Originally posted by Elwood
I was also under the impression that OSX was FreeBSD and a command line interface to the Unix kernel was available. I could be very wrong on this, I admit.
No, you're correct in that. It's using a modified Mach kernel.
Just think of this... Would the Mac be more successful if it ran X86? Since it is easier to use, and the price would be on a par with X86 computers, what would their market share be? For the home, I would say, well, a lot more than it is.
Apple had System 7 running on unmodified x86 hardware in the early 90s. That project was killed off because of internal politics. Rumors of OS X running on Intel have been around since the purchase of NeXT (who really bought who?
).
The problem is that Apple is a hardware company that just happens to be one of the very best software out there. Their business model is built entirely upon selling comparatively high-margin hardware. The outstanding software they create is used to drive sales. Apple has made some very, very smart accquistions in the past couple of years to solidify that synergy of software and hardware that they offer.
If the proprietary hardware business declines uncontrollably, they'll transition to x86 just as NeXT did. Whether they'll survive the transition (NeXT didn't) is the question.
I think as it matures, and it will, you will see it more on the corporate desktop and in colleges. This is the road to the home user.
Perhaps. I think it depends largely on the outcome of the MS court case against the states. If Microsoft goes unchecked they'll do everything they can to cripple GPL/open-source software.
Back to the issue of sims, I wonder if Knifeedge (or GP) has contacted any of the major Mac porting firms about doing a port. They've got good tools for dealing with the DirectX issues, and the sim is mostly a physics engine to begin with. It would likely be simple (ie, cheap) compared to most games done today. Now that the USB interface is out, there aren't any hardware issues. Apple has been shipping suitably powerful machines for quite some time. I might have to fire off an email or two.