OS X on a PC? [forward from a different list]

[Charles Martin]

> From: Stephen Chakwin <schak at ix.netcom.com>
>
> This was on another list that I belong to and it amazed me.  I don't
> know whether X as used here can print or run peripherals or how hard
> the thread was to create, but this looks like a potential
> headache/opportunity for Apple, MS, and perhaps Intel.

To be blunt, you've been had.

The fellow was either lying outright ("wrote a thread" my ass), or was 
running Darwin (the open-source heart of OS X, but is really more like 
"just another UNIX"). More likely, he was running one of the custom 
themes for XP or Linux that make it look a lot like OS X and was having 
a cruel laugh at the expense of a gullible person.

While there have been rumours that Apple has a team of engineers who 
maintain an Intel-compatible version of OS X (or at least parts thereof 
-- some of it would be almost impossible to bring over), two things to 
bear in mind:

1. No credible witness accounts of this EVER.
2. Nobody involved with the alleged effort would EVER show it off to 
outsiders.

It seems clear to me that part of OS X's strength is that, being based 
in Unix, it COULD get to the point someday that it could run on a 
larger variety of chips yet provide a reasonably consistent experience. 
Those chips could even someday include (future) chip designs by Intel 
or AMD or suchlike. But the chances of that happening anytime soon are 
as near to absolute zero, and even if it did it would not affect the 
end user much (unless the new chips were significantly faster/cheaper 
than anything that had come before).

_Chas_
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