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It's similar to using web browsers. You were raised on using Internet Explorer on your Mac. You used it in preference to Netscape. You used it for years. Then you began to use other browsers such as Safari, Camino and Firefox. You then used Internet Explorer less and less. Your long-term allegience to Internet Explorer vanishes almost overnight. Then you wonder what you ever saw in using Internet Explorer in the first place.

This is precisely what I think will happen.

who pays for windows? no one i know, unless it came with their machine lol, i thinks they wont be selling too many more licences.

Microsoft ought to be worrying more what will happen if Macs start running Windows software without requiring Windows.

And whatever Apple implement into OSX, you can bet the Linux crowd will be swift on the uptake with something similar.

Everything for Microsoft is now pinned on Vista. If that doesn't get a swift takeoff, the rivals marketshare will climb very quickly.

andy: You make a good point. But now 3rd-parties are selling Macs with Windows XP pre-installed, in many cases for not much more than the OS X-only Mac.

Loving the momentum. Can't wait until August!!!!!

LordRobin, that doesn't really matter. If you're a Windows user and you consider buying a Mac, you go straight to Apple, not to third-party Mac makers. You go to either the store or their website.
Besides, I have no doubt that within the next few months Apple will shut down the production and the selling of those.

The greatest offensive launched since Operation Overlord. That would be D-Day 06 June 1944 for those who are ignorant of history.

They've been Coopertinoed, torpedoed by the competition.

Cheers,

Tim.

EdgeleyExile™ 50:

Correct, mi amigo, running Windows apps on a Mac without Windows is Microsoft’s greatest fear. Nothing could be more disturbing than being made obsolete or irrelevant, and having little time and few resources to overturn the situation.

The greatest fear for many Mac users will be the loss of the aesthetics of the Mac interface. If the only programs available for Mac aficionados begin to look as ugly and feel as stodgy as those on a PC, there will be groans and mumblings of discontent. I hope that Apple and others recognize that the “Mac style” is a much a part of the Mac world as the Apple icon and the “Think Different” motto.

Microsoft's silence is deafening regarding Apple's Macs that can run Windows, too

Wrong, Microsoft did issue a statement that they were glad about the news millions more are joining their inferior OS.

Andrew,

Read the full MacDailyNews Take. Here, I'll help you:

What has Microsoft said of Boot Camp so far? All we've heard from Microsoft was the brief, disingenuous statement, "'Windows is a great operating system. We're pleased that Apple customers are excited about running it, and that Apple is responding to meet the demand." The MacDailyNews translation of what Microsoft really meant: "Windows is obviously not a great operating system. We're upset that customers will now get to compare Windows to Mac OS X because we know that we lose whenever that happens. Damn that Steve Jobs!"

"Then you wonder what you ever saw in using Internet Explorer in the first place." -- spinaltap

I never saw any reason to use Internet Exploder, nor anuthing else from Microslop.

MW: common. Internet Exploder is dead common, mate!

If you take 100 people who never used a computer before and sat them in front of a dual boot Mac with OS X and XP I'll tell you this from experience:

1: About 85% of them couldn't tell which OS looked better.

2: About 95% of them couldn't tell you which one operated eaiser.

3: About 99% of them would stick with the OS that they needed to learn to make money from.

4: About 99% would find out over time which one was more reliable and secure but will still stick to the one that makes them a income regardless.


Now if Mac OS X could run PC apps without Windows that would change things dramatically in Apple's favor.

Oh boy, Leopard will drop in the market like a bomb. Just wait for what Apple is planning to include as regards running Windows, Windows apps or virtualization...

“It's against Microsoft's best interest to create an official Windows for Mac or support it."

Firstly, OS X is the Mac “Windows”. No intelligent and self-respecting Mac user will “switch” to the “Rot from Redmond”. The longer PC users experience OS X on their Intel Macs the less likely they will return to the swill of Windows. Next to crack, alcohol, and nicotine, OS X is the most life-altering product known plus it has none of the sequelae of the aforementioned drugs.

Secondly, Microsoft will never gladly relinquish its role as the world’s monopoly OS developer to become a third party programmer for the growing number of MacIntel users. This would be tacit declaration of the failure of Microsoft and the irrelevance of Windows. Microsoft may attempt to alter its software to make it incompatible or less functional with Macs, but will suffer scorn and derision for this. None the less, embarrassment is temporary, death is permanent.

Andrew:

Of course! What did you expect Microsoft to say, “Well, folks, we were completely stunned and amazed by this turn of events and our days are numbered. No one here at Microsoft even dreamed this would happen and we haven’t a clue what to do next except put on smilely faces and boast confidently like the French at Agincourt,”

I've got to admit, I've got M$ Office on all of my Macs but I've stopped using them. Mac Mail is perfect and why use Word when you can use Pages instead? Keynote is way better than PP in terms of looks and usability. To be fair, M$ Office for Mac is heads and shoulders above Office XP, something that still befuddles me...

Like the old saying, once you go Mac you never go back!

Andrew:

Don't forget the 100% who are tired of pop-up ads, spyware, and other malware who will dump one OS for the pristine environment of the other.

As you said, if there is no appreciable difference between Windows and OS X and if Macs can run Windows apps sans Windows, there is no particular advantage of Windows. Don't think for a moment that Apple is content with the status quo. Apple is lean and hungry, Microsoft is bloated and disoriented.

With Microsoft's monopoly position as it is and as it's likely to remain for quite some time, they'll continue to make money. The way shortsightedness and the desire for instant profit is a foundation of US corporate culture and as long as THIS quarter is profitable, nothing else matters.

Microsoft will eventually wither and die... the sooner the better... but not THIS quarter.

iWork Needs a spreadsheet app before it can truly compete with Office. Pages is better than Word, Keynote beats the pants off of Powerpoint, but it can't compete with Excel.

Why should Microsoft give a flying toss that an additional 4% of the computer market can now run their OS. Really? This is only important to Mac users, noone else.

Reality Check:

Microsoft is 100% scared shitless that a significant percentage PC users replacing their old boxes in 2006 and 2007 will purchase MacIntels, experience the undiscovered world of OS , and begin to “Think Different”.

This is all part of the entire Intel shift strategy. People couldn't get past the hardware differences when Apple used PPC, so Apple said ok, we are going to level the playing field and make this an OS to OS battle, not hardware to hardware battle. Windows cannot compete with MacOSX on features, stablility and ease of use. Lets go head to head.

This of course is in addition to the other parts of the strategy known as "Embrace and Extinguish" and "Classic for Windows users".

Apple may only have 4%, but if I remember correctly what became MS was started by two guys sitting around in a Harvard dorm room. The POTENTIAL of this is what should concern the Doze crowd.

Yeah right, whatever.

Reality Check:

I hope that more people in Redmond share your enlightended opinion. Tell me, do you think Ballmer will be buying his kids iMacs for Christmas?

We scoured the earth for most insightful and profound Windows apologist for his thoughts regarding the future of Microsoft, Windows, Apple, and OS X. His answer was as concise as it was mind-numbingly bland in substance:

“Yeah right, whatever.”

"who pays for windows? no one i know"

I love how the guy in the article thinks Windows versions of Office could increase!! LOL... Yeah.. Cuz Mac users are SOO impressed by Office XP.. they'll drop $300 for a Windows App to run on their new Mac

Douchebag...

Don't forget that some people will buy a Mac and will never or hardly use OSX. I have friends that say I wish I could run Windows on your dazzlingly beautiful iMac. I even have a friend that gave me a XP FP2 disk to load so she use with my Mac when she comes over. I have tried to get her to use OSX but she acts frighted and furstrated except with Safari.

I think this will be a good for both MS and Apple. Both are just "evil" corporations and not real people. And the larger Apple grows the more it will become like MS. The only really big hightech company with a soul is IBM. That is because IBM is mature. Apple and MS are still teenagers.

TURE: Being able to run windows apps easily, encourages potential switchers to try OS X.

ALSO TRUE: The easier it is to run Windows apps on a Mac, the easier it is for developers to abandon Mac development and just develop for Windows that will also happen to run on a Mac. There are significant cost savings that must have some developers foaming at the mouth.

I know that Adobe is on record for saying they won't, but we all know these things will be assessed on a quarterly basis. I sure hope the Mac marketshare grows faster than the installed base transitions to Intel... it's a exciting risk, but a risk nonetheless.

"And the larger Apple grows the more it will become like MS"

They may get more intrusive, but at least they will deliver a good product. I can handle them being a little bit heavy handed with their policy if it means I can still get my Mac experience.

"The easier it is to run Windows apps on a Mac, the easier it is for developers to abandon Mac development and just develop for Windows that will also happen to run on a Mac."

It all comes down to demand, and if Mac users keep buying the OS X version, developers will keep making it.
It would be good if the rumors of Yellow Box for Windows come to fruition, so making cross-platform apps is trivially easy. (As part of the licensing agreement, Apple could require that a Mac version is released on the same disc as the Windows version).

Corporations cannot be inherently either evil or good.

Corporations are just groups of people, so the quality mix of good or bad people will determine the tendency toward bad or good that the corporation will lean toward.

If you tend to see people as inherently bad, you will see all corporations as evil. (Unless you own majority shares in one, then "coincidentally" you will tend to look at your ownership aspect as "good" while thinking that your employees are 'bad." Not a happy situation for you or them, and the customers will not like you either!) (Neither will your wife, kids, or dog)

All I know is that if you believe all corporations are evil, you will have a tough time doing business with anyone. Not an easy situation, and I feel for you.

Well, not really.

Freeze:
LordRobin, that doesn't really matter. If you're a Windows user and you consider buying a Mac, you go straight to Apple, not to third-party Mac makers. You go to either the store or their website.
Besides, I have no doubt that within the next few months Apple will shut down the production and the selling of those.

What are you talking about? This article is referring to independent shops bundling Windows with Macs, and pre-loading it to the system as part of the service.

1. Apple does care about this. If they didn't want people to use Windows on a Mac, they wouldn't offer Boot Camp.

2. If Apple for some reason did try to stop this from happening, they would be slapped with class action anti-trust lawsuits.

Apple may not offer to sell, support, or bundle Windows with Macs, but there is nothing that says an independent retailer can't do so.

Oops...

"1" should read, "Apple doesn't car about this...

Doh!

Make that "care." :o

MW: Always. I always wish that I could edit my posts here.

MDN's silence is deafening regarding the seven new unpatched vulnerabilities discovered in MacOS X - http://www.security-protocols.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=3233

“MDN's silence is deafening regarding the seven new unpatched vulnerabilities discovered in MacOS X”

Yawn. Wake me when there’s a real “vulnerability” to report, not this sissy stuff, okay?

The ability to run arbitrary code when viewing an image file or unzipping an archive is about as bad as it gets. Rise and shine MacDude.

macromancer, iDon't,

One step at a time. What I really want is to get away from this obsurd market domination paradigm that we live in now with MS. I want to see real market competition in the realm of OSes, not just apps. That's something we still don't have now. I still want to believe that Apple can crack open the darkness that is MS, and wedge itself thoroughly into the market place once and for all. But at the same time, with the third and fourth vertebrea of MS broken, I hope to see at least a half dozen OS competitors also get a real foot hold into the market place, so that we never ever have to live in this computing paradigm we live in now, again. Linux, BeOS, others that the general public doesn't even know about?

Its exciting to think what we might have access to if MS Windows will just go away. I prefer Apple OSes, so far, but if Apple really pulls this thing off over the next four or five years, and gets a substantial market share, its going to need real competition to remain at its best.

I want OS competition - now.

"You were raised on using Internet Explorer on your Mac. . . ."

Like hell I was.

Turd: Pages is great, but needs two more features to be able to replace Word: Outlining (like Keynote already has) and some type of support for bibliography software (e.g. BookEnds). Until then, Pages will suffice for simple documents and letters, but won't replace Word for high end uses.

For those of us who do need the extra features, there is little reason to switch to Pages if it can't completely replace Word.

Keynote, as you said, is far better than Powerpoint.

Although it is from M$, Excel is a great program. I can't imagine Apple coming out with something better.

I would like to see a "Pro" version of iWork that has FileMaker Pro bundled in, much like Office for Windows has Access.

Excel is a great program. I can't imagine Apple
coming out with something better.

It is a great program, but I think Apple could do better.

I love Pages for how it does what it does, but just a little more functionality would be great, but is better without most of MS Words bells and whistles that few people know or care about. I agree with outlining and bibliography comment.

"Keynote, as you said, is far better than Powerpoint."

Like light years ahead, there is no comparison. If you need to do presentations, it alone makes the purchase of a Mac worth it. I know from personal experience that the failure rate of Powerpoint presentations on Windows is HUGE, maybe 30-50% in my experience. Keynote just runs!

"I would like to see a "Pro" version of iWork that has FileMaker Pro
bundled in, much like Office for Windows has Access."

Absolutely true.

All in all, Apple is definitely on the right track, just keep going.

What new Windows licenses?
Won't most switchers just transfer the existing bundled OEM Windows XP version to an Intel Mac? Along with the Windows compatible software they already bought? And it's not like they can (or would want to) run iLife apps on a Windows PC.


That's not new revenue for MS.