Apple should offer Macs with OS X and Windows for businesses

Great idea.

Only in your magical world is it cheaper for a corporation to train employees to use OS X and XP, to purchase two operating systems per computer, and to support two distinct operating systems.

Boy, do I get tired of reading posts that Apple computers cost more.
I had just spec'd a Dell M65 when then this announcement was made. I can get the MacBook Pro for THE SAME MONEY as the equivalent spec M65. There's an $80 difference, but that doesn't include a camera with the Dell, or photo editing software, etc. And the Mac is in stock - Dell won't ship their CoreDuo laptops until the end of the month. Maybe desktops is another matter (I haven't looked closely) but let's stop with the massive and incorrect generalization about price shall we?
And yes, no-one who wants a PC will buy a Mac 'just because' but $300 on WinXP is cheaper than even the cheapest eMachines box if you need to run software from both sides of the fence. There is more to corporate software than Office apps. I need to run Solidworks and while they have a Mac reader for their eDrawings, the CAD package itself has to run on Windows and there's no equivalent in the OS X world.

This is really one of the DUMBEST posts I have ever read on TUAW. Let's think about this for a minute --- what if Apple really wanted to compete with Dell for the enterprise market. What would have to happen? Apple would have completely change and become a different company.

There is this little tiny issue called ecomonics! Apple computers cost more. Component prices for computer hardware are very low because there is ALOT of competition and for Apple to "compete" in the enterprise business, it would have to slash prices in half, if not by 2/3 --- (even then, it would still have a hard time getting businesses to buy its hardware after years of buying other types of hardware). By doing so, would Apple still be able to make the type of products it makes? Nope, unless it wants to go into massive debt. Moreove r, Apple ships, what, a few million computers a year. For it to "compete" in the market of computers running windows, it would have to increase its production by 10-15 times. I really do wonder if some of the people on here who think that Apple will soon displace Windows are smoking crack or if they are just living in a very crazy version of the Jobs reality distortion field. In short, doing what you say they should do would take years and years of planning and investment and hirings that would not go unnoticed.

Apple would then become a completely different company with little if any money left over to continue serious development of OS X. Enjoy fantasy land.

If the idea is to get OS X in front of business people who otherwise might not be looking at it, virtualization is a better solution than dual boot.

People who boot into Windows to use some software for their business are going to be spending all their time in Windows. Think about it: if their work requires Windows, booting into OS X would mean lost productivity.

On the other hand, virtualization would have them looking at OS X every time they sit down in front of their computers.

This won't work for two reasons:

1. No one who wants a PC will buy a Mac "just because" - Windows still costs money
2. Macs are historically more expensive than their PC counterparts, meaning someone like Dell, who has the power to push out thousands of units a day, won't sit up and take notice.

Other than gamers I am still wondering where the big deal is here. I use a Windows laptop for work and a Mac at home. I bought MAC Office - which does everything I need and Virtual PC which I have never used. Mac hardware is still more expensive than the equivalent Dell hardware and trails in the use of the latest graphics cards. Don't get me wrong I love the Mac but are there REALLY that many people that need both environment simultaneoulsy.

One nasty side effect might be that Microsoft will see no reason to contune to develop Office for OSX and assume everyone on Mac will run Office on XP/Vista!

But everything is deeply intertwingled, as Ted Nelson said, and especially these two subjects: Win on Mac or OS X on PC.

To clarify: Earlier this week I lamented Apple licensing OS X to any mom and pop PC manufacturer, as the headline of the post itself explains. This post I just wrote is about a completely unrelated topic. They have nothing to do with each other.

The option to run Windows on a Mac system implies that it is attractive for users to buy a Mac. After several weeks of trouble with the MacBook Pro (it has the whine, it gets way too hot, and has often several other problems) I would rather buy a Lenovo Thinkpad Duo Core Notebook and run OS X on such a system!

Achterblad (Mac user since 1988).