“I spent a lot of time last week reading the Microsoft employee blogs and apparently there is some reasonably strong feeling among many folks who work there that the wrong ‘Steve’ is running the company. This is, in my view, a ‘grass is greener on the other side of the fence’ type of perception — since ‘the other Steve,’ Jobs, that is, is neither known for being a good software guy nor being anywhere near as employee-focused as Microsoft’s executives are. He does, however, have skills that Microsoft could use desperately right now,” Rob Enderle writes for TechNewsWorld. “Clearly there would be some anti-trust hurdles in an acquisition of Apple by Microsoft, but the oil companies seem to be able to get through those reasonably well and both Apple and Microsoft have clearly done the ‘impossible’ before. Setting these concerns aside, let’s imagine what might result from such a merger.”
“While it is easy to point to the acquisition of NeXT by Apple as an example of when a purchase fixed a problem like the one Microsoft had recently with Vista, Apple really isn’t an OS company, and Microsoft’s problem is vastly broader than just its OS,” Enderle writes.
MacDailyNews Take: Uh oh, Rob’s clearly off his meds again. Microsoft’s “problem” with Vista is happening now, so “had” should be “has” in Rob’s last sentence. Enderle states, “Apple really isn’t an OS company.” What’s that supposed to mean? Apple right now offers what is simply the world’s best operating system; a feat they’ve accomplished at least three times before with totally different, unique OSes, by the way. Is Rob about to tell his readers that Microsoft wrote the first Mac OS again?
Enderle continues, “Microsoft has lost the support of many of its critical employees, partners and customers, and even the U.S. government shows little interest in protecting the company from foreign threats. Microsoft has a major image problem and an apparent inability to either recognize or deal with it. In addition, Microsoft appears to have a leadership problem, one it likely shares with companies like GE, GM, and Ford these days, where the executives are isolated, regularly tricked into making bad decisions, and aren’t taken very seriously. Broad image problems are the responsibility of marketing and public relations executives. While Apple’s public relations is mixed, its marketing is second to none and, having made the mistake of comparing potential customers to lemmings years ago, the company would probably immediately see that referring to its own customers as dinosaurs for not buying their latest offering, wasn’t particularly wise.”
“According to the Microsoft blogs, the one place inside Microsoft that doesn’t have many problems is the Mac Business Unit, which is arguably more closely connected with Apple than Microsoft these days. This would indicate a strong foundation for the belief that Apple could help Microsoft — but could Microsoft help Apple? Why Apple Needs Microsoft: The obvious word here is ‘Office,’ but recall that Microsoft provided Apple with critical funding (US$150 million) when it was about to go under so that the firm could come out with new hardware and finish its new operating system. In addition, Microsoft, in continuing to support Apple with Microsoft Office, allows Apple to sell in a lot of places it otherwise would be locked out of,” Enderle writes.
MacDailyNews Take: Microsoft’s $150 million was a dog and pony show for the media, not “critical funding.” Even in the dark days of 1997, Apple had $4.233 billion in total assets at the time Microsoft purchased those long-ago-sold $150 million in non-voting Apple shares. The real deals there were Microsoft’s promise to support Office for the Mac for 5 years (a promise that they’ve recently restated) and the payment to Apple by Microsoft of an “undisclosed” amount to settle the “look and feel” legal issues.
Enderle continues, “Imagine what would result if a new Apple OS was based on the new Windows kernel rather than on Unix.”
MacDailyNews Take: LOL! Yeah, just imagine. Imagine also, if you will, that Ben & Jerry’s replaced sugar and cream with sand and crude oil. Yum, yum! Imagine how quickly we’d switch to Linux if this particular bit of Enderlunacy came true.
Enderle continues, “Apple’s machines are long on usability but short on interoperability, which is almost the mirror opposite of Microsoft products like Media Center. In fact, Microsoft could help dramatically in getting Apple platform products to work seamlessly in Windows environments and make a Media Center product jointly developed vastly more attractive and profitable.”
MacDailyNews Take: Ooh, goody! Microsoft can help Apple make products that are long on interoperability and short on usability. Our proposed marketing slogan: “They don’t work very well, but they sure can interoperate!” We can see the midnight lines forming already.
Enderle continues, “Now, an Apple-Microsoft merger may not necessarily be a good idea because it may go too far. Much of what makes both companies interesting is what is unique to each firm. I honestly don’t see a chance that the U.S. government would allow such a merger to take place anyway. But how about a broad partnership? If Apple’s next generation OS — Leopard — was ready now the company could take some market share from Microsoft in the 4th quarter, but Apple probably wouldn’t be able to hold onto it. All reports say Leopard won’t be ready until 2007, after Vista ships, anyway.”
MacDailyNews Take: In all of the reports that we’ve read and covered, Apple is slated to release Leopard, the next release of OS X, either late 2006 or early 2007. Vista’s most-recent slip has it being released in January 2007. Based upon past performance, no one should have any confidence that Microsoft will hit that date. Besides, if properly introduced to the world, Apple’s Mac OS X 10.2 Jaguar — which debuted years ago — could take share from Microsoft’s Windows, as could Mac OS X 10.3 Panther and 10.4 Tiger. Apple doesn’t need a “next-gen” Leopard when even their old Jaguar would stun 90-percent of the PC-using world with its UI and features. Sigh. If only Apple did a better job of showing the world the Mac and the benefits it offers…
Enderle continues, “What if Apple worked with Microsoft to make the iPod ‘Plays for Sure’-compliant, and Microsoft worked with Apple to make the Mac OS a true peer platform to Windows?”
MacDailyNews Take: Yeah, what if Apple made the iPod compliant with all of the online music services that nobody uses? One can only imagine the wide-ranging non-effects. What if the Mac OS became a “true peer platform” to Windows, whatever that means? Since it’s an Enderle suggestion, we’ll assume that whatever he thinks it means is pure stupidity.
Enderle continues, “Employees might also move more freely between the firms, providing a formal system of cross-pollenation in skills and practices that both could use.”
MacDailyNews Take: Yeah, Microsofties could go down to Cupertino whenever they wanted company-provided towels or stock options that don’t chart like a parking lot. Apple employees could head on up to Redmond whenever they want a dose of stifling bureaucracy or a tutorial on how to create tangled, bloated code coupled with unintelligible, ugly user interfaces. A perfect world indeed; like an Elvis existence: too high, take a downer; too down, take an upper. We can see the human resources videos already: “Apple employees, are you too happy, too optimistic? Do you think different and see a world where anything is possible? You need a dose of reality: transfer to Microsoft today!” “Microsoft employees, are you suicidal, trapped in your cubical, stifled under layers of retarded bureaucracy? Do you like the comfort of group think and are perfectly content with “good enough” results? It’s time for a trip to Cupertino!”
Enderle continues, “This is all an ideal-case scenario, and things seldom work that way. Apple historically has not been a good partner and the distrust that surrounds Microsoft is near legendary. Still, stranger things have happened. While neither company is in critical shape at the moment it does appear that both firms need each other right now — with an urgency that is unprecedented.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: iMacs in earthquakes and Paris Hilton in an Apple Store! Whenever you think Enderle can’t go any deeper off the end, he does it.
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Related articles:
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Big surprise: Enderle was wrong about Apple’s holiday quarter Mac sales – January 19, 2006
Enderle: Microsoft’s ‘PlaysForSure’ going to be a long-term problem for Apple – January 09, 2006
Enderle: Apple+Intel could be wonderful for those of us that love design and use Windows – December 26, 2005
Tech pundit Enderle: ‘Microsoft wrote the first Mac OS’ – September 28, 2005
Enderle: ‘iPod Halo Effect is just a myth, same thing as having Paris Hilton visit Apple stores’ – May 02, 2005
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Hey I got this crazy idea, how about this guy gets a F*kin* clue.
Enderle at a minimum seems to be forgetting “our” Steve’s ego.
You over-rate Jaguar. Panther however was the shiznit.
And all of your takes are off base, look at Rob’s fantasy not as a danger to Apple, but rather as FUD directed at Microsoft: “The only way your POS company can have a future is by buying Apple.”
Microsoft can’t afford Apple.
Don’t you just love when pundits break out the old “150 million invested to save Apple” saw?
I still have to set PC using pinheads straight about that whole episode.
Balmer is no software guy! That’s for sure!
Crack
Little off the topic
I was in the Apple store yesterday and let me tell ya it was booming in there. There were so many people in there it was crazy. Steve is doing very well with his stores from what I can see.
This sounds a lot like surrender.
Very good take on the article MDN. Those are some of the best comments I’ve seen from this site in a while!
Pathetic, the OS X fantasies that these windows chearleaders have. Take a stable securable kernel like BSD and replace it with the NT kernel which is fundamentally flawed (the reg and microsoft can’t get out from underneath it) and is difficult to secure. Now that makes sense.
As the windows “pundits” become more and more desperate, they become less (and less) rational, when the answer to their problems is as easy as switching horses. It should be an interesting year (like watching earthworms squirm in the bright sun on a hot sidewalk after a thunderstorm)
Inside the magical mind of Rob:
Imagine if chickens could fly.
Imagine if Bill decided to become a woman.
Imagine what would happen if you mated a lizard with a peacock.
Imagine if I had a deadline and couldn’t think of a $%^& thing to write.
Imagine if I turned my socks inside out and switched them?
Imagine if Vlad Lenin had written a song with no heaven.
Imagine a “group” of one. The army did it. So can I.
Imagine if people actually used a current Mac instead of just imagining.
Imagine gin for breakfast.
Imagine what would happen if I looked up the word, “interoperability.”
Imagine a long nap before my next interview.
I don’t know what this guy smoke, but I want the same thing 😀 …
Maybe Apple should do a leveraged buyout of Micorosoft and put Windows to sleep for good.
I’m sure not even Enderle has enough fingers to count the reasons why this is a bad idea and would never ever happen.
It makes you wonder whether Enderle just has a little tombola on his desk dishing out company names in case deadline is approaching.
clak-clak-clak-clak-clak-clak-clak-clak-DING!!
“Microsoft”
clak-clak-clak-clak-clak-clak-clak-clak-DING!!
“Apple”
“Hmmm…..What if Microsoft defies all logic, the legal ramifications, a shareholder revolt, and the lack of cash….and buys APPLE??? OK, I need 800 words…..here goes.”
The only respect I’ve got for the man is how he’s managed to fool the tech press into taking him seriously. Money for old rope Rob. Well done!
What if? We could play that game all day with any topic you could name. What if this guy got a clue?
When referring to Steve as “not a software guy”, who was he comparing him to at Microsoft? Steve Ballmer (the marketing guy), Bill Gates (the guy that took other people’s software and sold it) or someone else? Hey, at least Steve wrote the original Breakout!
If M$ bought apple (assuming the Gov approved) then I would bet that most Apple employees would abandon ship. Most loyal Mac consumers would also. M$ would then own something that would evaporate and Apple would disappear. Even if it did survive the merger, one company making two OSs that compete with each other would just lead to confusion. Merging OSX into Windows actually would be good technically but I don’t think current Windows users would appreciate that. Merging Windows into OSX would be ridiculous. I can’t see any value in this endeavor.
If M$ buys Apple I will castrate myself live on the web.
I read somewhere, can’t remember where, that M$s $150 million investment in Apple was payment for lifting code from Quicktime and used in one of their earlier media players. M$ also tried to strongarm Apple into dropping Quicktime and supporting Windows Media Player.
word=together…M$+Apple, never!
another reason I visit MDN, hack writers get less web hits, Thanks. If it did happen, Revolution, riots in the streets, Bill’s home street would look like W’s in Crawford TX., with Cindy Sheehans all over the place.
Wow. Was this from April 1????
He’s smoking some pretty strong stuff, me thinks. Yikes. Double yikes. His logic is dizzying.
“Clearly there would be some anti-trust hurdles in an acquisition of Apple by Microsoft”
That must count as the understatment of the year! Neither the FTC nor the European Union would approve such a merger, so it’s dead before it’s even happened.
BTW, did anyone check the *date* on Enderle’s story?
Imagine if Adobe bought Macromedia and killed Freehand and Dreamweaver and further reduced the options available to Mac users and continued to develop full featured versions to Windows only.
Poor Enderle, what a lousy way to get hits…
M$S sufferers, just get a Mac.
Hey Rob try to overcome your undermedicated haze for just a second and see the “vista” that this thing you call a “true peer platform” is what the EU complaint is all about!
How about you revise this part of the sentence to “and Microsoft worked honestly” with developers to provide accurate documentation to allow non-Microsoft products to be true peer platforms to Windows.”
Oh that’s right because the 20th century monopolists in Redmond would die a much faster 21st century death than they already are!
Clearly this is another case of Enderle writing for the sake of writing so that he can justify his job, forget about making any actual sense!
If this is not a delayed April 1st joke, then Enderle has just lost in an IQ contest to a fence post. Stupidity has no lower limit.
“While neither company is in critical shape at the moment it does appear that both firms need each other right now — with an urgency that is unprecedented.”
Apple moved up over 100 spots in the Fortune 500. It’s 1-year growth in profits ranks it 11th. It’s 1-year growth in revenues ranks it 13th. It’s stock price has had several years of astronomical increases. Macs are gaining market share. iPods/iTMS dominates its market.
Exactly what “unprecedented urgency” would drive Apple to need Microsoft?
If microsoft is 5 galons of orange juice
and apple is 1 galon of grape juice.
why mix them both?
it would ruin both flavors.
If microsoft is 5 galons of orange juice
and apple is 1 galon of grape juice.
why mix them both?
it would ruin both flavors.
If microsoft is 5 galons of orange juice
and apple is 1 galon of grape juice.
why mix them both?
it would ruin both flavors.
If microsoft is 5 galons of orange juice
and apple is 1 galon of grape juice.
why mix them both?
it would ruin both flavors.
Ahhhh…Enderle is back. All is right with the world.
I almost fell out of my chair when he concluded that Apple would benefit from making the iPod “Plays For Sure” compliant.
Then I actually did fall out of my chair at his suggestion that they could adopt the Windows kernel and drop the BSD kernel. Hey, what if Lexus dumped their engines and replaced them with some leftover Yugo engines stockpiled in a warehouse since the mid 80’s! Wouldn’t that be great???
And what is he talking about with the whole “interoperability” thing? I’m not sure exactly what he’s referring to but I’ve been the only Mac user in an all PC office on a few occasions and there’s never been a problem. I guess it’s silly of me to expect Comical Rob E. to actually know what he’s talking about.
Enderle seems to be on the bad crack again.
I must admit my eyes glazed over reading this stuff – both because of Enderle’s comments and also MDNs.
The situation right now at Microsoft isn’t really much like how things were at Apple when they bought NeXT to get themselves a new OS. The NT kernel, which underlies modern Microsoft desktop and server OS’s, is a modern kernel already with all the kind of features that Apple had been struggling to produce for years as part of the Copeland project. There was serious talk of Apple using the NT kernel – which wouldn’t have been that bad an idea really.
Replacing the NT kernel with XNU (the kernel Mac OS X uses) wouldn’t do anything to help Windows. Pile a load of crap on top of XNU and you’ll end up with crap – much like when Microsoft piled a load of crap onto the NT kernel they ended up with crap.
Microsoft could produce a great OS on top of the NT kernel… Only problem is that it would break compatibility with Windows. They could go for the approach that Apple did with Mac OS X and write an emulator (a Classic environment equivalent for Windows) but that in itself breaks compatibility with a big chunk of software. There’s quite a bit of stuff that won’t run under Classic.
The actual situation is a little more complex than this – there are a few problems with how the NT kernel works that could use fixing.
The only time I’ve ever heard anything quite as ridiculous as this is when the owner of the “idea” had missed several doses of their Lithium.
Really, he’s got to be on a manic phase this week.
Man, MDN, stop making me snort coffee out my nose!
Those takes were just too funny
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Imagine Microsoft buys Apple and Steve Jobs becomes the majority shareholder. Imagine a coup where Jobs takes over Microsoft from Gates just like he did when he returned to Apple.
I think I’m having a heart attack.
I see the light.
Is that you, Jesus?
Is that you?
Imagine I’m King Kong.
I want to go back to Skull Island.
In late 1999, Microsoft gave Best Buy $200M and got the same, non-voting stock. Guess they saved Best Buy from extinction also. Not!
Devorac and Enderle seem to be Brokeback Mountain buddies when it comes to Apple
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why not…
who gives if it is a unix kernel or a windows kernel… apple is a corperation and they exist to make money.
to the end user, it would still be a mac!
and to everybody out there who denies it, you can all go to “intel” to get an idea of where S.Jobs ethics lay.
I … AM … ENDERLE … !!!
IT’S…
IT’S…
SOOOO…
BIIIIIIGGGGG!
IT’S
IT’S…
SO BIIIGGGG!
MY POOOOOOO!!!
IT’S COMING OUT!!!
IT’S SO BIGGGG!!!
MY POOO ISS COMING OUT!!!
For I am Enderle.
I don’t know about M$ buying Apple but I know M$ already owns this s@#t head Enderle.
Make me a Microsoft Milkshake, Ballmey boy!!!
ARRRRRRRRR!!!!
Enderle’s right!
It IS so big!!!
Oh, Enderle!
If that wasn’t the greatest April 1st joke of all time then it was the greatest April 2nd or April 3rd joke of all time.
Any way you cut it, Rob Enderlie is the greatest technology joke of all time. He may be a Marketing Analyst but he definitely is not a Technology Analyst. He is perpetrating the biggest fraud of all time on the Technology Writers of America.
One big steaming pile of…(insert favorite expletive)
I think you are all missing the point. Really think about what was written here. There was no Mac people are deluding themselves and we should come to the dark side. There was no puffed up chest beating that windows is so much better. There is a straight admission that windows is in trouble and that the only thing that he can see to fix the problem is to buy Apple. Which is not an option. People at microsoft are breaking the code of silence and talking about what a screwed up placwe it is. The bosses at MS are being shown the incompitent people that they are. Vista is such a total copy of OSX (Widgets vs. Gadgets) Give me a break. I heard that 60% of tyhe Vista code will be re-written? Do I think that MS is going out of business…. NO. Do I think that this is the beginning of the end for people BLINDLY buying MS. I absolutly do.
I checked the date on his article. It’s 4/3/2006. It’s not an April Fool’s Day joke…he’s serious.
MDN, please post this again during Halloween. It’s funnier than hell, but the most scary thing is, Enerle *BELIEVES* this dreck!
Microsoft could never buy Apple. The shareholders wouldn’t allow it, Steve wouldn’t allow it, and the Government wouldn’t allow it. I’ll keep repeating that to myself through the day, and I’ll feel better eventually.
Enderle: “I’m the April Fool that just keeps giving all year ’round.”
enderle
1. noun – The back part of anything, especially a human, as in There’s a smell emanating from that person’s enderle.
2. noun – The buttocks, as in I’m afraid these pants don’t fit my enderly.
The noun enderle alone has been used in both these senses, the first since the late 1900s and the second since the early 2000s.
3. adj. – tiresomely long; seemingly without end; “enderle debates”; “an enderle conversation”; “the comment seemed enderle.”
4. adj. – occurring so frequently as to seem ceaseless or uninterrupted; “a child’s incessant, enderle questions”; “your perpetual, enderle complaints”
5. acronym – Epitomizing Nincompoop Diddler Echoing Rejected Locquatious Exaggerations
If Microsoft does this then it would solidify them as a Monopoly.
They need Apple to be popular and to grow to help them in the anti-monopoly trial coming up.
If Apple wanted to put a Fly in M$’s ointment they could re-release NeXT as a software only package that runs on generic PCs.
Imagine this:
Apple releases NeXT, without the Apple name attached, and it runs on generic PCs. It is essentially OS X, but with a different GUI the old NeXTStep/OpenStep would do) and a TCM flag that inhibits Final Cut Studio and other Pro apps from running. It’s a way to build the OS base rapidly without undercutting the high margin Pro Mac business model.
If Apple wanted to put a Fly in M$’s ointment they could re-release NeXT as a software only package that runs on generic PCs.
Imagine this:
Apple releases NeXT, without the Apple name attached, and it runs on generic PCs. It is essentially OS X, but with a different GUI the old NeXTStep/OpenStep would do) and a TCM flag that inhibits Final Cut Studio and other Pro apps from running. It’s a way to build the OS base rapidly without undercutting the high margin Pro Mac business model.
If Apple wanted to put a Fly in M$’s ointment they could re-release NeXT as a software only package that runs on generic PCs.
Imagine this:
Apple releases NeXT, without the Apple name attached, and it runs on generic PCs. It is essentially OS X, but with a different GUI the old NeXTStep/OpenStep would do) and a TCM flag that inhibits Final Cut Studio and other Pro apps from running. It’s a way to build the OS base rapidly without undercutting the high margin Pro Mac business model.
If Apple wanted to put a Fly in M$’s ointment they could re-release NeXT as a software only package that runs on generic PCs.
Imagine this:
Apple releases NeXT, without the Apple name attached, and it runs on generic PCs. It is essentially OS X, but with a different GUI the old NeXTStep/OpenStep would do) and a TCM flag that inhibits Final Cut Studio and other Pro apps from running. It’s a way to build the OS base rapidly without undercutting the high margin Pro Mac business model.
It would be the biggest disaster in the computer industry.
I think the only bit of truth in this guys whole article is the last bit where he says “Still, stranger things have happened.” This is obvious because he is still published by TNW and continues writing articles that people read. While he’s at it, let’s imagine what would happen and the cultural and economic benefits would be if the US government decided to have a personnel exchange with North Korea. I can see the endless possibilities already…
Hey Mr. Enderle:
With respect to your most recent misguided attempt at journalism, you posed the hypothetical question, “What if Microsoft Bought Apple?
Ahh… what if monkeys flew out of my butt?
In your article, you state, “Recall that Microsoft provided Apple with critical funding (US$150 million) when it was about to go under so that the firm could come out with new hardware and finish its new operating system.”
No…. no, I really can’t say I recall that. Stop trying to rewrite history to fit your Microsoft-tool viewpoint.
Says here at The Motley Fool that in the 3rd quarter of 1997, “Apple finished the quarter with over $1.2 billion in cash or cash net of both long and short term debt of $152 million.” I don’t know how anyone but you could possibly conclude from those numbers that Apple was about to go under, but for Microsoft riding in on a white horse with a cool $150 mil to save the company.
According to [url=”http://news.com.com/2100-1001-202143.html
“]CNet News[/url], “Microsoft chairman Bill Gates said today that the software giant will invest $150 million in Apple and will develop and ship future versions of its Microsoft Office, Internet Explorer, and development tools for the Macintosh.”
This is a “vote of confidence” move on Microsoft’s part, Rob. It’s simply Microsoft assuring the cash-carrying Macintosh faithful that yes, there will be more versions of Microsoft Office for them to purchase, and nothing more. It has Nothing To Do with Apple’s cash position at the time.
Imagine what would result if a new Apple OS was based on the new Windows kernel rather than on Unix. It would be much more acceptable to a broad cross section of companies that wouldn’t touch it with a ten foot pole today.
The truth is that the “broad cross-section” of companies wouldn’t touch Vista with a 10-foot pole — today, tomorrow or next year. Vista is still-born. Nobody wants its bloated nightmare on their computer, especially in the corporate and business world. As an IT Manager, you think I’m going to put that crap on my users’ desktops? Not a chance, buddy. The only way Vista will eventually gain market share is through consumer sales to unwary purchasers of new computer.
Most companies are only now getting around to upgrading to XP. There’s no way that Vista will see appreciable market share until early 2009 at the soonest.
Apple has a great chance right now to make inroads onto the corporate desktop, simply because Microsoft blew it, big-time. So tell me, why would Apple want to get involved in such a mess? Where’s the advantage in tying yourself to a sinking ship?
Now recall that Apple’s most successful products, iPods, are dominant because they run on Microsoft’s platforms and because Apple licensed the interface, creating a Microsoft-like infrastructure of accessories and partners to surround the product.
I’m not even gonna touch this. It’s simply not worth the time.
All in all, Rob, this is one of your worst, most ill-informed and poorly conceived pieces, ever. It’s a pathetic attempt to make Microsoft look good and Apple look like it’s floundering, when in truth, the exact opposite is the case.
You should really retire from writing and find a job where your misguided perceptions will do less harm. Say, in gardening. Or oyster-diving. Or maybe washing windows on skyscrapers. Or a logger, or a small-aircraft pilot, or a fisherman. Something where the mortality rate is really, really high.
Steve Johnson
Network Administrator / Webmaster
Vision Graphics, Inc.
MW: “Europe”, as in, “If I give Europe, will you go hang yourself?”
Life’s to short, I’m never reading another article that has Enderle in the title.
Instead of buying Apple, M$ should just license OSX from Apple as one of their disguntled employees suggested on the Windows blog.
word=game, as in “game over man”
Are you suuure Enderie and the President aren’t the same person??? Scary.
How about we look at this from another angle?
The solution would not be for Microsoft to buy Apple…but for APPLE to buy MICROSOFT!
Microsoft, admittedly, makes top-notch business software. Office is probably the premiere office bundle for both Macs and Windows (even my dad-in-law had to wean himself off of Lotus). And FileMaker notwithstanding, no one’s really made a dent in Access in terms of basic databases (for folks who don’t need Oracle or somesuch).
So here’s the deal — Apple develops a flavor of OS X that will run on computers currently running Windows. Maybe it would be a version that would not include all the whistles and bells available to Mac users; sort of an OS X Lite perhaps. Then Apple buys Microsoft, phases out the Windows division, and lets them concentrate on providing business and media software (perhaps incorporating QuickTime into Windows Media Player).
This would allow developers to no longer have to worry about providing content for both Windows and OS X, especially media providers who have to decide in what format to provide their products.
Hey, it could happen…
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I won’t waste time dissecting his arguments, ’cause that would be redundant, but I would like to ask where I can get a job like Enderle where I can spew the most ludicrous and illogical nonsense and get PAID for it.
MDN leave “The King” out of it.
Office is not good, just more proliferated.
Seems like Enderle wrote an April Fool’s article just for MDN…
I don’t have a defribolator.
Please. My heart.
It’s stooooooooooooooooooooooo
If this were to happen:
1. The new company would have to be a Steve Jobs dictatorship.
2. 10-20% of all Microsoft employees would be immediately fired. Not necessarily a bad thing. It is well known that Apple has better people. (They also pay more.)
3. Enderle talks about the importance of interoperability. Actually, they would need to stick with OS X since interoperability with Unix would suddenly be the only important kind of interoperability.
4. Basically, Apple would ditch its hardware business except the iPod, Microsoft would ditch its OS, and OS X would ship on all new PCs.
Yeah, but Bill would still have to dodge sniper fire and hurdle barricades to get to his office. Then, he would have to deal with the hostile employees.
While I’m loathe to defend good ol’ Robby in anything, I think the idea is an interesting topic to consider. Robby’s problem is that he doesn’t approach the topic in the hypothetical but wirtes like he’s somehow ‘in the know’ when he has no idea what he’s talking about. Now, if he had approached this article as a “What if”, it might have been an interesting conversational topic along the lines of “What if the Union lost in Gettysburg” or some such thing…
I love this line:
“Enderle continues, “Microsoft has lost the support of many of its critical employees, partners and customers, and even the U.S. government shows little interest in protecting the company from foreign threats.”
What, so it is up to the US government to plug the holes in Microshaft’s leaky boat? Gimme a break!
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Actually, he may be on to something! Maybe Vista IS Leopard!!! (same release dates?/big announcement). Maybe that’s the real reason Apple shifted to Intel?
When you think about Jobs selling small, dynamic Pixar to megatith, lumbering Disney (so Disney could get its hands on the vastly superior Pixar crown jewels), then it all makes some kinda errrrrr…. sense?
This guy is such a moron. He actually believes the token $150 million MS invested in Apple “saved” the company. And he believes a Mac OS X based on Windows would be great thing. No one can be THAT stupid. This must be a belated April Fools joke.
If MS continues to self-destruct, it will be Apple buying Microsoft soon enough. Then again, why would Apple want Microsoft (except maybe to get the Mac BU on the “home” team).
This article IS a joke, BUT, the take that “Microsoft’s $150 million was a dog and pony show for the media, not “critical funding.”, I am not sure about. You need to make up your OWN mind. Click the link below, download the 1997 Boston Keynote, fast forward to 27min in, and listen to the REST of the keynote. Jobs thought it was important and actually chides the audience for their boos – and believe me, I AM NO M$ APOLOGIST.
Download 1997 Boston Keynote Here
Information…process it you desire.
Information….process it as you desire.
Microsoft is long on interoperability?? What sandpit has he been playing in??
Typically the only place where MS interoperates well is in MS-Only shops, and even then a lot of their own products dont play well with each other!
Their ’embrace and extend’ policy makes interop with MS products in hetrogenous environments a nightmare!
Don’t hold your breath Rob, on second thought please do.
“This article IS a joke, BUT, the take that “Microsoft’s $150 million was a dog and pony show for the media, not “critical funding.”, I am not sure about. You need to make up your OWN mind. Click the link below, download the 1997 Boston Keynote, fast forward to 27min in, and listen to the REST of the keynote. Jobs thought it was important and actually chides the audience for their boos – and believe me, I AM NO M$ APOLOGIST.”
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Watch it again & think about the 1984 Superbowl commercial. What does the big picture of Bill Gates remind you of? That was my take.
For some reason, when I read the following article I thought of Rob,
http://www.guardian.co.uk/drugs/Story/0,,1746333,00.html?gusrc=rss