Does Apple have legal rights to stop anybody from using non Apple operating system on their new M chips?
Apple doesn't stop anyone from installing another OS, so that question doesn’t even make sense!
Sorry it does not make sense to you. But given that Apple has to protect it’s property and patents, trademarks, I thought of this.
I think it is quite obvious why it doesn’t make sense. By stating that Apple is not stoping anyone from doing it, there is no legal question to be asked about doing it. The mere ability of running different software does not imply that it is using Apple’s intelectual property. You can only analyse that hypothetical in a case by case basis, which means that we cannot assume to be legally impossible.
I wish Apple would allow alternate OSs on their iPadOS and iOS devices also.
I mean, you "can" go through the effort of putting Linux on an iPad. Fine: what are you going to do with it? It has 4 GB of RAM, as little as 32 GB of onboard storage - not the specs that you want for running an e-commerce stack, or even for coding and testing one - and isn't very cheap.
I started using Linux on a 386 with 4MB of memory and learned a lot about developing an OS kernel, device drivers, etc. You have a very limited perspective on things.
And far more practical alternatives exist: Android and Windows devices. Plus you can actually buy tablets with Ubuntu preloaded. They aren't big sellers but they exist. Before you say "but they have those slow Qualcomm and x86 CPUs", again what are you going to do with Linux running on an iPad? That you can't do with a Chromebook that has Linux built in already?
Having started out learning software development on PC hardware, then later moving to Mac and seeing incredibly well thought out and clean software and hardware design, I'd argue that there's a lot to be learned from a software and hardware design perspective. I often watch developers at Microsoft and Google present their new technologies and recognize how overly complicated and unintuitive they are compared to similar technologies I've seen from Apple. I think it would benefit software and hardware engineers greatly to gain experience with a wide variety of technology. The same way that travelling opens your mind to different cultures and different ways of living, instead of just assuming things and passing judgement based on a very limited perspective.
Does Apple have legal rights to stop anybody from using non Apple operating system on their new M chips?
No, you have the right to do whatever you want on your own hardware after you buy it.
But what if the legal department comes up with multiple page agreements that you agree to when buying the computer?
Do you really think the police are going to come knocking on your door if you install Linux on your Mac? The only reason Apple has those agreements is to prevent opportunistic companies from trying to make money off of reverse engineered Apple products. They could care less what hobbyists do.
Does Apple have legal rights to stop anybody from using non Apple operating system on their new M chips?
Apple doesn't stop anyone from installing another OS, so that question doesn’t even make sense!
Sorry it does not make sense to you. But given that Apple has to protect it’s property and patents, trademarks, I thought of this.
Yup, Apple isn't Google. Their core business is technology, not advertising. Google can open source and give everything away for free because, the more technology companies that are building their products using Android, the more customer data they get. It's very beneficial for them to have people reverse engineer technology and/or recreate it as open source because it devalues the products of competitors whose business model is based on creating and selling technology.
Now a Mac is different. Sure, the current 16 GB of RAM limits what Linux pros want/need but everyone knows that the real Macs with up to 128 GB of RAM will be available by next year. They want to buy those and use them as web and data center servers. Even the M1 Mac Minis with 8/16 GB of RAM running Linux can be used for load balancers and other light infrastructure tasks. Using an iPad for something like that for your job - as opposed to just something that you can hack for your own private network in your garage at home - would get you fired.
Personally, I would be happy to hire someone that could figure out how to do something like that. Obviously it would have to be balanced with the needs of the org, but someone who has the skills to do that probably has a lot of other valuable skills that could be used in the workspace too.
Now a Mac is different. Sure, the current 16 GB of RAM limits what Linux pros want/need but everyone knows that the real Macs with up to 128 GB of RAM will be available by next year. They want to buy those and use them as web and data center servers. Even the M1 Mac Minis with 8/16 GB of RAM running Linux can be used for load balancers and other light infrastructure tasks. Using an iPad for something like that for your job - as opposed to just something that you can hack for your own private network in your garage at home - would get you fired.
Personally, I would be happy to hire someone that could figure out how to do something like that. Obviously it would have to be balanced with the needs of the org, but someone who has the skills to do that probably has a lot of other valuable skills that could be used in the workspace too.
Comments
The mere ability of running different software does not imply that it is using Apple’s intelectual property. You can only analyse that hypothetical in a case by case basis, which means that we cannot assume to be legally impossible.
Having started out learning software development on PC hardware, then later moving to Mac and seeing incredibly well thought out and clean software and hardware design, I'd argue that there's a lot to be learned from a software and hardware design perspective. I often watch developers at Microsoft and Google present their new technologies and recognize how overly complicated and unintuitive they are compared to similar technologies I've seen from Apple. I think it would benefit software and hardware engineers greatly to gain experience with a wide variety of technology. The same way that travelling opens your mind to different cultures and different ways of living, instead of just assuming things and passing judgement based on a very limited perspective.
Do you really think the police are going to come knocking on your door if you install Linux on your Mac? The only reason Apple has those agreements is to prevent opportunistic companies from trying to make money off of reverse engineered Apple products. They could care less what hobbyists do.
Yup, Apple isn't Google. Their core business is technology, not advertising. Google can open source and give everything away for free because, the more technology companies that are building their products using Android, the more customer data they get. It's very beneficial for them to have people reverse engineer technology and/or recreate it as open source because it devalues the products of competitors whose business model is based on creating and selling technology.