Can you clear this up for me

[UKMuFFiN]

Im a bit confused on the whole Apple + Intel thing.

From what I understand, because apple are now using intel, you can install windows on intel macs, but you cant install OS X on a PC.

If correct, why not? I know you can use the Pearpc emulator but why cant you run it nativly?

Cheers.

[awm]

In one word: Apple. More precisely you will not be forced to by overpriced harware to get a decent OS. Also, from a technical perspective it is difficult to support the 20 gazillion different hardware combinations instead of the 10 or so apple has at a time. To accomplish this "feat" there is some sort of "feature" built into the motherboard that OSX for intel needs to find.

[trashcanmonkey]

Yes, what you say is correct..

Why not? Because windows as you know is desinged to work with maximum compatibility in mind. It has to since windows has a market share of 85% of the market, as much hardware has to be supported with it as possible. Since the move to intel, there is little difference in hardware between macs and PCs, This is how its possible to install Windows on macs.
Part 2, ok, so why not the other way round? Mac OSX is desinged by Apple for Apple. OSX only supports the hardware in current macs, so that is a tiny number of supported drivers compared to windows.
Put it down to drivers, there are for windows, there arn't for OSX. (pearPC works by emulation of these, which has a massive horsepower demand as a consiquence.)
Drivers and Apples stuck up desire to keep the OS on macs, They say they will never port it over.
Windows is more flexible than OSX so it can be installed on both parties.
Hope this helps,

[UKMuFFiN]

I see, thanks for the info.

So whereas there isn't the driver support for apple OS because apple doesn't want there to be, there isn't the driver support for linux (that there should be) because of the hardware manufacturers. What a twisted world.

So are apple simply being stuck up in not releasing their OS to the general pc market?
Because, they could make loads of sales from it and lets be honest, apple could sort out driver problems if they wanted, or is their another reason?

[charleski]

So are apple simply being stuck up in not releasing their OS to the general pc market?
Because, they could make loads of sales from it and lets be honest, apple could sort out driver problems if they wanted, or is their another reason?

Well Apple's been down the route of licensing their OS in the 90's. It failed badly, and in fact the entire company was close to extinction. The turn-around from 2000 on has been based on their hardware strengths - the iMac and iPod. Right now Apple laptops have gained an impressive share of the retail market, and they're not keen on jeopardising that.

Apple is a hardware company and always has been. Competing with MS on the strength of the OS alone would be massively difficult. MS makes money from Windows because virtually every pre-built PC comes with a version of their OS. That's a position that has been built up over 2 decades and any attempt to get into that market would bring very small returns while slaughtering the hardware base of Apple's profitability.

So no, they aren't being 'stuck-up', they're simply making sure the company continues to survive and make money.

I'd love to be able to walk into a shop and buy OSX for my self-built PC, but I've played around with the hacked OSx86 version, and the hardware problems are enormous. Apple uses EFI instead of BIOS, for instance, and that's merely one example of a whole host of differences that make for a nightmare in terms of hardware compatibility. Simply using the same chip as a PC is only a tiny part of the whole equation. Apple has good reasons for the hardware decisions they've made, and they offer significant advantages over the legacy baggage of PCs. But they can only do that because they have total control over the hardware of their computers.

[UKMuFFiN]

Thank you for bringing up the apple side, I admit i was too closed minded earlier and did intend on asking for input from an apple point of view.

I reckon ill get an apple laptop round christmas time and i'll use it to triple boot mac, linux and windows.

Thanks again for the input guys.

[Spud1]

Also to add to that, aside from it being a crazy idea from apple to release OSX for none apple hardware from a business perspective, it would also be incredibly difficuly for them to keep the reputation that OSX currently has.

The only reason OSX is so stable is because of the total hardware control, so releasing it for every PC would either require years of work to ensure that it stays 100% compatable or else it would be subject to the same problems that windows has, at which point users would attack it for being unstable (just like people currently attack windows - when 99.9999% of the time its their hardware combination that is the real problem).

This would totally destroy apple, so they just won't do it

As it happens there are various patches and hacks around that will let you install OSX on your PC - I have not tried any (as i have my mac) but there are reports of mixed success with them. Totally illegal if you don't own a mac but If you buy a mac and get an OSX licence maybe it would be allowed in some way? not really sure..