Ubuntu is under attack

[Eric Dunbar]

On 12/18/05, Cefiar <cef at optus.net> wrote:
> Only replied to on sounder, because I'm not subscribed to the other lists, and
> I don't really care to enter too heavily into the debate.

It's getting a tad dull anyway ;-P

> Personally if I want a mail server it's either because:
>  1. I'm running a custom config on my desktop, so installing isn't an issue
> and I'll want to customise it myself.
>  2. I'm running a server, in which case I'll use Ubuntu Server as I don't want
> other stuff (like say, a GUI) installed on the machine.

:-)

> > What I'd like to know is _why_ did Apple switch to i86. There have
> > been so many pontifications on the subject (and, official
> > pronouncements from Apple), but, none have sounded completely
> > convincing -- is Apple setting itself up to compete with software or
> > is there something else at play?
>
> IMPO (P = Personal), it's a way to reduce the cost of the machines. They're
> still going to be locked to Apple hardware, they're just trying to reduce the
> cost. Wether Apple pockets this difference (I consider this more likely), or
> passes on the savings to customers is, of course, yet to be seen.

I'm not convinced it's going to reduce the cost of the machines,
unless they contract out their design (and, Apple hasn't had the best
of luck contracting out... in the past 8 years they've put out some
revolutionary computer designs that force the rest of the industry to
follow).

The price difference between PPC and i86 CPUs is negligible. The whole
Mac computer is built out of standard chips so they're not likely to
realise many savings on that front, I suspect -- only if they adopt
Intel mobos can I see them saving some real cash, but that opens up a
whole kettle of fish with clone users installing Mac OS X on their
machine (unless that's Apple's plan... to go head-to-head with
Microsoft for desktop share by offering an OS that can compete with
MS, on the same hardware).

I'm inclined to suspect that they have something else up their sleeve,
but, I guess we'll only be sure of that in a few years ;-).

Eric.