Comment by Workaccount2

3 years ago

Now we just need a a good open source OS made for lifelong windows/macOS users. Not one made for lifelong linux users.

12 comments

Workaccount2

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pmarreck  3 years ago

IMHO, Apple should have open-sourced their OS a long time ago while offering "best" compatibility with their hardware. They would have expanded both markets tremendously.

I'm currently a "NixOS" guy, and it feels like the "last distro hop" for me. There's a learning curve but it's kind of like "you get ALL the customization, plus seat belts in case something screws up". I still like Macs but I don't really like the direction Apple's taken recently with regards to locking down macOS hardware and system software. I'm a fan of things like Asahi Linux but even that depends on Apple's permission to work

  • sonicanatidae  3 years ago

    Timing would have been important here, if I recall correctly.

    I believe the Apple II was a 6502 chipset, which was common then. They diverged into Moto 68k series, while the rest went towards 8088.

    It's debatable, in my mind. Without Apple being unique, they wouldn't hold the niche they do today, but at the same time, had they made their OS Open Source, I suspect they would have had a great deal more Desktop Adoption, since for most, the barrier was/is price.

    $1200 Macbook or $400 laptop? *I know the technical differences, but a large portion of the buying public doesnt

    For me, I work in Windows a majority of the time, but being a career IT monkey, what I believe is the right tool for the right job, so it's not always Windows. :)

    I have old macbook that I use to stay up on the OS, at least as far as it can upgrade. I have a home server, with some windows instances, a couple *nix instances, etc.

  • ffgjgf1  3 years ago

    > Apple should have open-sourced their OS a long time ago while offering "best" compatibility with their hardware

    That would’ve been a horrible idea considering that they make money selling hardware and macOS is one of their main selling points?

    > They would have expanded both markets tremendously.

    What would they ever gain from this? How does Google benefit from Android? Thankfully Apple is not an Ad company (and therefore their interests are still somewhat aligned to those of their users) like Google. Open sourcing macOS would only incentive them to pivot to user tracking, ads etc.

    • pmarreck  3 years ago

      I'm thinking of it economically.

      The broadening of the MacOS market would more than make up for the initial loss in hardware sales. At the end of the day, Apple would be selling more Macs, because at least some of the hardware platforms not from Apple would have more problems than on Apple's hardware.

      This is the exact same thing that would have happened back when PowerComputing was making better Apples than Apple was. They were in the middle of expanding the Mac market, but because Apple itself was losing money, the news kept reporting on that, which in turn had the compound effect of affecting all Mac sales. (This was the first case of "fakenews" I had ever experienced, btw... "Why isn't the news reporting on the expanding Mac market instead of the temporarily-contracting Apple market? Ohhhh because bad news gets the eyeballs!!") So Steve Jobs came back, shut the clone program down (which, again, would have succeeded for Apple AND other players in the end, IMHO), and the rest is history.

      I discussed the idea with ChatGPT and here's how that went:

      https://chat.openai.com/share/db5f1ef7-82ac-4f4a-ac56-390f6b...

      2 replies →

  • WD40forRust42  3 years ago

    Qubes OS guy here. Will probably stick to the hypervisor OS/virtualized components desktop computer model. Sure there's a performance hit, but honestly I haven't felt this comfortable and secure that my data at rest WILL STAY AT REST and not sprout wings to flutter away with...

malermeister  3 years ago

ReactOS is the best we've got.

  • pmarreck  3 years ago

    I think the issue with ReactOS is that it has to compete with similar (but possibly lesser or greater depending on use-case) solutions on 2 fronts:

    1) Plain old virtual machines

    2) Linux/Mac running Wine/Proton

    3) Linux running equivalent software but skinned with a Windows-like UI