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Why Apple should let HP build its workstations
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We will see pigs flying and Rush Limbaugh working in a soup kitchen before Apple licenses OSX outside of Apple. Never, never, never going to happen.
Server market is growing because everyone is moving to cloud and/or off site computing resources. At the enterprise level what they are running is Oracle or SAP or something of that nature. Basically very intensive database applications. On the other end are the gazzilion servers used to pony up Facebook pages et. al. While neither of these are specifically related to the issues of the group on this board, you will all benefit from the momentum that these applications will drive.
I seriously wonder where workstations will be headed. In the past both because of the PC industry and Linux in particular, the previous workstation market completely collapsed and was replaced by PC’s. In my previous life working in semiconductors I started on mainframes then switched to Apollo workstations (at 60k a crack), moved on to Sun workstations and finally to Dell/HP PC’s and servers running Linux. The death knell for “traditional” workstations was obvious when I did an analysis for a company I worked for that “ONLY BUYS SUN” I was told. At that time for a paltry 250K I could purchase 5 Sun workstations with the combined performance of X or for 25K I could buy 5 Dell rackmount servers with the performance of 2X. Linux and high end PC’s killed the custom server market. Apollo who? Sun who? SGI who?
I look at what I’m using for my work today and things become interesting. I do a lot of 3D work and need lots of rendering resources. For the moment I have my own rendering servers as well as a good workstation and my MBP. There are companies that are offering cloud rendering capabilities but for my meager needs the overhead and cost is still too high. I expect that to change. It would not surprise me that in the future a moderately performing desktop with a good high speed connection to cloud resources will be all I need. For my 2 cents what is limiting me now more than anything is not iron it’s the horrible upload data rate to the internet. If I had upload/download speeds of 50Mbs at a reasonable cost I could dump all of those noisy, hot, expensive machines right now and just use the cloud when I need it.
From this note the direction. Less on the desktop, more on the web. I would switch to that in a nanosecond if it was available today at a reasonable cost but it’s not. That I believe is simply a matter of time however.
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We do not doubt for the second that as you say “Less on the desktop, more on the web.” But just as everyone years ago was saying that video for the web was just around the corner, that corner ended up taking longer than the early adopters wished it would because human nature is pretty consistent — so it took about a decade longer than many thought it would. (Believing it would get here much faster is what destroyed Media 100, who changed their company focus to the web.)
I personally believe that in a day not far away we will see — for example sake — no more Adobe Creative Suite boxes. We’ll log onto Adobe Cloud to use their software. Software companies for years have been trying to enforce EULAs that the courts have over-turned time and again, and not only does the cloud rid them of piracy issues but also ends the argument — the software’s theirs and we’ll all pay for the time we use it.
I also personally believe that one day not far away, Apple will realize that they are selling an experience and that they now have such a huge warchest of monies to burn, that they can afford to partner with “controllable” vendors that can help sell that experience into markets that Apple no longer wishes to directly support themselves.
Yes, I could be wrong. I’ve called some wrong shots like everyone has. But I’ve also nailed quite a number of things over the years too. I’d love to see an HP workstation running the Mac OS. It would be an interesting turn of events, wouldn’t it?
Best regards,
Ronald Lindeboom
CEO, Creative COW LLC
Publisher, Creative COW Magazine
A 2011 FOLIO: 40 honoree as one of the 40 most influential publishers in America
http://www.creativecow.netCreativity is a process wherein the student and the teacher are located in the same individual.
“Incompetence has never prevented me from plunging in with enthusiasm.” – Woody Allen
“Be who you are and say what you feel because those that matter, don’t mind — and those that mind, don’t matter.” – Dr. Seuss
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[Ronald Lindeboom] ” they can afford to partner with “controllable” vendors”
The question is why? When iOS approaches 85% to 95% of your revenue you kill off all of your OSX devices by making A10 16x Core iMac’s and Mac Air’s. Apple will then have killed Intel CPU’s in all of their devices so they have more control over the architecture. With Annobit’s acquisition they are on a roadmap to completely eliminate hard drives from their boxes so the only thing left in a vertical integration is display technology. With +$100B in the bank I don’t see that as a problem.
So why in the world would you continue to put resources in development of an OS that you no longer make platforms for? Which actually rings a bell… of course HP would buy it. Can you say Palm OS?
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[Phil Hoppes] “The question is why? When iOS approaches 85% to 95% of your revenue you kill off all of your OSX devices by making A10 16x Core iMac’s and Mac Air’s. Apple will then have killed Intel CPU’s in all of their devices so they have more control over the architecture. With Annobit’s acquisition they are on a roadmap to completely eliminate hard drives from their boxes so the only thing left in a vertical integration is display technology. With +$100B in the bank I don’t see that as a problem.
So why in the world would you continue to put resources in development of an OS that you no longer make platforms for? Which actually rings a bell… of course HP would buy it. Can you say Palm OS?
“Or maybe the other way round? Apple are winning the war in the consumer sector why not open up a second front in the enterprise sector?
I know it’s not likely, but that’s a large amount of money they are sitting on.
Steve Connor
“FCPX Agitator”
Adrenalin Television -
[Ronald Lindeboom] “With a deal in hand to be licensed to run OSX on its workstations, I think HP could have its arm twisted to change its position on Thunderbolt.”
I doubt it….but it wouldn’t matter. You can buy a Thunderbolt adapter for $150 today.
Yeah, yeah, I get the convenience of having it on the motherboard. , I also get why people are loathe to think about expanding their Macs — it’s a pain, and there’s so little room to grow that it would be silly to think about wasting one of those opportunities on low-grade I/O.
The Z workstations, though, have a ton of expansion options, and it’s all done without. No tools – not for swapping out motherboards, power supplies, RAM or anything else, including opening the box. Sure as sh^t not for something as simple as adding Thunderbolt.
Andrew Richards: Tablet OS on the desktop? Blech!
Tell that to iOS, my friend. LOL (Yes, literally, actually laughing out loud.)
The point isn’t a tablet OS on the desktop for either company. The point is to have one iOS everywhere. Or, perhaps more accurately, getting rid of the current notion of an OS altogether.
FWIW, I think the “who developed it first” notion is nonsense. Computer stuff is like beer, bread, and color TV — different variations of it sprung up at more or less the same time around the world, because the same dynamics were feeding it.
But you can find examples of Microsoft showing touch interfaces before the turn of the century. I have no doubt that Apple was working on it. On a trip to Japan in 1992, I met a guy at Hitachi who was working on gestural interfaces.
Feel free to barf on the idea of squishy interfaces, but no company has a monopoly on them, and no computationally inclined dude will be able to avoid them for more than a few more months — a year, tops.
Unless you’re one of those crazy-ass luddites who doesn’t upgrade anything until there’s a clearly demonstrable NEED to. But what fun is that? Where would the COW be if everyone was prudent?
Mac OS on HP is never going to happen of course, for reasons almost too numerous to name….but it would also be no fun to limit our speculation to things that might conceivably happen, and what fun is THAT? Where would this forum be if everyone was reasonable?
LOL-ing again.
Tim Wilson
Associate Publisher, Editor-in-Chief
Creative COW Magazine -
[Frank Gothmann] “Metro on a Desktop machine is stupid and I’d rather not have it but it’s one click on a tile and I am on the windows desktop as it used to be.”
But with no Start Menu, you are slammed right back into Metro to do anything, though I suppose you can just saturate your task bar with the software you use most of the time and try to avoid the Start Screen.
[Frank Gothmann] “Avid/Adobe on Linux – unfortunately I can’t see that happening. Too much that would need to be tweaked to bring functionality on par with the other OSes, Apple would have to port Quicktime to Linux (and Quicktime is dead) etc. etc.”
Do you mean tweaking of Linux or tweaking of the apps? Neither Adobe nor Avid rely on QuickTime. They both have their own playback engines. Pro Res would be out though.
Best,
Andy -
[Craig Seeman] “Unless each computer in a facility is using Video I/O at the same time (possible but a declining situation)”
You really want to move storage and broadcast monitoring from edit suite to edit suite? Not me!
A Decklink SDI PCIe is only $295 and shared storage will save time and money in the long run now that Xsan software is free in Lion.
If Apple supports OSX on an HP Z800 without Thunderbolt… I’m eating cake!
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[John Pale] “The Gamer community has just realized that the latest driver update on Nvidia’s site allows pretty much all Nvidia cards (even PC only versions) to work in a Mac. No EFI, so no Mac boot screen, but it works without any hacks at all. Apparently, there is greater support for high end cards in the Mountain Lion Developer Preview, as well.”
Good to know.
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[Michael Gissing] “An alternative super reliable OS with the gruntiest workstations at a much more affordable price. Best of both worlds.”
Yeah, but then they have to support three OSes, and all the variants therein.
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[Tim Wilson] “I doubt it….but it wouldn’t matter. You can buy a Thunderbolt adapter for $150 today.”
Where? Who makes it? Have a link?
[Tim Wilson] “Tell that to iOS, my friend. LOL (Yes, literally, actually laughing out loud.)”
iOS is only distributed on touch devices. Have you got it running on a desktop?
[Tim Wilson] “The point isn’t a tablet OS on the desktop for either company. The point is to have one iOS everywhere. Or, perhaps more accurately, getting rid of the current notion of an OS altogether.”
Is it? What do you base that statement on? Apple has demonstrated commitment to two parallel OSes (i.e. Mountain Lion, committing to an annual rev cycle for OS X). Microsoft is the one trying to cram it all into one package with Windows 8. The desktop is a second class citizen. Windows 8 always seems to want me in Metro.
Best,
Andy
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