Mach kernel and Unix over 68k : well before OS X (Was: Status of6.0 for production systems)

[Ted Mittelstaedt]

>-----Original Message-----
>From: Gilbert Fernandes [mailto:gilbert.fernandes at spamcop.net]
>Sent: Saturday, November 19, 2005 10:30 AM
>To: freebsd-questions at freebsd.org
>Cc: tedm at toybox.placo.com; chad at shire.net
>Subject: Mach kernel and Unix over 68k : well before OS X (Was: Status
>of6.0 for production systems)
>
>
>> Consider that when MacOS moved to UNIX that all the UNIX software
>> vendors could now easily port their applications to Macintosh.
>
>Excuse me, sir.
>
>Your discussion is pretty impressive and I have been reading it
>with care. Honestly, I am far from having a distant enough picture
>of the whole say to comment about what the discussion is about
>(and to be honest, I am not even sure I do know exactly what
>the point of the discussion is - please forgive me).
>
>But "Unix" has been available for MacOS users for a long time,
>far before MacOS X went out and using a Mach kernel.
>

The problem is though, that it didn't have Apple's marketing
muscle behind it.

The thing that made Apple's decision to switch to MacOS X so great
was that they abandonded the old macOS Classic.  There is no upgrade
path so customers of the Mac either have to learn MacOS X or give
up the Mac entirely.  Most of them did give up the old OS.

If Apple had done the dual OS route like they did with AU/X 
then nobody would have switched from whatever the OS 9 descendent
would have been to MacOS X, and MacOS X would now be a footnote in
the history of UNIX.  People are, after all, somewhat lazy.

For a brief period of time Apple had a flash of lucidity and realized
they are a software company, that is what birthed MacOS X.  Unfortunately
that brief flash seems to have faded and they are right back to 
believing that the software is just a thing used to sell hardware.
That puts them in direct competition with the low-ballers like Dell.
Maybe one day Apple will understand that there is nobody out there
in the low-baller market competing with MacOS X.

Ted