What do you think will happen with hardware "open-ness?" Not in terms of running OS X on wintels, (I guess we're gonna have to come up with a new name for that now...) but in terms of upgrading Macs? Obviously, The Switch leaves apple open to marketing problems with folks who will now basically look at Intel Macs as overpriced, proprietary PCs. While I don't think this will be as big of a problem as some people seem to, I am concerned. And it will be a bigger problem if you can't upgrade processors, motherboards, whatever. Because then you really do have a closed, expensive system. It would certainly be a turnoff for me; I am a lifelong, dedicated Mac user. But as I need a very high-end system for my work, I can't justify paying that much more for the UI if the hardware is the same. I may eventually trasnition to Windows just for the price. Not saying that I will -- just might. But I am willing to pay more for a Mac if I can actually keep it for more than 18 months without feeling like a sucker. So, no more hardwired processors? Please.
Modern OSes are structured in layers and only the very bottom layer(s) can be considered to be "glued" to the hardware, so this isn't an entirely new concept. Almost all of OSX, LINUX and Windows already "floats" above the hardware. I think what's new here is the concept of persuading all OS makers to use Xen as their lowest layer. It remains to be seen if this technology ever becomes widely accepted, particularly by open-source haters like Microsoft.
This still looks like something that keeps each OS separate and unaware of each other, so I believe VirtualPC remains a superior alternative for OSX users. VirtualPC is an existing and widely used product while Xen is still experimental at this point.
Regardless how you end up running Windows on the Apple X86 hardware, the important thing is that Office is likely to remain available to Mac users even if the OS war moves from conventional to nuclear. As long as OSX users feel motivated to also buy a copy of Windows and Office, I don't see MSFT having much to complain about.
Novell's SuSE 9.3 and (today) RedHat's Fedora Core 4 have shipped with Xen. I suspect in the future many of the major Linux distributions will include Xen in their default install or as an add-on.
Novell's SuSE 9.3 and (today) RedHat's Fedora Core 4 have shipped with Xen. I suspect in the future many of the major Linux distributions will include Xen in their default install or as an add-on.
So, if I have multiple copies of LINUX running on my desktop machine simultaneously, what useful things would I be able to do as a result?
Actually, no, you are wrong. Read Microsoft's 2004 10-K. They have 7 business sectors: Client; Server and Tools; Information Worker; Microsoft Business Solutions; MSN; Mobile and Embedded Devices; and Home and Entertainment.
Here are the operating incomes (loss) in millions for each:
Client is the Windows OS (client version) : $8,015
Server & Tools are the Enterprise: $96
Information Worker is Office: $7,151
Microsoft Business Solutions are end-to-end business products: $(255)
MSN: $121
Mobile & Embedded is WinCE, etc.: $(224)
Home & Entertainment is Xbox (and ironically, the MacBU): $(1,215)
So, they made almost $1B more profit in Windows sales than Office. Office and Windows are their only cash cows. The rest are "bets" the company is hedging on.
They are NOT giving up Windows any time in the foreseeable future.
By the way, the reason the MacBU is included in the Home & Entertainment was to offset the gaping losses for the XBox. They were bleeding much closer to $2 Billion before they made the move to include MacBU quarterly sales with those of the XBox.
So, if I have multiple copies of LINUX running on my desktop machine simultaneously, what useful things would I be able to do as a result?
It depends on what you want to do. A lot of people use Novell's iFolder that is not available on other distro's. You might not want to use Novell Linux Desktop for everyday use, instead you choose Debian, but you want to run iFolder. Xen makes it possible.
Plus, Xen is currently working on getting non-Linux OS's implemented so people can run, say, WindowsXP on top of Debian. Or Novell. Or Fedora Core.
Comments
Originally posted by MACchine
YOU ARE VERY LUCKLY I FOUND THIS...
http://www.sci-tech-today.com/story....story_id=34175
Modern OSes are structured in layers and only the very bottom layer(s) can be considered to be "glued" to the hardware, so this isn't an entirely new concept. Almost all of OSX, LINUX and Windows already "floats" above the hardware. I think what's new here is the concept of persuading all OS makers to use Xen as their lowest layer. It remains to be seen if this technology ever becomes widely accepted, particularly by open-source haters like Microsoft.
This still looks like something that keeps each OS separate and unaware of each other, so I believe VirtualPC remains a superior alternative for OSX users. VirtualPC is an existing and widely used product while Xen is still experimental at this point.
Regardless how you end up running Windows on the Apple X86 hardware, the important thing is that Office is likely to remain available to Mac users even if the OS war moves from conventional to nuclear. As long as OSX users feel motivated to also buy a copy of Windows and Office, I don't see MSFT having much to complain about.
Originally posted by Gene Clean
Novell's SuSE 9.3 and (today) RedHat's Fedora Core 4 have shipped with Xen. I suspect in the future many of the major Linux distributions will include Xen in their default install or as an add-on.
So, if I have multiple copies of LINUX running on my desktop machine simultaneously, what useful things would I be able to do as a result?
Originally posted by atomicham
Actually, no, you are wrong. Read Microsoft's 2004 10-K. They have 7 business sectors: Client; Server and Tools; Information Worker; Microsoft Business Solutions; MSN; Mobile and Embedded Devices; and Home and Entertainment.
10-K from the SEC
Here are the operating incomes (loss) in millions for each:
Client is the Windows OS (client version) : $8,015
Server & Tools are the Enterprise: $96
Information Worker is Office: $7,151
Microsoft Business Solutions are end-to-end business products: $(255)
MSN: $121
Mobile & Embedded is WinCE, etc.: $(224)
Home & Entertainment is Xbox (and ironically, the MacBU): $(1,215)
So, they made almost $1B more profit in Windows sales than Office. Office and Windows are their only cash cows. The rest are "bets" the company is hedging on.
They are NOT giving up Windows any time in the foreseeable future.
By the way, the reason the MacBU is included in the Home & Entertainment was to offset the gaping losses for the XBox. They were bleeding much closer to $2 Billion before they made the move to include MacBU quarterly sales with those of the XBox.
Originally posted by Tidris
So, if I have multiple copies of LINUX running on my desktop machine simultaneously, what useful things would I be able to do as a result?
It depends on what you want to do. A lot of people use Novell's iFolder that is not available on other distro's. You might not want to use Novell Linux Desktop for everyday use, instead you choose Debian, but you want to run iFolder. Xen makes it possible.
Plus, Xen is currently working on getting non-Linux OS's implemented so people can run, say, WindowsXP on top of Debian. Or Novell. Or Fedora Core.