Comment Mr.Jobs stands in the way of Apple Domination (Score 1) 385
It was an interesting scenario but never underestimate the ability of Steve Jobs to steer his ship right into the rocks.
There is no question that Jobs and Co. know how to make a great product. I was a fan of the Macintosh which I defended against a tide of cheap PCs and the NeXT machine which I advocated over cheap sun machines.
Both platforms demonstrated what Mr. Jobs is very good at: Bringing great ideas to the marketplace... BUT there is a reason why Mr.Gates is a multi Billionaire and jobs a multi Millionaire...
Steve Jobs has NEVER understood the concept of "cost of entry". As innovative as the Mac was, did any of you ever try to purchase the "Inside Macintosh Series: Vols I,II,&III?" That doesn't even count what you could expect to pay for actual TOOLS like compilers...
As nice as the Mac was (I liked it, even though I originally had the garbage 128k version that they dumped at my university) you could expect to pay at least 1.5 times MORE for mac hardware.
Even though they've made some adjustments and offer models in the <$1000 range, they do so in a world where you can get a new, functional PC for less than $500.
There is no question that a move to Intel hardware would greatly benefit Apple, but you are kidding yourselves if you think Mr.Jobs has a clue as to how to enlist the support of any but the richest Apple fanatics. Yeah, he might throw a bone in there to hook the people that he'll extort from later... but that is a FAR CRY from what the open source movement has to offer.
Case and point: I loved NeXTStep, and I was encouraged when NeXT ported it to Intel Hardware years ago... but originally, Jobs wanted $1000 for THE SOFTWARE (you could get a PC for that!) and thousands for the training classes necessary to make a serious bid for developing on that platform.
What of the NeXTSTEP heads now?
If they are like me, they are waiting on GNUStep on the assumption that GNOME/GTK doesn't make it irrelevant.
The point is this:
Linux and the *BSDs offer the highest levels of low-cost ACCESS which translates to the potential for the AVERAGE, non-I-have-too-much-money-to-burn developers to make the kind of contributions that give a platform its vitality.
Look at projects such as Apache, which dominates the http server market, Php, PostgresSQL, and Mysql:
All of which feature low cost access and/or low cost of ownership. These speak to the BOTTOM LINE and are probably the reason that there are so many ISPs running linux and *BSD shops.
Nope, Linux isn't quite ready for the desktop YET, but that is YET... and although, where I work, my manager has spent THOUSANDS of dollars with Microsoft to turn our NT boxes into Unix Boxes (X-windows standard functionality + $$$ = MS Windows 2000 Advanced Terminal Server) when the word gets out, not everyone will be down to pay Mr.Jobs OR Mr.Gates the money they ask for stuff that the "people that know" TAKE FOR GRANTED.
The cat is out of the bag gentlemen, and its name is "Open Source".
There is no question that Jobs and Co. know how to make a great product. I was a fan of the Macintosh which I defended against a tide of cheap PCs and the NeXT machine which I advocated over cheap sun machines.
Both platforms demonstrated what Mr. Jobs is very good at: Bringing great ideas to the marketplace... BUT there is a reason why Mr.Gates is a multi Billionaire and jobs a multi Millionaire...
Steve Jobs has NEVER understood the concept of "cost of entry". As innovative as the Mac was, did any of you ever try to purchase the "Inside Macintosh Series: Vols I,II,&III?" That doesn't even count what you could expect to pay for actual TOOLS like compilers...
As nice as the Mac was (I liked it, even though I originally had the garbage 128k version that they dumped at my university) you could expect to pay at least 1.5 times MORE for mac hardware.
Even though they've made some adjustments and offer models in the <$1000 range, they do so in a world where you can get a new, functional PC for less than $500.
There is no question that a move to Intel hardware would greatly benefit Apple, but you are kidding yourselves if you think Mr.Jobs has a clue as to how to enlist the support of any but the richest Apple fanatics. Yeah, he might throw a bone in there to hook the people that he'll extort from later... but that is a FAR CRY from what the open source movement has to offer.
Case and point: I loved NeXTStep, and I was encouraged when NeXT ported it to Intel Hardware years ago... but originally, Jobs wanted $1000 for THE SOFTWARE (you could get a PC for that!) and thousands for the training classes necessary to make a serious bid for developing on that platform.
What of the NeXTSTEP heads now?
If they are like me, they are waiting on GNUStep on the assumption that GNOME/GTK doesn't make it irrelevant.
The point is this:
Linux and the *BSDs offer the highest levels of low-cost ACCESS which translates to the potential for the AVERAGE, non-I-have-too-much-money-to-burn developers to make the kind of contributions that give a platform its vitality.
Look at projects such as Apache, which dominates the http server market, Php, PostgresSQL, and Mysql:
All of which feature low cost access and/or low cost of ownership. These speak to the BOTTOM LINE and are probably the reason that there are so many ISPs running linux and *BSD shops.
Nope, Linux isn't quite ready for the desktop YET, but that is YET... and although, where I work, my manager has spent THOUSANDS of dollars with Microsoft to turn our NT boxes into Unix Boxes (X-windows standard functionality + $$$ = MS Windows 2000 Advanced Terminal Server) when the word gets out, not everyone will be down to pay Mr.Jobs OR Mr.Gates the money they ask for stuff that the "people that know" TAKE FOR GRANTED.
The cat is out of the bag gentlemen, and its name is "Open Source".
