intended to integrate IE into Windows Longhorn. (This was years before Longhorn became Vista.) At any rate, before Microsoft could get Longhorn/Vista onto the shelves, security vulnerabilities inundated IE6. Corporate customers were in full revolt. Microsoft was forced to revive IE:win. Reluctantly, it unbundled IE7 from Longhorn/Vista and released it as a separate product. Had it not done so, Corporate America would have adopted Firefox in droves.
The takeaway message here is that Microsoft makes decisions to address Microsoft issues. Increasingly, the Redmond Monopoly is playing defense.
Comments
Originally posted by akhomerun
ummm...isn't it a LOT easier to make a virtual machine when you don't have to deal with going from X86 to PPC?
You're forgetting that they didn't even program the current VPC.
Originally posted by kim kap sol
What's sad, and most people don't really see it that way, is that MS is trying to find every reason to abandon the Mac.
They've abandoned IE for Mac...the excuse was Safari.
They've abandoned Media Player for Mac...they admitted they suck and it wasn't worth the trouble anymore to try and fix Media Player for Mac.
They're about to abandon VirtualPC...excuse is likely to be Boot Camp or Parallels Workstation.
And believe me, they'd drop Office for Mac if it wasn't for the contract Apple is always signing with MS. I keep hearing that Office for Mac is a big money maker for MS...possibly...but I still think MS would rather sack the MBU.
I dunno what Apple is paying MS for Office for Mac but this is probably the last 5 year contract it's signing. I'd be surprised if Office got updated more than once within those 5 years.
In 2011, MS won't be making anything for Mac OS X. And it won't matter...Apple will have 10%+ market share and iWork will be a solid contender...oh...and I'm thinking people will have wizened up.
I think you're really off base. MS dropped IE and Media Player because they'd put all of their development efforts into Vista OS hooks that simply do not translate well into the Mac OS. The fact that they then decided that some of those hooks were never going to see the light of day is irrelevant. They'd already made the business decision. Also, the software didn't make MS any money.
About Office. Apple signs no contracts for MS to continue developing a Mac version of Office. MS continues to make it because it makes them money. When it stops making them money, then they'll stop creating new versions.
VPC may be dropped. Or not. It all depends on whether or not MS feels that they can make money by selling it.
Will MS stop developing Mac software by 2011? Not if there's still money to be made!
Sorry to be so repetitive, but it really is all about the money.
Originally posted by dws
I think you're really off base. MS dropped IE and Media Player because they'd put all of their development efforts into Vista OS hooks that simply do not translate well into the Mac OS. The fact that they then decided that some of those hooks were never going to see the light of day is irrelevant. They'd already made the business decision. Also, the software didn't make MS any money.
Huh? The Windows version of both IE7 and Windows Media Player work on Windows XP and they are both free downloads. They aren't tied to Vista and don't make MS money.
If you'd argued they were strategically important to Windows but not to the Mac you'd have a case.
Originally posted by akhomerun
ummm...isn't it a LOT easier to make a virtual machine when you don't have to deal with going from X86 to PPC?
Yep but the problem was VPC for Mac had a lot of coding done at very low levels. It's quite likely true that they will scrap VPC for Mac's code and start again. With hardware support for virtualisation that does seem the logical way to go. I strongly suspect they will actually port VPC for PCs back to macs.
Originally posted by aegisdesign
As a web designer I'd have to argue that it already is.
But I am not a "web designer". I'm just a guy that has a few web pages.
And being slow on everyone's computer doesn't make it any better.
Originally posted by JohnnySmith
I am not confused. Unless Microsoft pulls off a miracle I doubt Windows will run nearly as fast in a virtual state inside Mac OS instead of being diretly booted up on it's own.
Take a look at what the people are saying about Parallels. http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/feedback/....html#storytop
Any VM solution is going to be slower than a native one, but nothing like the slowness of emulating a completely different processor architecture.
Besides, who cares if Microsoft does it? VMWare and Parallels are coming out with commercial products. There are multiple Open Source initiatives, and I wouldn't be surprised if Apple includes something like it in a future OS release.
Rather than a PC emulator, I'm hoping for a generic system emulator so I can install multiple versions of Mac OS X, the linux flavors, and Windows. This way, developers can test for OS and browser compatibility without the overhead of multiple partitions and reboots, etc.
Originally posted by bedouin
...they didn't even program the current VPC.
Exactly! THis never would have been an issue with Connectix.
Originally posted by aegisdesign
Huh? The Windows version of both IE7 and Windows Media Player work on Windows XP and they are both free downloads. They aren't tied to Vista and don't make MS money.
If you'd argued they were strategically important to Windows but not to the Mac you'd have a case.
dws is correct. Microsoft has been in the process of killing non-revenue generating products for quite some time. When it killed IE:mac, Microsoft also killed IE as a separate application on all other platforms. Safari had nothing to do with it. Microsoft intended to integrate IE into Windows Longhorn. (This was years before Longhorn became Vista.) At any rate, before Microsoft could get Longhorn/Vista onto the shelves, security vulnerabilities inundated IE6. Corporate customers were in full revolt. Microsoft was forced to revive IE:win. Reluctantly, it unbundled IE7 from Longhorn/Vista and released it as a separate product. Had it not done so, Corporate America would have adopted Firefox in droves.
The takeaway message here is that Microsoft makes decisions to address Microsoft issues. Increasingly, the Redmond Monopoly is playing defense.