Comments on: Commodification and Operating Systems

By: Benjamin Supnik

Benjamin Supnik — Sun, 25 May 2008 17:51:00 +0000

Julian: there's a bit in your post that I don't agree with, but let me point to two statements:

"its drivers limitations just make it very limited outside Apple configured machines"

"but I don't see much future unless the make OS X,universal to all PCs."

I'm not sure how you get from A to B. OS X isn't designed to run on all boxes - it's an integrated package. More importantly, I don't see how this limits its future.

Apple takes commodity parts, puts on a proprietary mod of an also-ran open source OS, puts a nice logo on it and charges 2x the price. And they succeed at this strategy!

If they were losing market share for this you'd say it was stupid. But it appears to me that they can take this strategy to the bank. If anything, market dynamics have made this approach more viable for Apple, not less.

By: Julian

Julian — Fri, 23 May 2008 20:24:00 +0000

I have a Dell laptop with 3 operating systems installed, Win XP, Mac OS X and Ubuntu 8.04. In my experience Vista sucks (vapor ware) actually unistalled it and upadated to Win XP. Vista never got to fullfill the expectations it generated, XP is OK but has its limitations as all of MS stuff. Mac OS X is just a piece of crap, a nice GUI over FreeBSD, nice eye candy over an expensive box its drivers limitations just make it very limited outside Apple configured machines, as Ben says they have it easy, but I don’t see much future unless the make OS X,universal to all PCs. Ubuntu is great, nice looks, excellent performace easy handling, but the important thing about a computer is the software it runs, while mayor software companies like MS, Adobe and Autodesk keep there software away from Linux, it will continue being a nerd thing. I get good performance from X-Plane in Ubuntu and XP, but my work demands of a Win XP to run the tools I need, so I will have to stick to it. The good news is that Adobe announced they will port their software to Linux… Conclusion I have to use an OS I really don’t find great just because I have to work in tools that demand it.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 20 May 2008 17:00:00 +0000

Come on Ben! I enjoy your blog but you Apple/Linux nuts are all the same. Get original, man! And check your facts…

By: Squash

Squash — Sat, 17 May 2008 20:11:00 +0000

Hey, Ben, I've been watching with humour and interest as you make these somewhat positive notes about operating system experience. I try to keep my linux flag in my pocket while doing my work, but time and time again, I find my productivity is just so much better under Linux.

However, I can say the only reason I can be 'tolerated' to use a linux only laptop for work, is because of crossover office. This allows me to run Microsoft Office.

In this post, you talk about user experience as being the important distinguishing factor between operating systems. However, I believe that application support is the real factor that leads people to decide on one operating system over another.

That to me provides the answer to the 'What will happen to microsoft?' question. The world runs on MS Office. OpenOffice just plain sucks in comparison, so there is no viable multi-platform alternative.

What are your thoughts? I don't think that Laminar Research is a good example of an ISV that decided to support linux, since X-Plane is such a nerdy tool (especially since you added the SDK). What about other vendors?

By: Chris

Chris — Sat, 17 May 2008 08:39:00 +0000

Interesting points Ben. In general I do not disagree but I don’t think we are as far as long as you think. I’ve spent all my adult life in technology and the last 15 directly in IT. I have several machines, 1 Vista 32-bit desktop, 1 Vista 64-bit desktop, a WinXP notebook and a Ubuntu based notebook. While it Vista runs fine it really wasn’t the “wow” Microsoft promised. DirectX 10 has been a non-issue for me so far as I do not have any apps that require it.

The real tripper for OSX and Linux is peripheral support. While you may find drivers or get generic support the add-on utils that help you make the most of that peripheral are missing. Take the Saitek X-52 for example. While it works fine under Linux as a basic stick with 27 buttons, under Windows you program those buttons in layers with their profiling software. You can have as many as six layers. That is just one example. When that kind of functionality can exist across all platforms then we can truly say the OS does not matter.

The other thing to keep in mind is that Microsoft did not get where they are because they have a superior product. It was due to superior marketing and questionable business practices.

By: Peter Cole

Peter Cole — Fri, 16 May 2008 21:14:00 +0000

Unquestionably another insightful post on the post-Vista future of Microsoft. It’s equally damning that MS found the architecture of Windows incapable of supporting the new features they had originally planned for Longhorn/Vista (and can be found in the competition’s OSes). I can’t help be think Windows is soon going to be pushed out of homes.