If Apple let Mac OS X run on all Intel PCs, would you still buy Apple hardware?

Maybe you shouldn't be using them if you hate them so much? If not for the locked OS, Mac OS X probably wouldn't be to much better than Windows. I'm a long time Mac user, and I never thought I'd say something like would be similar to windows, but when people ask things like, "why doesn't Apple allow third party machine?" That's always my answer.

If you had to deal with drivers and such, it would have most of the security flaws and many more Kernel Panics which would probably give you larger back aches and head aches than a computer being 1 or 2 LBs heavier. So that's were it's up to you. Personally, I like Apples hardware much more than ANY PC I've ever seen. PCs look overly complicated and not stylish at all. Apple is going for the simplicity and style more than functionality.

There's my input. Not meaning that to be mean, or spiteful or anything like that.

I am looking for a low end laptop but Apple has kept their low end laptop prices about the same $1100 for as long as I can remember. You can get a pretty good low end PC laptop for $650-750, although it also has integrated graphics.

Just how much extra would it cost for discrete graphics on a laptop? For a desktop an ATI 2400 with 256 megs of GDDR2 ram is about $70, not
the best card in the world (the ATI 2600 with GDDR3 ram is a better deal at about $120)- but it is one that would do well in a laptop, even if it only had 128 megs or so. So what, maybe $75 extra? Unfortunately even in PC laptops you don't get discrete graphics unless you get into the $1500 range.

I guess that is why the (barely legal) OS X86 project has so much support.

OFF TOPIC:
(I'm covering up my head) LINUX!
'Hey, you booted me to the head!'
'And one more for Jenny and the wimp!' LOL LOL LOL LOL!.

(For those lost it is from 'Last Will and Temperment' by The Frantics, a comedy group from Canada)

Too bad Dr. Demento isn't on the radio around here anymore, he's having a hard time keeping advertisers and now has it available online for $2.00 per show, but I just can't afford it no matter how good it is. (sort of like a new Mac!)

All I can afford to do is pontificate on the forums about the virtues of my opinion, which is FREE!

It WAS free. Now, however, I am fining you for quoting Canadian comedy groups :-P

Anyway, according to HP's website, they will offer an upgrade to a discrete graphics card on their laptops for $74.

Where can I find out more about this x-86 project?

There's the rub. I don't like Apple's hardware, but I absolutely ABHOR Windows XP, and Vista doubly so.

The disparities in user interface quality and the thought behind the design of the OS make a difference to me that goes well beyond mere hardware harmoniousness.

Canadians cause me to LOL! Neil Young LOL! Bare Naked Ladies LOL! Etc, etc, etc... (actually Canada is a beautiful place -what little I have seen around Victoria- and I hope to see more of it, ah?)

HP sells graphic's upgradeable laptops? I have got to check into this...

http://www.osx86project.org/ Interesting but against the EULA of OS X as it requires you to install on 'Apple Hardware'.:^(

Load OSX 10.5 Leopard on the eeePC:
http://uneasysilence.com/archive/2007/11/12654/

This site also advocates downloading Leopard off BitTorrent which will do nasty things to Apple's bottom line if not to your conscience. :^|

i was looking to buy a laptop for school this year and was looking at the apple's but no way would i spend 1100 bucks on a machine with intel GMA graphics. the HP i bought for 700 bucks has atleast nvidia 6150 and it does above and beyond what its meant for. im stuck with windows xp or vista (my choice), but i couldnt afford a mac anyways. its true, pc laptops with discrete graphics are alot more money and their battery life drops like a rock. i dont know how well the MBP's run on battery but all the older powerbooks used to be quite well.

all in all i would own more mac's if they didnt cost so much more than pc's. i was a g4 mini fan before they went to intel, bad move apple. i love the new core duo's though, it came with an excuse to never make them more affordable.

edit: now that i think about it, i like to tinker and build so much that its almost no fun to buy a brand new built mac, i would much rather build one.

I agree about the mini. The mini is a form factor that is nearly unseen on the PC side, especially with a full Intel dual core chip.

I have a Macbook Pro that I bought as soon as the line was upgraded to Santa Rosa. It's the best laptop I've ever used, bar none. HP and Sony's hardware doesn't come close, and there are absolutely no other laptops with the same specs that are an inch thick. I'm not saying that your points have no merit, but if Apple could make money off of a niche, wouldn't you think they would already be in it?

> If Apple let Mac OS X run on all Intel PCs, would you still buy Apple hardware?

Hmmm.

<rant>
This question assumes that I still buy Apple hardware. And, "if Apple let Mac OS X run on [b]ALL[\b] Intel PCs" is a grandiose conditional statement. It probably wouldn't run on "all" Intel PCs as a lot of the non-Apple PC hardware I've used is crap because it's cheap, it breaks, it's under-engineered, it's ... well, it's crap. That's why I bought an Apple, and even once I bought a Toshiba because the particular models I bought were ruggid and well made. And, for sure Apple and Toshiba have made crap too. And, I could give a rat's ass about an Intel chip. My friend asked why her bloody MacBook runs so damn hot? I said it runs hot because it has an Intel Inside (TM), but they had no idea what I was talking about.
</rant>

I desire my next computer to have massively parallel distributed processing units (not made by Intel) which by that time these stackable DPU's will be as overly commoditized as SD-RAM. My next computer will run Linux, or some other completely non-proprietary OS. I will name this computer "head" and I invite you to boot it.

All I want is for Apple to build a laptop with the build quality of a mid to high level ThinkPad. Even Apple's higher end PowerBooks and MacBooks have proven to not age well (as evidenced by less than stellar hinges), while ThinkPads seem to be pretty solid in regards to how well they age.

Now, I don't see Apple just licensing out the OS ala Microsoft. I see Apple working with intel on selling a line of "os x certified boards" that are along the same lines as what apple uses in their hardware. These boards would likely come bundled with a copy of OS X, and be sold to OEM manufacturers (Dell, Lenovo, etc.) with the explicit agreement that they play ball in pricing or target certain markets only. Within 5-10 years, I see Apple being where Microsoft is.

10.5 and Safari 3.0 are already showing that Apple is not up to the same level of quality that they used to be.

Go hit the weights and stop complaining about 5 pound laptops, sissy.

What exactly about a PC is complicated?

He posted that most PCs look complicated. It's been toned down over the past few years but the design of most PC cases was atrocious. I went shopping for a new case for my P4 Linux system and couldn't find anything palatable except for the super el-cheapo $25 case at MicroCenter. I could literally pay 10 times as much for a case that is completely fugly. Most cases have divots and angles and cutouts and what not that do nothing. They are way too cut up for what they are.