Comment Re:Dupe, (Score 1) 417
Ahhh... the birth of a meme...
Ahhh... the birth of a meme...
You're probably a bot.
Umm... I don't know if the editor noticed, but this article was published over a year ago.
How is this news?
Ok, honestly... how hard would it really be to put together a SIMPLE consumer OS?
Basically you need a browser, a media player and library and a file browser.
From there you *might* throw in a simple drawing program, text editor, calculator and a few other widgets.
The key is to simplify everything. Throw out all the extra bells and whistles, hire some good UI designers.
I personally don't think this is rocket science and most of these components are out there already just waiting to be put together. You could probably pull this off with a team of 100-200 programmers.
As for the hardware... these guys are already hardware manufacturers and know how to put together a machine. So, factor that part out.
The problem with Linux, to be honest, is that people want it to support whatever crappy computer they already own. Dell, HP or whoever could easily produce standardized systems that they have optimizied drivers for and that are fully tested. No need to support 800 different wifi cards, video drivers, disk controllers and other nonsense.
Let's be clear: Dell and HP could put this in motion of they had vision and balls. This wouldn't even have to be that significant of an investment on their part to get started. Look at how quickly Apple took BSD and whipped up OS X.
I own a mac and use OS X every day as my main computer. Let me tell you, it's buggy, single threaded and sometimes just annoying to use. Apple does a lot of things that are either just backwards or braindead. Everything else is just eyecandy.
Dell and HP DO have access to such an advantage... It's called Linux. They could make an investment in improving the Linux desktop and utilize Linux as their custom operating system.
Why don't they do this? Because they completely lack vision and they are sellers of commodity, crap electronics and not high-value systems integrators.
I personally think the MPAA and RIAA are behind this. They are the only ones who are really actively trying to find ways to identify Apple as a monopoly. If they can maintain that Apple has a monopoly here then the next step would be to sue them for having a monopoly on sales of digital content to OS X.
Remember... it first had to be proven that MS had a monopoly on the PC operating system before it could be proven they were using that monopoly power to compete unfairly in the browser business.
If Psystar shows that Apple has a monopoly on OS X and Apple computers, the MPAA and RIAA could then sue Apple over claims they are abusing that monopoly power to control digital content sales.
Why hide behind Psystar? Because if it doesn't work they would have a lot of egg on their face and much weaker negotiating position with Apple. This way they can pursue the claims secretly while they separately try and negotiate better deals with Apple as well as develop competitive products and channels. And, at a later date could probably bring the claims back under slightly different circumstances through a different shell.
It's also possible that MS is behind this. Forcing Apple to have to support general hardware would put them on a level playing field with MS. It could force Apple to publish their APIs and other system hooks. In addition it would create room for a serious low-cost competition for Apple and thus damage their hefty margins.
MS wouldn't do this in order to promote OS X adoption, but rather to hinder and hobble Apple and create new competitive threats for Apple that they are ill equipped to handle at present.
New York... when civilization falls apart, remember, we were way ahead of you. - David Letterman