[Ti] Apple's True Market Share!

[Chris Olson]

Mark C. Langston wrote:

> That's not entirely accurate -- there is a private beta period.  Early
> Access is closer to a gamma test than beta test.  Still, this is a
> normal part of their development cycle.  There will be a final version
> of OS 9;  this isn't it.  It does, however, contradict the previous
> poster's claim that Sun has given up on x86 development.

We are a Sun support center, and I beta test everything that comes down 
the pipe.  Solaris on x86 is not a fully funtional, production 
environment operating system, nor will it ever be.  It is a 
learning-point port only, for those who can't afford, or won't buy the 
native hardware.  It has the problems that Apple would have if they 
tried to port to x86 - a specific HCL (look at Darwin's HCL), and very 
poor performance due to the inferior x86 processor design and it's 
associated instruction sets.  If your hardware is not in the HLC, forget 
it - it won't work.  As I also already posted, supporting all the 
hardware on the x86 architecture is a nightmare for a truly 
high-performance operating system.  There are major, major differences 
in RISC vs. CISC architectures.

Despite the fact that BSD may appear to run fine on x86, I'd like to 
point out that linux does too.  But set up several linux machines, 
running on x86, PowerPC, and UltraSPARC, and thrash them thoroughly. 
x86 performance ends up on the bottom of the heap.  I'll tell you flat 
out that a 1.8 GHz x86 linux database server won't match an old PowerMac 
9600 with a G3/500 upgrade in it, also running PPC Debian.  Been there, 
done it, the old Mac wins hands down.  P-IV's are nothing but hype with 
a big heat sink.  You can *just* about heat the server room in the 
winter time with a couple of those machines.  Admittedly, that's a linux 
comparison, but OS X is looking to the future as a high-performance 
operating system that is going to need it's own hardware platform to 
deliver as promised, just like Solaris does.  Compromise on the hardware 
to reduce aquisition cost, and you'll also compromise on the 
performance, stability, and general overall reliability of the system. 
I'm not saying somebody like AMD won't possibly come up with a decent 
x86 processor in the future, but right now, I'm not seeing it.
-- 
Chris Olson
Network Administrator
AST Communications,  Inc.
Linux Support                    http://linux.astcomm.net
Barron,  WI   USA