“Let’s imagine that Steve Jobs wasn’t kidding when he said he didn’t want to show Leopard’s Top Secret stuff at last year’s WWDC. He wasn’t merely having fun at Microsoft’s expense knowing full well how close Vista was coming to the look (but not feel) of OS X. He was quite serious at playing his cards not just close to his vest, but playing a bet-the-house, put-up or shut-up game of poker,” Les Posen blogs for CyberPsych.
“Let’s also imagine that a man who can turn Apple around from a basket case to one of the most admired companies (coming #1 innovator in BusinessWeek’s estimation three years running), keep OS X-on-Intel secret for years, then adapt Intel’s brains and hearts inside his laptops and desktops, really wanted to make the computing world situp and pay attention,” Posen writes.
Posen asks, “How about making Leopard able to run Windows apps without Windows?”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Possible marketing angle: “This Leopard can change its spots.”
Related articles:
Apple’s Leopard delay not so much about iPhone as ‘top secret’ features? – April 14, 2007
The Red Box Myth: Why Apple’s Mac OS X Leopard will not run Windows software natively – May 13, 2006
Mac OS X Leopard to contain ‘Red Box’ for natively running Windows applications? – June 23, 2005
Yipee! Now I can run crappy Windows apps on my Mac without Windows. So? They are still crappy windows apps…
Not this one again. Apple is not going to sign up to support windows, a windows emulator, or a windows compatibility library.
-jcr
Not this one again. Apple is not going to sign up to support windows, a windows emulator, or a windows compatibility library.
-jcr
Not this one again. Apple is not going to sign up to support windows, a windows emulator, or a windows compatibility library.
-jcr
Not this one again. Apple is not going to sign up to support windows, a windows emulator, or a windows compatibility library.
-jcr
If about ten years ago Apple won the rights to the Win32 API in their technology swap deal with MS, surely Apple also have the rights to ‘give it away’ in their OS. Sure would be cheaper than being forced to buy Vista Ultimate or XP.
this is the nuke bomb we hope they drop on Redmond
The only thing I would use: SoulSeek. Unfortunately, the PC version is better than any Mac client I’ve seen. I used to use it at my old job on the neglected PC we had in our creative dept.
…take AAPL past $150.
It’s a great thought, but providing support would be an absolute nightmare for Apple. As long as it provides Boot Camp for booting Windows natively, plus you also have alternatives like Parallels for running Windows within OS X of course, Leopard is going to continue to be far superior to anything else that’s available.
Dont mean to bust the bubble…but this is not going to happen…ever. That would literally be like Apple shooting itself in the foot, becuase its doing everything to support Windows….and now its one step closer…above and beyond the danger zone. I’d rather use Paralles for that 1 program, or Bootcamp to play games on my Macbook Pro under Windows.
I really don’t see how this idea supports Windows. It means that we can run their apps without Windows, it means less copies of Windows are sold. Am I missing something?
Um, let’s see, I’ve got Photoshop, Aperture, iWork, iLife, Freeway Express, and a host of niche apps. What on earth could I want from the Windows world? Ah, well, hmm, um, nope, maybe, nah… I got it!
Neverwinter 2.
But not bad enough to install Windows.
CodeWeavers?
They have done this to a limited extent, being able to run quite a few Win apps in Mac OS X without Windows.
However it takes time to get the apps to work decently and some apps that worked before then don’t work in their later versions.
DirectX would be a significant problem.
Apple really needs to slide under the huge development body of Windows apps, sucky as they are.
Problem of course is over 95% of exploits occur in applications. Mac OS X hasn’t been doing to well at protecting itself from these bad third party coders.
Third party developers use their apps as a trojan horse to gain root access and hold your spent money hostage in order to get root to install what they want.
Root installs are a serious security issue and degrade the overall great Mac OS X security experience.
Bruce,
If you’re missing something, I’m missing it too. The support for windows apps will intice more users to switch. Now they have to switch and add 3rd party software to bridge gap to OSX. With native support, they can avoid that extra expense and effort, which now only serves as a further barrier to switching. There are a lot of users who only hang on to windows for the sake of one or a few programs that don’t exist for Mac. Once they are assured that they can let go of that final tie, there is no limit to the toppling effect this will have on the MS downfall.
Hardly likely. There would be no incentive for dual platform developers to keep developing for the Mac, and it would be a huge threat to Mac only developers who craft their software to the UI rules of Mac OS X being run over by possibly cheaper Windows apps.
It won’t ever happen.. It’s been discussed countless times as to the technological and more importantly the legal reasons why. No point in beating a dead horse about it, just understand, it CAN’T happen.
Apple can’t really grow any faster than they are doing without possibly losing quality. They don’t need windows emulation. Boot Camp and others are more than enough. People are switch at a huge rate, they just need to pretty much keep progressing at the rate they are to beat Mircosoft – if that’s even the goal.
Gamers main complaint is the speed of the graphics card, and they like to install themselves the latest and greatest one. I don’t think they really care which OS they run their games on, just the performance. Personally, I don’t need any Windows app, though I know there are a few good ones out there. I have never have had a sunroof in any car, so I don’t need one…but, if I did have one and got used to it, I would probably want one on my next purchase. But, Boot Camp solves this with only an OS purchase. The end result is not dramatic enough to me, though I am sure some would disagree.
What if Jobs was not kidding, when he said “We’ve kept our marriage secret for over a decade now.”? May be Windows App running on OSX is fruit of such relationship and they plan to jointly announce the arrival of Leopard, replacing both OSX and Windows.
@Majikthize
under this scenario Windows would not be needed at all. The apps would run natively in OSX.
It would indeed remove any excuse for anyone not use Macs.
I hope so. After all, the use of Windows apps would only be a temporary requirement.
Apple would have to include some kind of protection layer to keep all the lovely windows apps known as viruses and malware at bay.
Yes, it would make switching less painful, but at what cost? Would the Mac become just another windows box?
There needs to be some standard for quality software. Mac developers seem to take pride in a quality experience and interface. 90% of windows software is just crap to match the OS and the hardware.
I am SO ready to put AutoCad on my Mac.
I don’t believe it. Bootcamp (or Parallels) is great for both Apple AND Microsoft. It allows the former to run Windows apps; for the latter it means more copies of Windows are sold. I don’t think Apple would want to break this win-win scenario. Remember, MS is still a very powerful beast, even if its powers are on the wane.