I would soooo love for that to happen and even went so far as to have installed one Xserve in my Windows/Unix infrastructure. The problem there is the support for Enterprise users with Apple is almost nil unless you pay ridiculous support fees to them. By ridiculous I mean VERY VERY VERY high. I expect to pay an annual fee for anything I consider mission critical to get someone smarter than me on the phone when things go splat. I wish I still had the URL for Apple’s pricing matrix for Enterprise support. It really is a joke.

Also they also haven’t put much focus in directly targeting the dealbreaker areas in the desktop that keep IT guys like me from making a valid argument for switching desktops over en masse. Our CEO and Sales/BizDev guys are married to Outlook and Exchange 200x, like it or not. Parallels mitigates much of this, but this is 3rd party, and you have to own the Windows license (more capital outlay).

If Apple put effort into making the built in apps seamlessly integrate with Exchange (thats just one example) then virtually everything else my Windows users can do on the LAN can be taken care of by a Mac.

./D

> As for other PC users who prefer their brand of computer … Well, that\’s their choice. God Bless them all.

> Apple is betting that the PC user will, because of his iPod and Vista, migrate to Mac and to OS X. I also believe that because of Vista, the Business Enterprise and SOHO will do the same. If Apple licenses its OS in the near future, it will lose a great deal of control over the OS, because the differences in architecture among the various computer manufacturers will force Apple to make changes in the OS that would be detrimental. I believe that Apple\’s near-term growth (four to five years) will be explosive, because they are at that point where sales will continue at very high, and increasing volumes.

> I do believe that Apple will wait until their market share reaches between 15-20% before they consider licensing a PC version of OS X, if they will consider it at all. Why? They need to have hard data that there is a real trend away from MS OS to the Mac OS. Then, they might release the OS, if they do it at all.

\”Obviously, as more than one person has pointed out during the whole \”iPhone/closed system\” debate of a week or so ago, part of the Mac OS experience comes from the fact that software and hardware are all one harmonious whole, working flawlessly together, etc., etc. But why not let people who can\’t afford those gleaming white boxes get a taste of the Mac magic?\”

For many months now, there have been numerous articles about how inexpensive Apple\’s computers are when compared with equally equipped computers on the PC side: The savings can be in the hundreds of dollars. (Dell is frequently used as the benchmark.) So, people can afford Apple computers and should buy them. Therefore, the justification for your argument is null.

Why should people purchase Mac\’s, other than the more competitive pricing? Because when you buy a Mac and are given a free, powerful PC; Because, as you said, \”part of the Mac OS experience comes from the fact that software and hardware are all one harmonious whole, working flawlessly together …\” ; Because Apple has the best support program in the industry; and, Because their computers are truly a joy to use.