This was a comment that I originally posted to my Why I hate Apple post. But I think it's worth its own post.
I could have a lot of respect for Apple. But I cannot while they greedily feed off of free software (FreeBSD) and charge a killing for their icons and animations and stuff that they throw on top.
Look folks, Apple made a wise decision in going with FreeBSD. FreeBSD is an excellent OS. The only problem with it is that it's not Open Source. So it cannot benefit from the many advantages OSS has. It is good and stable, but it will not be able to keep up with Linux in
the coming years.
Apple has taken a free OS and made it proprietary. They are betting the farm on their relatively minor software contributions which they do not release to the community from which FreeBSD and OSS are derived.
Well, eventually the OSS community will direct its attention to pretty icons and equivalents of ITunes. Then those things will become free and Apple will have even less to sustain their dying business.
What Apple would need to do to survive is as follows:
- Release the source for their GUI to the OSS community for
maintenance and enhancement. This would dramatically improve the rate
at which this renowned interface would overtake Windows. - Offer free for personal/institutional/educational licensing
of most/all of their software. This would allow for a level of user
adoption that M$ would never be able to compete with. - Focus on services and "enterprise" software that would allow
corporate entities to integrate the Apple applications in a corporate
environment and go ahead and charge handsomely here. - Revisit the open-sourced Mac GUI. Fill in the gaps. Where
volunteer engineers will probably contribute to stability and standard
adherent functionality, Apple would dedicate an effort towards the
corporate environment suitability of the interface. They would ensure
that no company had any excuse for not using "Applix" in the workplace.
StarOffice, network compatible, file share friendly, etc... - Revisit the "enterprise" product line. Ensure that it
introduces to this Apple environment integration and "value add" and
such so that VPs are willing to pay for it. - Oh, scrap the proprietary hardware model that has been
killing your company from the day it was founded (except for the brief
period where you smartly scrapped it :).
Sorry for the lack of elaboration on the "enterprise" crap, but that is a pointy hair problem to figure out, not mine :)
My point is to create an OS (linux + gnu apps + Mac prettiness)
that is so widely adopted that companies will be forced to take interest in Apple's "enterprise" crap, just as they have heretofore been forced to buy into M$ "solutions".
(can i get an amen!)
Comments
Amen.