[Ron Lindeboom]

You might want to ask this question in the Maya forum here at the Cow as Maya is so deep that those who use it alot tend to think of themselves as Maya users who use After Effects, and not the other way around — so, you are more likely to get your answer there.

Best regards,

Ron Lindeboom
creativecow.net

[Ron Lindeboom]

[Barend Onneweer] “…imagine Charlie King showing up in this barn! Sounds to me like the party is about to really take off…”

Yes, and Charlie says that the Flamingo Hotel is going to pick up the bar tab. Too bad you don’t drink, Barend, as Charlie also said that all Dutchmen are lightweights and he was going to challenge you to a “straight up whiskeys with beer chasers” contest — I guess I’ll have to go in your place and defend the dignity of all Dutchmen. ;o)

(And you do know I’m kidding, don’t you, Barend?)

Boomer

[Ron Lindeboom]

[PaulD] “It would seem to me that Apple has bought a new CPU to bring to its own Apple-ROM architecture, rather than buying into the IBM-compatibility BIOS syndrome.”

I am sure that that is true but what I was implying and which I still maintain is true, is that in OSX (as opposed to the old classic MacOS variants), there are still many ways to get in “under the hood” and really make a mess of things. Luckily, most Mac users are not used to getting in under the hood and so few will ever experience the joy of it. ;o)

It was Phillip Schiller senior vice president of Apple who made the dual-boot comments at the WWDC following Steve’s keynote. For more on this, search the Cow or CNET or Apple.

Apple Senior Vice President Phil Schiller addressed the issue of running Windows on Macs, saying there are no plans to sell or support Windows on an Intel-based Mac. “That doesn’t preclude someone from running it on a Mac. They probably will,” he said. “We won’t do anything to preclude that.” However, Schiller said the company does not plan to let people run Mac OS X on other computer makers’ hardware. “We will not allow running Mac OS X on anything other than an Apple Mac,” he said.

Best regards,

Ron Lindeboom

[Ron Lindeboom]

It’s far too new in the news to have any real definitive statements at this point. It’s pretty commonplace knowledge to assume that it will support USB-2 and IEEE-1394 (Firewire), and so it is likely that you will be able to reach across to other platform’s files — but that remains to be seen.

Ron Lindeboom

[Ron Lindeboom]

[chrispy] “And perhaps we can get finally into the BIOS and mess things up real good 😛 “

Hi Chrispy,

As I am sure you already know, there have always been issues like these even on the Mac. But for most of our tenure on the platform, these things were hidden from most all the users. Under OSX this changed a lot and it’s pretty easy to get in under the hood and really screw things up. ;o)

But that said, I still like the idea of moving away from the PowerPC architecture in favor of Intel’s architecture.

Ron Lindeboom

[Ron Lindeboom]

I just reread this entire thread and in the rereading of it, my reply to you came off as a slap at you. It was NOT intended as that and I apologize if it comes off that way. I am just a passionate guy with strong opinions and I do not want the appearance of even remotely insulting you.

Best always,

Ron Lindeboom

[Ron Lindeboom]

I tend to see that Bill Gates is intelligent enough to know that he *needs* an Apple in the market to keep the FTC and SEC off his back. That’s a given.

So, what would you rather have if you were Bill Gates: An Apple that competes with you and doesn’t sell any Windows software for you? Or an Apple that while keeping the FTC/SEC/Justice Department off your back, also sells boxes of Windows that run on the same boxes that keep the Justice Department away from your doorstep??? I know which one *I’d* like better if I were Billie. ;o)

Personally I never suspected nor do I think that Apple should change its pricing model one bit. After all, a machine that can run both of the major OSes available — and likely will run Linux as well — is a Rolls Royce, not a Hyandai or a Kia.

Prcing appeals to a certain buyer, performance and options appeal to others.

Me, I’d prefer a machine that runs all my various OSes that I use and can be rebooted to handle the job at hand. Now *that* is a far bigger change than a drop in price.

Your mileage may vary,

Ron Lindeboom
creativecow.net

[Ron Lindeboom]

Thanks for the link, Martti. I forgot where I heard it but I knew that I did. ;o)

Ron Lindeboom

[Ron Lindeboom]

Hi Filip,

Apple yesterday said that while they do not and will not ship Macs with Windows (and will not be selling it at the Apple store), their new machines will run Windows and they plan to do absolutely nothing to preclude users from doing so.

There is no way in hell that Apple is simply going to build a Gate(s)way or a Dell and slap an Apple sticker on it.

If you watch the keynote from yesterday’s WWDC, you will see that Apple has not just started this in the last few months, they’ve been at this for years. It was not a decision made without great thought and preparation. To quote The Electric Flag: It’s been “A Long Time Comin'”

Best regards,

Ron Lindeboom
creativecow.net

[Ron Lindeboom]

Hey Walter,

Even our Windows-or-Death coder here at Cow Headquarters was laughing his buns off yesterday and cheering on Steve as we watched Steve’s keynote. I had never seen anything like it. He even high-fived me a few times as we watched Steve’s keynote on my Cinema display (that had just been switched to 640×480 mode so that Steve was bigger than a postage stamp on it). ;o)

Eric has known Kathlyn and me for years and he remembers some of the things that I have said over the years and some of the arguments that I have had online from time to time.

Years back when Gil Amelio was at the helm of Apple and things looked very bleak, I remember arguing on the forums with people who were saying that Apple was dead, that before he’d let Apple disappear from the market, Bill Gates would spend his own money to help keep it alive. He did. This, as long as there’s an Apple, Bill Gates does not have a monopoly. Now, with Apple using Intel chips and having the dual-boot capacity to run both the Mac OS and the full Windows OS on a single machine, Apple not only perpetuates the Mac OS (and will no doubt increase market share because of the dual-boot ability) but now transforms itself into another customer of Microsoft and steps out of Microsoft’s political cross-hairs. Freakin’ brilliant marketing, Steve.

A side benefit and a small but important one at that, is that the “megahertz myth” has been a tough sell over the years, even when Apple’s machines were clearly superior. You’d always have one guy such as the clown over at a certain competitor of our’s who never has a kind word about Macs but propagates any statistic he can that shows a PC in a better light than a Mac — even if the Mac scores higher in 10 other areas. ;o) But where would we be without clowns, at least they make us smile.

At NAB 2002 I told one of the Intel product managers that I know that Apple would one day be their newest customer. Later at NAB 2002, Apple announced their deal with IBM to ship the new G5s with IBM’s PowerPC chips instead of Motorola’s PowerPC chips that had powered the G3s and G4s. After the announcement, I told him that the IBM/Apple marriage would end in divorce and Apple would still end up with Intel. Why? It was, to quote the irrepressible Mr. Spock, “simply logical.”

In one move, Apple has made itself into a company — the only one that I can think of — that will be making machines which can run both the Mac OS and Windows (not to forget even Linux, if you wish) in a single box. Not emulation, full OS system software. Instead of competing against the Wintel hegemony, Apple has just become one of Bill Gates’ biggest customers — this, as many Mac users who would have never bought a Windows machine will buy a box of Windows now to run in dual-boot mode to run their PC programs on their same box they can boot their Mac OS from to run all their Mac apps.

This guarantees that MacOffice will get full steam ahead (along with other areas where Microsoft had been lax with Mac development as they felt Apple more a necessary irritation than a partner) and also means that Adobe’s apps won’t have to be recoded for the Mac PowerPC as the calls necessary to run them on the Intel chipset will translate quite nicely to an Intel-based Mac, thank you.

Me, I think that companies like Dell have to be going “Oh, cow pies! We just stepped in a big one now!” This, as what are thet going to do when families look at a computer purchase and (as in the case of my son who is a building contractor and needs a PC to run his contractor’s software but his wife and kids love Macs) find that they no longer need to buy two computers. Apple’s power grows far stronger with just this one move and Dell and Gateway and others have to be in shock right about now…

With this move, Apple once again proves that they still have the foresight and pioneering spirit which has marked the company from Day One.

One machine, booting up any of three major OSes — Mac, Windows or Linux. It’s a thing of damned beauty, I tell you. ;o)

Ron Lindeboom
creativecow.net