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Originally Posted by ElDiabloConCaca Slightly off-topic and speculative, but I think Apple developed Mac OS X on Intel simultaneously a Mac OS X on PPC in case of a switch of processors, not in case Apple ever gave up their hardware business. I don't think Apple ever gave a thought to giving up the hardware business... |
There should be no mistake... Mac OS X for Intel is a direct descendant of NEXTSTEP 3.1 for Intel which was designed to replace NeXT's hardware business which had been shut down a short time earlier.
It was never designed for
NeXT hardware using Intel processors... it was design to work on Wintel compatible systems.
When Apple started work on Rhapsody, the idea behind Rhapsody for Intel was to run it on Wintel compatible systems, not
Apple hardware using Intel processors. The Rhapsody for Intel line was never shut down and it's design was never changed.
Why?
Very simple... Apple didn't make hardware with Intel processors.
How in the world could Apple develop Mac OS X for Intel for nonexistent Intel based Apple hardware? They couldn't. The design of Mac OS X for Intel has been no different (at all) from NEXTSTEP/OPENSTEP/Rhapsody for Intel.
It is only now, as we are speaking, that Intel based Apple hardware is coming into existence (and the developer kits are not Apple hardware, they are based on the hardware that Apple's developers where using to keep Mac OS X for Intel current).
The final version of Mac OS X for Intel that will be released is going to be designed for Apple hardware.
But the current version that has been in development all this time had to be run on something... and as it was originally designed for generic PCs, that is what it currently runs on.
It was a back up plan... Jobs had already been burned (badly) by hardware once. Do you really think he would go without a back up plan after that?
Never put all your eggs in one basket.
I don't think that anyone at Apple ever thought that their hardware business could both be flourishing
and be forced to change processors at the same time. The fact that Mac OS X for Intel could be used in this way was a great benefit of a back up plan designed around a completely different scenario.
As for
Apple not giving the idea of losing their hardware business a
thought... I'd be willing to bet real money that Jobs has never forgotten the fact that NeXT
Computer was forced to become NeXT
Software (even though he has always been a hardware person).
I don't think that the possibility that Apple's hardware business could be gone is ever far from Jobs' mind.
If you think otherwise, then you are doing so by ignoring one of the single biggest failures in Steve Jobs' life. I highly doubt he has forgotten what you seem to want to overlook (the fact that Jobs had viewed NeXT as a hardware company and was slow to react when it was forced out of that business).
Those who don't learn from history are doom to repeat it. I don't think Jobs plans on repeating any of his mistakes.