An Open-Source Opening for Apple
With Microsoft buying Virtual PC, which lets Macs run Windows wares, Apple's independence may well rest with programs such as Bochs.
The deal came like a thunderbolt out of the blue. On Feb. 19, Microsoft (MSFT ) announced that it had purchased Virtual PC, the nifty program from San Mateo (Calif.) software producer Connectix that allows us Mac zealots to run PC programs. For Mac users living in an info-tech universe where Windows dominates, Virtual PC has been a crucial survival tool.
...if I were a fly on the wall at Apple HQ right now, I suspect that it would be easy to confirm that the folks at One Infinite Loop are none too pleased. Steve Jobs has never liked the fact that Apple needs Microsoft more than vice versa. Redmond's deal with Connectix amplifies that point: Now, Microsoft controls two things vital to Apple's survival. The first, Microsoft Office, allows Mac users to converse with the rest of the computing world in the most popular file formats -- Word and PowerPoint documents.
OPEN-SOURCE POWER. The second piece, Virtual PC, may prove even more valuable than the first. And that's where Apple needs to think out of the Bochs. No, that's not a typo. Bochs is open-source software that functions as a Windows emulator on Unix machines. Apple needs to leverage the power of open source to win much-needed independence from Redmond...more [Business Week]
With the sell out by the Justice Department, Mac users have reason to feel even more ill at ease with Microsoft. The problem is, that MS has no real limits to it's desire to control things. It also has a way of ignoring the things that it shouldn't do. If not for the Bush sell out, the Microsoft legal case could have been described as a disaster. With phony tapes, fake demos, lies, insults to judges, and deceit, Microsift only won because it got an adminsitration that wants trhee things, War with Iraq, unrestrained business, and tax-cuts for the wealthy.
With that in mind, Apple is in a very strange period. It's struggling with a processor line that went from being the Super-Computer, to being an albatross around Apples neck. In the mean time they need to chart a course that gives them room in case Microsoft gets bored supporting Apple, and decides that the remaining share of users just need to be theirs. The cusion is Linux. Microsoft is so distracted by the glare of Linux that it almost sure to focus so much of its resources to deal with that threat. This gives Apple some wiggle room, only time will tell...mj
12:16:52 PM 
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