On the consumer becoming the winner in all of this...I thought Jeff Duntemann had an interesting take on this in his June 4, 2005 entry:
http://www.duntemann.com/Diary.htm
Jeff Duntemann wrote:What we will see are cheaper Mac systems, which will bolster Apple as a company and keep the Mac platform in the running. And what I'd like to eventually see is a system in which Windows and OS X are both preinstalled on PCs, and you get sixty days to try them both before paying to activate one and delete (or ignore) the other. All the endless arguments about which environment is better would fall to real numbers: Users would decide, and we would know.
I think that is a great idea. Give the user base a choice, and let them pick the best system for their needs.
By the way, as a former Apple developer (Apple II era), all I can say is with all the architecture changes for Apple, I'm amazed there are even any third-pary Apple developers left. Having spent the past few years picking up a lot x86 stuff now, part of me is happy for the switch and the other part is saying "WTF?". How many times is Apple going to burn its developer base?
