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That _would_ be a good reason not to release MacOS X for PCs, but even if all PCs were absolutely 100% compatible to each other, Apple would still not release MacOS X for PCs for the reasons I said - because they make more money from selling Macs than they could make from selling operating systems.
Considering that they release Darwin for free this isn't surprising. I think the number reason not to release OS X for PCs is the support nightmare more than anything else. No amount of money would be worth it to them to deal with that.
How can I be sure that it is not a pirated copy?
Sigh. How about looking at it? How about checking to see if it is still sealed? OS X Lion came on USB sticks and not discs. While it isn't impossible to counterfeit these sticks, there's simply not enough incentive to do so.
If Apple won't sell it to me, it is awfully hard to establish how it came to be.
And you've never heard of anyone selling an unopened box of Windows? Or an unopened box of any software.
It could be a copy that was previously used on another computer - but even if I take the seller's word that they aren't using it anymore on their own computer it still isn't coming from Apple.
Again if you don't want used software that's your problem. It isn't a pirated copy and the only person that might care is Apple. And they don't.
Well, that is dependent on how much you trust second hand sellers of OS X. What I cannot do is purchase it from Apple.
What I'm hearing from you is that you're not really serious in your complaint. You want to put as many obstacles in your complaint so that no one could ever resolve it. Next thing you won't install it unless Steve Jobs himself gives you the copy.
Here is what a reasonable person would do: Buy OS X Lion still sealed new in the box. There is no step 2.
FibreChannel and Ethernet are pretty narrowly purposed towards networking.
FireWire was narrowly purposed towards low latency, high bandwidth transfers. That's why there was never a FireWire mouse or FireWire printer ports. It was overkill for these purposes. It was never designed to connect any and all peripherals. You are completely missing this point.
In theory they could be competitors to USB and Firewire and Thunderbolt but in practice they generally are not. You can do things like drive a monitor over Ethernet but people rarely do so. Similarly you can connect to a network over USB or Firewire or Thunderbolt but in practice people rarely do.
Oh really? Search for Thunderbolt dock. You don't use TB like this but many others do.
Thunderbolt on the other hand is being aimed at video and storage much like Firewire is/was. USB overlaps with those use cases fairly heavily.
Again, it is not. According to Intel and others it is aimed to almost expose PCIe bridge to connections rather than replacing USB. USB again cannot do what this. It adds a layer of complexity on top of it.
Virtually everyone has USB storage and USB monitors have become a thing. I have a USB monitor I use fairly often and it works great.
Since when? No one I know has a USB driven monitor so it cannot be everyone. Yes they have monitors that have USB ports but these are to use as a USB hub. The input is VGA, DVI, or HDMI.
Which matters not one tiny bit to most users. The few who need the modest advantages of an old version of USB over an older version of Firewire have it available to them. The number of use cases affected is pretty much the very definition of niche.
Again you are completely missing the point. If you need sustained transfers like digital video back in the day, you wanted a FireWire not a USB. That's why professional used FireWire long after everyone else stopped using it.
I could do the same thing using Thunderbolt but it would cost me a LOT more money to do it plus I'd still need USB for the mouse and keyboard.
How the hell is TB going to cost you a lot more money? If your laptop has it, then it has it. Now if you don't have TB and you have to get a new laptop to get it, that's a different story. But if your laptop didn't have eSATA or USB 3, then you are going to have to get a new laptop to get it, it's more expense than your old laptop. A TB dock also has USB ports, BTW.
However the latest incarnations (3.0 & 3.1) of USB are fast enough that they can do video too for the most common use cases out there.
Again there is a reason why professionals are getting TB devices.
Thunderbolt is technically better but there is a strong chance that won't matter any more than it did for Firewire. Anywhere USB and Thunderbolt compete I don't think Thunderbolt will fare well even though most of us would probably prefer it.
Other than the fact that Intel is the one pushing it and is part of their ultrabook specification? Other than most of the laptop manufacturers are starting to make laptops with it?
My wife recently upgraded her iPhone to iOS7. Of course nobody* told her it requires iTunes 11 to run. But her laptop is an old one running on 10.5.something. And guess what, iTunes 11 won't install on anything less than 10.6.8 or so.
Um Leopard (10.5) was released 6 years ago and was last updated supported in 2009. So as a geek, you haven't updated your wife's machine in 4 years. That means that it was vulnerable to security holes and bugs for 4 years.
Of course an upgrade costs $20. So now a supposedly free upgrade is going to cost $20, or else my wife won't be able to get pictures and stuff off her phone. Luckily it's not a PPC, otherwise she'd be really screwed. Just missed that by a few months.
The upgrade for Leopard to Snow Leopard has always been $29. The fact that you avoided it for years does not mean that you should get it for free. Also the fact that Apple still supports it even though it is now 3 versions older than the current says that Apple still works with older products.
Because I am not opposed to paying for good software. I am perfectly willing to pay for software if it works well, but they won't sell it to me. I haven't pirated software in well over a decade and don't plan to do it again. Hell, I don't even care about whether or not I can get support from them, I just want a legitimate license.
Again you can get OS X for a Hackintosh. Buy a copy on ebay. It's not a pirated copy. Apple places no validation on their OS but OS X will only recognize certain hardware. Any Hackintosh site will tell you which boards/chips/etc can be used.
That is not without precedent, actually, Lenovo in particular has more than once in recent memory offered free windows updates to customers who purchased within a certain time window of a new version. They have also offered free "downgrades" for people who want to run older versions.
Outside this period which I already mentioned, you don't get Windows update for free. You pay a lower price for updates vs full retail but you still pay.
That said, if you want to run windows you can go and purchase a legitimate license for whatever version you want. I can't do that with Mac OS X.
But it's not free. And you can still purchase OS X. Today.
One, as best I can tell I still cannot purchase a license for OS X to install on a hackintosh. Hence any installation as such is violation of the terms (and likely of copyright as well) for OS X.
If you are willing to do without support, what does that matter?
Two, the notion of being able to get OS X "for free" does not adequately describe the situation. it is only "free" for people who have already paid for it by purchasing an apple computer.
And you got free OS updates when you buy a Dell, HP, Lenovo PCs? Other than OEM PCs bought in an interim period right before the release of a new OS, you had to pay for an update except for Window 8. If you built your own PCs, you didn't even get the OS free with the hardware.
please explain how the hard profit percentage has anything to do with the eating everyone else? apart from that your figure of 45% is nonsense unless its from before 2004 (earliest I could find figures for),
Apple has never released profit for divisions as far as I can tell. Doing so would give too much advantage to competitors. Apple does release overall profit.
I've just gone and looked through apples own figures for divisional profit and they are not even close to your 45% figure
That would be impossible as Apple does not release divisional profit numbers.
apart from iphones and iphones are rapidly losing worldwide market share.
Last time I checked profit and market share are not the same thing. A company can be wildly profitable and have a small market share.
I've heard that explanation as well, and it is pure speculation and most likely wrong.
Oh really? Do you know how many variations of video cards you get with nVidia and AMD alone? When I had a PC, I can tell you that an updated driver from either of them had a chance of making your video unusable to the point where you had to roll back to a previous driver. Add in drivers for Ethernet, sound, etc and and it's not pure speculation. It's fact. Apple has invested a great deal in customer support. Can you imagine the sheer number of appointments they would have to deal with for hardware problems that they had nothing to do with/ability to fix?
I am one of those who would be willing to purchase an OS X license to install on a non-Apple PC. Yet they don't even give the option to do so.
If you want to install OS X on a Hackintosh, you still can. This does not change that aspect at all.
% APL is a natural extension of assembler language programming; ...and is best for educational purposes. -- A. Perlis