Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Hardware, OS, Software, Apple
Get your next Mac from Dell
The
world is getting stranger and stranger I tell you. During this PC Magazine podcast Michael Dell talks about how
important industrial design is to Dell. One day they woke up and said, "Why are we shipping ugly boxes?" and
so they went ahead and starting using a little bit of design (and I have to say that Dell's products are looking
better. They don't compare to Apple's stuff, but baby steps).Another thing that Mr. Dell said is that Dell 'would be happy to sell Mac OS X as soon as it is available.' He thinks that Apple will license OS X, and Dell will be amongst the licensees.
My prediction? As long as Steve is running Apple OS X won't be licensed.
[via digg]
![TUAW [Cafepress]](http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.tuaw.com/media/tuaw-cafepress-promo.png)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Mark Sumner said 10:35AM on 5-05-2006
Lighted keyboard.
At the moment it all comes down to that for me. Until someone else offers a backlighted keyboard, I'm not interested no matter how cool their machine may look.
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andy said 10:36AM on 5-05-2006
it would rather sell computers with osx installed than sell up and give all the money to the share holders! ;p - someone was gonna say it so i thought it may as well be me.
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chus3r said 10:45AM on 5-05-2006
I would love it because my company will not buy anything but Dell and at least I would have a chance to get the OS I prefer.
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Wheels said 11:13AM on 5-05-2006
Barf.
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NetworkShadow said 11:18AM on 5-05-2006
I'm glad Steve won't license OS X, we get some quality control that way and it keeps the marketshare smaller... I don't want Mac OS to become the next Windows, I really don't.
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nezromatron said 11:22AM on 5-05-2006
Time machine much?
http://www.tuaw.com/2005/06/16/dell-would-sell-os-x/
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nickelbridge said 11:33AM on 5-05-2006
I hope X is never licensed. A big reason it is so great is because of this. The thought of osx and macs turning into something even remotely like a dell with windows and all its problems.... ugh. The small niche market is the reason why i love apple.
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Stucco said 11:53AM on 5-05-2006
I see that they are finally offering a laptop with DVI out. I mean how many years overdue is this? And they still include a VGA, when they could have used an adapter for the legacy folks. It's seemed a bit baffling that all this while you could buy a very nice Dell screen with DVI and hook it to your Mac (and many no doubt do) but there were no Dell lappies that would connect via DVI. Hell, I think most every (all?) of their desktop offerings use VGA to this day as well. Yet another area where Apple is driving the better technology in the industry, even though anyone else could have joined in.
Also, has anyone discovered that the Apple 30" and the Dell 30" are actually the same screen (same OEM manufacturer, I mean)? I can't see a difference, other than the rest of the framing/body/what-have-you.
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Kelter said 12:18PM on 5-05-2006
Hmm - but how will Dell get the MyWay spyware working?
http://www.michaelrighi.com/2005/07/21/dell-spyware-my-way/
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Callum said 12:44PM on 5-05-2006
don't confuse spending money on designers and 'design'.
i've used a brand spanking new dell, with added 'design', 4. was right "Barf".
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Edsel said 12:57PM on 5-05-2006
LOL! Kelter (#8)
I too just purchased a new Sony Vaio notebook to run financial software and was shocked by the abusive shovel-ware installed on this retail machine. I've come close on several occasions to smashing it to pieces because of the constant pop-ups covering my work. Microsoft is comatose, they deserve every bad review they get.
I switched to Apple on July 14, 2003; a date easier for me to remember than my wedding anniversary 8-}
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GadgetGav said 1:08PM on 5-05-2006
I just bought a new laptop in a Dell-only company... I bought a Macbook Pro and run Windows on it via Boot Camp..! I'm a happy (boot) camper..!
It was not only better designed than the equivalent Dell, it was cheaper to buy too. Especially once you added a dock to get the DVI funtionality out of the damn thing. @Stucco, I've noticed! I run a Dell widescreen flat panel as a second display from my Windows-running MBP..!
What is that Dell laptop pictured anyway..? Is that supposed to be an example of their improved industrial design..? Just making the case in a lighter color doesn't count! The thing is still a mish mash of shapes, has way too many extra little buttons and is too damn thick to be considered in the same design league as anything from Apple.
Michael Dell only wants to sell OS X because at the moment there's only one company that makes well designed, well priced laptops that are capable of running Windows or OS X and he's worried.
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Falsoman said 2:43PM on 5-05-2006
I don't know if i have some sort of low electricity level or my soul has been consumed, but yesterday i helped install a friend software for his cousin's new 17 dell and i was shocked.... the thing is huge, and even though it was a dual core it was really slow... and the trackpad didn't like me...
I mean that fricking track pad didn't respond with my fingers! One thing i did liked it was the fact that they used a little bit the stile of tracking with two fingers like apple does... i don't know who did it first... but it was a little anoying because aparently you had to put one finger on the edge first and then another finger to start scrolling... i might be wrong but that is the way the thing worked for me, when it decided to work.
I don't know, i'm a recent switcher (since september) and even though i've had my rough moments with my iBook, the dell laptop was really painful...
i liked windows media center, though
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glad said 2:53PM on 5-05-2006
I am Mac fan boy have been since 2001 but I recently purchased a Dell laptop Inspiron 1300 (1.5 ghz celeron cpu,15.4' Wxga screen, 512Mb memory, built in wifi card, 8x DVD +/-RW, 40 GB HD, Win XP Home) for 380.00, ordered it wednesday evening at 11.22 pm and it arrived on Friday morning at 10.59 (the driver pulled up just as I was getting into my car!). It's full of bloatware but as I am using it to test out prior to buying 10 more laptops for a training business I am involved in, it doesn't matter. The design isn't that great and the whole thing is all plastic so I have no intention of dropping it. The software that comes with it sucks
big time but for the price and the spec it will do the job, however it's not something I'd be seen out in public unlike my faithful iBook (G3). Dells have their place but no one buys a Dell for the design features as there aren't any unlike an iBook or MBP (drool). Dell sells on price and 380 for a laptop is an absolute bargain here in the UK, which is why their market share is so big. That's the truth and the reason why I bought a Dell but give me Apple anytime.
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Matt G said 8:45PM on 5-05-2006
OS X will never be licensed. Tight control means good quality.
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Reg said 8:57PM on 5-05-2006
Apple could license Mac OS X, and I think claims that hell would freeze over first before Jobs would do that are overrated.
Back when he ran NeXT, Steve transitioned the company from making the NeXT Cube hardware + NeXTSTEP software to a purely software business in the form of the OpenStep, which ran on almost every architecture around. Sun was in fact a licensee of OpenStep (and it probably had a role in inspiring Java).
Apple did license System 7 before to the clone makers and machines like PowerComputing's weren't bad at all. The big problem was that the clone machines were TOO GOOD for their price, and traditional Mac buyers were buying them instead, eating into Apple's own business without increasing marketshare, at a time when Apple was in freefall.
The clone venture was deemed a failure because of this and to survive Apple needed to have sole control of the Mac hardware, so they could re-orient it into a new "whole package" direction, inspired by a new aesthetic demanded by Jobs and delivered by Jonathan Ive.
The concept that the Mac was an inseparable symbiosis of hardware and software was promoted as distinguishing feature of a company facing a difficult time. But times have changed, and Apple is now a much more robust company. The iPod and a succession of inspired iMac and PowerBook designs have promoted the Apple brand as being synonymous with beautiful hardware, and Mac OS X and its associated software have gained it a reputation for solid, feature rich software. The two could indeed be separated without causing lasting harm.
If Apple did license Mac OS X, they could stipulate some conditions to create a decent experience on clone hardware: Dell could in fact be making cheaper Macs for the masses, drawing on their R&D in cost-saving to deliver budget Mac clones. Apple themselves could continue producing the premium "niche" machines for best of class hardware snobs.
However, I agree it's unlikely in the present climate. It would be the equivalent of a first strike against Redmond, and the folks up there have far more weapons at their disposal to retaliate.
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Alex said 9:45PM on 5-05-2006
Apple is a hardware company, it sells hardware. Apple doesn't make enough profit from Mac OS X sales to be able to give up the hardware sales even if they get license fees in return. It isn't going to happen as long as Steve is running Apple. Forget about it!
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SubGenius said 11:03PM on 5-05-2006
I don't like the idea of Apple licensing it's OS.
But if Apple has no intention of making TabletMac, let Toshiba or Sony put OSX on a tablet.
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Steve M said 12:08AM on 5-07-2006
>> "OS X will never be licensed. Tight control means good quality."
This sounds familiar, let me think. Oh yes, I remember:
>> "Apple will never run on Intel chips. Never."
I wonder if Never means what you think it means...
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Liquidmark said 1:28PM on 5-07-2006
The exclusivity of OS X is vital to apple's survival. It makes no sense for them to license it as doing that in the past almost killed the company in the past.
I say, the exclusive ability to run OS X and Window$ on one machine, natively, is a winning strategy.
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