[X4U] Couple questions on Apples move to Intel

[Scott McCulloch]

Good point... perhaps making it clear that using OSX on anything  
other than an Apple-built machine is considered "off-label" use, and  
"use at your own risk", without doing anything particular to thwart  
such use would be enough. I suspect it might be enough to keep those  
who are not well-equipped to deal with whatever issues could arise  
with such use away from the el-cheapo generic PC boxes - while  
leaving those who like to live on the bleeding-edge free to experiment.

 From a PR standpoint, though, even if Apple makes that message clear  
(particularly if the message is more about the benefits of Mac  
hardware over generic hardware rather than a "use at your own risk"  
message), you know who's going to get the bad press when it doesn't  
work well on cheap boxes, and comparisons start being made to Windows  
stability, etc. I think this is a potentially difficult line Apple is  
going to have to walk - can they do enough marketing to keep the  
potential complaints of poor compatibility with generic PC hardware  
at bay? Or are they better to avoid it by making sure it's not an  
issue, and thereby frustrate (perhaps alienate) some who would like  
more choice of hardware?

I don't have an answer to that - but will be interested to see what  
actually happens.

Scott

On Jun 7, 2005, at 9:43 AM, Michael Gmail wrote:

> Sure, and I agree that Apple is right not to promote OSX as a  
> solution for generic PCs. I'd even strongly support them in  
> emphasizing the benefits of Genuine Mac on a marketing level. But  
> there's a continuum between not-supporting and actively blocking,  
> and I'll still be disappointed if they put serious engineering  
> resources into preventing unsupported installs. (Not that I expect  
> them to care much about my opinions, except maybe when I'm ready to  
> pull out the checkbook....)
>
> Michael