Get your next Mac from Dell

Michael Dell's comments are nothing but a (cheap) ploy to sell more Dells. Dell and other PC manufacturers are the ones really threatened by Apple's Boot Camp software (not Microsoft), since they can't legally run OS X on their machines.

If Michael Dell can convince customers that Apple will license OS X, then he can use that as a way for people to buy his computers (they're so much cheaper...).

I believe Apple has no intentions of licensing OS X for the same reasons they squashed the venture back in the 90s–it was bad for Apple. If Apple gets to the point where their hardware business is failing then perhaps they'll license OS X, but doing so pits them squarely against Microsoft as a pure software company, not to mention Apple makes far more money off hardware sales than they do from software. This is not a road Apple wants to travel down, and they will do so only if the life of the company is at stake, which will hopefully never happen.

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.

>> "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...

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.

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!

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.

OS X will never be licensed. Tight control means good quality.

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.

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

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.