Forums | MacLife

Red_Soldier · 2002-12-10 8:22 pm

http://www.macrumors.com
http://www.macuser.co.uk/news/news_story.php?id=36263

How realistic is this roumor. Do you think that Apple would make such an aggressive move.

a story about Apple's secret Marklar (OS X on x86) project. According to their sources, they are also claiming that Apple is considering marketing Marklar -- as an independant product:

US sources close to the project indicated that the company was actively considering selling Marklar as a retail product, effectively allowing users to replace Windows with OS X. Apple is contemplating the move because it sees an opportunity to win market share from Windows when Microsoft introduces Palladium, a version of its operating system that implements digital rights management.

...or, alternatively, to be triggered for release if Microsoft and Apple relations sour.

Information on Marklar was first leaked by this eWeek article which describes it as an "fall-back plan" should the PowerPC fail to deliver.

Later unconfirmable information came in the form of this detailed article on Apple's Past and Future roadmap... which shares many similarities to this Macuser's report:

Contrary to circulating rumors, [Marklar] is not meant to be a Power PC exit strategy. Rather, it is intended to be offered to X86 users when Apple sees market conditions being fit for it. What it means by this is regarding Intel's Lagrande technology, and Microsoft's Palladium technology. Apple intends on releasing OS X on Intel, when consumer dissatisfaction falls to an all time low for Microsoft when users become restricted to what they can do on their PC's due to Lagrande and Palladium. Likely it will be released in the event that Microsoft chooses to stop developing for the Mac platform altogether.

If this information is indeed accurate, this also provides more validation to the RoadMap article which also detailed other products that are in the works.

zerocool90 · 2002-12-11 6:15 am

Nyet!! people can be so kelturniy...

but maybe...

MacBoy4139 · 2002-12-11 2:58 pm

How about this... Apple may consider it... but then it realizes that it would suffer the same fate as it would have if Steve Jobs didn't kill the clones....

Apple could build its own x86 hardware and computers, and they could even make it so that Marklar only runs on these Apple branded machines. But with all things, this won't last long.... it wouldn't be hard for some geniuses out there to make it so that the whole thing will install on any Intel based PC. Just look at all of the machines that support OS X with upgrade cards - entirely different motherboards, yet they still figured a way.

It would be pretty cool though... I think....

Cheers!

oolatec · 2002-12-13 1:37 am

And what will Apple do when 95% of the PeeCee weenies pirate it instead of buying a legit copy? This would be a HUGE mistake IMO.

zerocool90 · 2002-12-13 6:34 am

And what will Apple do when 95% of the PeeCee weenies pirate it instead of buying a legit copy? This would be a HUGE mistake IMO.

do what emagic does and have a little USB authorization dongle. im sure there are ways past it too, but its provides a bit more security.

nzilla · 2002-12-13 7:19 am

And what will Apple do when 95% of the PeeCee weenies pirate it instead of buying a legit copy? This would be a HUGE mistake IMO.
do what emagic does and have a little USB authorization dongle. im sure there are ways past it too, but its provides a bit more security.

But that would just be annoying, and Microsoft-ish. I think it's a really bad idea, considering we all just had to wait for apps to get carbonized for OSX and then we'd have to wait for them to get ported to x86. Imagine how long it would take Quark! roll

zerocool90 · 2002-12-13 12:12 pm

So what if people DID pirate it? That would mean more people using OS X, with no cost to Apple for packaging and distribution...

packaging and producing costs jack squat. Thats like you build something out of your home and sell it in stores, and you being happy that someone comes in and steals everything youve been working on. Sure, you didnt have to get it to stores and wait for it to sell, but your out of inventory and have debts accumulated from the manufacture. I dont know why people think things are free...

oolatec · 2002-12-13 1:24 pm

So what if people DID pirate it? That would mean more people using OS X, with no cost to Apple for packaging and distribution...

Yeah and there go the profits for Apple...

MacBoy4139 · 2002-12-13 3:07 pm

If people pirated the software, then Apple wouldn't make a cent. Even worse, the pirated copies would end up on non-Apple x86 hardware, which Apple would even lose more money on - not selling hardware or software.

Apple's software margins are not as big as Microsofts which for Windows are at about 85%. Apple relies on sales of its hardware, especially its professional line. Why do you think we don't have any clones anymore? Apple wouldn't be here if we still had clones.

Cheers!

Tickle-Me-Eric · 2002-12-13 4:27 pm

If this took off there might not be Apple the Hardware company, (which I LOVE), but I believe the Apple Software Company would survive, maybe even thrive...

I am not sure it is the course I want things to take, in fact I am almost sure, but it might be a good "Last Case Scenario" if the Apple starts to go rotten, then this may be the only way we could keep using at least somthing that resembles our Lovely OS...

aub32 · 2002-12-13 6:58 pm

Eric - I just looked at your pics from the premiere night. Really cool, man. Neat seeing Scorcese on somebody's homepage. What did you do for the film?

Tickle-Me-Eric · 2002-12-14 1:45 am

I did a lot of Pre-Production and research for the film as an intern (I copied a first draft of the script on my first day interning, and to have seen it through to the premiere is pretty special) over the course of a year and a half. I got to do a lot fo neat things, like help figure out what an abortion scar would look like from that era, find all the churches in Manhattan from a certian time period and I spent days at the NY Public Library researching many things and looking at old photos...

Then they hired me and I was promoted to keeping marty's Macs running (it is an all Mac operation) and getting to do some FCP editing for things to be included on DVDs or shown at festivals, all while still helping out the research and other folks in the office...

aub32 · 2002-12-14 11:12 am

You, my friend, have got the coolest first job I think anyone could have. You must have worked your ass of for it. Did you go to NYU?

Trailer Park Boy · 2002-12-16 2:11 pm

I think that if Marklar wants to pursue Marklar technology, that they should Marklar. Frankly I think that if they do, their Marklars will be on the line and if the Marklar doesn't Marklar, Marklar will surely be in deep Marklar indeed. I hope they can Marklar their own Marklar to work with Marklar, only then will Marklar have true Marklar and arklar. In this way all those Marklars will eventually run on Marklar for Marklar by Marklar then we can all have a Marklar in every pot and a Marklar in every driveway!

Schlomo · 2002-12-16 2:35 pm

Thank you for bumping up this thread.. you know, I went a whole weekend without having to read about Star Trek or Marklar.. and I almost started to miss it. I though someone had some remarkable new insight about it. tongue

Zetetic Apparatchik · 2002-12-24 6:04 pm

Woah! eek
You got interested in Star Trek too?
I managed to talk to two of the guys that made it. I wonder if Marklar (if, as it may, does exist) has similar constraints to that of Star Trek?

Star Trek (a port of bits of Mac OS 7 ; they got a version of the Finder and some other stuff running on it...) would only run on very specifically configured PCs.

Da Penguin · 2002-12-24 10:12 pm

OS X for PC exists. Period. It isn't by anymeans updatedand nice like jaguar, but it exists. I have seen rhapsody on a PC before, and for all intensive puposes, it is OS X, with a classic interface, on a PC.

Sure it isn't aqua and fast and pretty, but I'm sure apple didn't stop developing it there. Steve Jobs used OpenStep on a PC laptop while he waited for rhapsody to work. (Openstep is PC NextStep)

http://toastytech.com/guis/rhap.html

That has screen shots of it runnign on Intel Harware.

So all in all, Apple ahs had this, and probably still does. Will they use it anytime soon? I personally doubt it,and fear it would open apple up too much into the big world of x86. They cannot survive as such a company, and need to stick to the world they know best; the small world of apple.

~The Penguin

r00b3n · 2005-06-08 10:42 pm

Well of course this has come to pass. I hope Apple can survive until the first MacIntels come out on nothing more that iPod sales. If not, I hope they opensource mac os X on both ppc and x86 so that at least the OS will continue. Something tells me they may speed up the timetable when they see current sales go through the floor.

r00b3n (Ruben)

TargetX · 2005-06-09 11:48 am

I don't really see sales dropping through the floor. I don't know an enormous amount about what professionals will be thinking, but the education crowd is fairly big, and they aren't going to stop buying apple products. The average consumer (my brother that plans on getting an ibook for College next year) notes that apple is switching to intel, but it means nothing to him. He just wants his shiny new laptop. I think that many people think like this, and once apple has finally convinced everyone that they will support the PPC for the next 6 years or so at least people should have no reason not to purchase hardware. I got a PB last April, and I might wait until the first iteration of the intels to see what comes out, but if I had an older laptop, and was thinking of upgrading now I'd go with a PPC.

Target

r00b3n · 2005-06-09 11:01 pm

All things considered though, the second they get the pentium M's in an iBook, I'm there. I hope that Microsoft will have completed it's Intel version of VPC by then so that I can run everything (well not os 9 stuff) from my Mac. Anyway I'll still have my trusty MMD G4 that I bought for the very reason that it was the last Mac to boot OS 9.

Last edited by r00b3n (2005-06-09 11:03 pm)

reece_james · 2005-06-09 11:26 pm

I think WINE will be first off the mark, not VPC.

Madd the Sane · 2005-06-10 9:37 am

Probably DarWINE will make the x86 post?

WindowsBreakerG4 · 2005-06-10 3:13 pm

Wow this is an old ass thread

r00b3n · 2005-06-10 4:02 pm

sure is, but the point was to show that we probably should have and some did see this coming

reece_james · 2005-06-11 4:50 am

Madd the Sane wrote:
Probably DarWINE will make the x86 post?

Bingo, kinda. DarWINE is actually piped through Qemu. I think it will be through the developers of WINE, maybe with some help from DarWINE.

Forums | MacLife

#1 2002-12-10 8:22 pm

Apple considering Marklar

#2 2002-12-11 6:15 am

Re: Apple considering Marklar

#3 2002-12-11 2:58 pm

Re: Apple considering Marklar

#4 2002-12-13 1:37 am

Re: Apple considering Marklar

#5 2002-12-13 6:34 am

Re: Apple considering Marklar

#6 2002-12-13 7:19 am

Re: Apple considering Marklar

#7 2002-12-13 12:12 pm

Re: Apple considering Marklar

#8 2002-12-13 1:24 pm

Re: Apple considering Marklar

#9 2002-12-13 3:07 pm

Re: Apple considering Marklar

#10 2002-12-13 4:27 pm

Re: Apple considering Marklar

#11 2002-12-13 6:58 pm

Re: Apple considering Marklar

#12 2002-12-14 1:45 am

Re: Apple considering Marklar

#13 2002-12-14 11:12 am

Re: Apple considering Marklar

#14 2002-12-16 2:11 pm

Re: Apple considering Marklar

#15 2002-12-16 2:35 pm

Re: Apple considering Marklar

#16 2002-12-24 6:04 pm

Re: Apple considering Marklar

#17 2002-12-24 10:12 pm

Re: Apple considering Marklar

#18 2005-06-08 10:42 pm

Re: Apple considering Marklar

#19 2005-06-09 11:48 am

Re: Apple considering Marklar

#20 2005-06-09 11:01 pm

Re: Apple considering Marklar

#21 2005-06-09 11:26 pm

Re: Apple considering Marklar

#22 2005-06-10 9:37 am

Re: Apple considering Marklar

#23 2005-06-10 3:13 pm

Re: Apple considering Marklar

#24 2005-06-10 4:02 pm

Re: Apple considering Marklar

#25 2005-06-11 4:50 am

Re: Apple considering Marklar

Madd the Sane wrote:

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