Operating Systems > Linux and UNIX
Linux to Over take Apple on Desktop
solo:
::cracks knuckles::
Apple cannot open up the source to Aqua, as well as most of the other parts of OSX. They cannot. If they did, I would take Aqua, put it on Redhat Linux and distribute it. Suddenly OSX is not getting any sales because the sweep of ecstasy about free Aqua with a more mature platform attached. Also the hardware would lose a *lot* of sales. Again, suddenly Aqua is available on ix86, powerpc, SPARC, risc, mips, and more. Suddenly Apple is spending more researching the new version of MacOS (10.4/11) than they are making. I mean, who (other than Apple geeks) would continue to buy OSX when Linux acts the exact same way? I sure wouldn't. Not that I buy Macs today.
I am a very strong open source advocate and fanatic. That doesn't mean proprietary software is wrong. Just because I *don't like it* does not mean there should not be proprietary applications.
It costs around $5 million dollars (can get into billions for sequels and high profile) to make a serious 3D action shooter. Then imagine taking all that research and development and not being able to recoop your losses with sales because you made your work open source.
Let's say our mysterious Game Company X (GCX) becomes popular. It's been 2 years since they released Dark Fire Undercover. They are beginning to see a decline in the amount of users on the online game network. They need to make a sequel. Oh yeah, we don't have any money because we open sourced DFU. Well how do we make a sequel? Can we really afford to just make a revamp of the game content data, even if we keep the original engine? We do have the open source community, but we cannot just _tell_ them to make a sequel. It looks like we are just going to have to coast.
-------------------------------------------------
That is today's view of how open source business works. And for the most part it is the way a lot of OSS businesses would *have* to work. But I believe companies should make money with value-added services, much like Redhat does. From open source we breed new business models, models that will succeed and fail. From open source we produce innovation.
So GCX could sell the game network subscriptions for $10 a month in the U.S. and $15 outside the U.S. They could charge users for support, at $5 a call and $25 for one year of support. They could allow their users to register their game network user name for $5.
They could sell expansion scenarios for $20 a pop, and start a clan-communication infrastructure that requires a $25 registration (per clan).
There are a *lot* of ways GCX could make money without keeping the engine code base proprietary.
This is the way _I_ imagine open source business.
--------------------------------------------------
Ok. Back to Apple.
So, why can't Apple sell services?
They do already. That's not really the problem. They problem lies in a lot of things, including proprietary, licensed code in OSX that they are not allowed to release, calming down situations with some of their customers that think open source is evil.
And of course back to the original point. Apple. Is. Aqua. Without Aqua, Apple is not Apple. Aqua is what I think of when I say Apple. Darwin doesn't come to mind and Rendezvous is only a pandering in the back of my programmer mind.
I think Apple is taking good steps to establish themselves with open source.
Note: Also it's not like Apple was open-sourcing anything new or important with Darwin, we already have all that with Linux.
That was my completely unstable and wishy-washy bantering about Apple, OSX, and Open-Source. It completely unrelates to the current topic however.
mushrooomprince:
What we need to do is get Linux an interface like os X. Then we need to make it relatively compatible with most peripheals and games. I hate to say it penguin people but macs run a lot more games than linux does. Anywho i wouldn't mind Linux if it was built more like os x.
Now what are we going to do about windows ? I think one of us needs to volenteer him/herself to suicide bomb redmond.
Stryker:
quote:Originally posted by mushrooomprince:
I hate to say it penguin people but macs run a lot more games than linux does.
--- End quote ---
You can't blame that on linux. If that's the biggest issue for you, talk to your game developers.
suselinux:
Originally posted by mushrooomprince:
I hate to say it penguin people but macs run a lot more games than linux does.
-Grow up
psyjax:
quote:Originally posted by suselinux:
-Grow up
--- End quote ---
Sower grapes.
Games sell, their the only reason consumers want ghz processors and new video cards, if not things wouldent have progressed much farther than the Pentium II and G3.
As for Linux being a more mature platform than OSX, spare me. I like the linux's, they are fantastic OS's, but they deffinetly aren't the most mature when it comes to desktop use.
Gnome, KDE, et al. are FAR behind all other GUI's, the choice of applications, while enumerable, are mind bogglingly confusing to the common user, this confusion is then magnafied when said user actually tries to install something.
Aqua to linux would be a Godsend, but it's not gonna happen. Linux's monolithic kernel was never a good choice, it makes things to difficult to implement modular non-dependant applications. Not to mention the fact that a kernel update is needed like every other day due to bugfixes and new drivers. Most OS's have these components external, plain as day for all to see, linux has to actually rewire it's entire core. Simple right?
Not to mention the gobledigook system hiarchy, usr/dev/hda01 .... oh, that's my hardrive!!! Ya, simple. Were are all my programs? user/bin ... oh... so how come my icon is in X folder? Or even better, I just managed to install this (after attempting to RPM it (failing) then compiling from source three times) programm, and now I cant find it? No icon on the desktop... oh... you mean they don't apear automaticaly? So what you click isint the Actual program!? ... real easy guys... real easy...
So spare me the bullshit, games sell, simplicity sells, common users buy. I tell linux geeks to grow up.
Even if Aqua somehow prettied up Linux, the very design of the OS works at odds to a simple computing environment.
.... I can hear the natives getting restless
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
[*] Previous page
Go to full version