Digital Mutterings

Lately I have been toying with the idea of building a “Hackintosh”, for those not in the know a “Hackintosh” is a PC that in not manufactured by Apple but, can run OS X. This of course got me wondering, if Apple would be better off selling OS X to run on third party computers not unlike Windows?

The two main reasons that people build a Hackintosh is to save money, and because it can be done. Now don’t get me wrong Apple builds really great hardware, but it is a bit pricey, and in today's economy every little bit helps.

Now at this point with people starting to run OS X on non Apple hardware the genie is out of the bottle, it still takes some doing to get it done but it continues to get easier.  If Apple were to release OS X much like Microsoft does Windows, I don’t think that it would be a huge change for them, since Apple already develops, and sells different apps for the Macintosh. The downside for them would be a negative impact on their own hardware sales, which would be a good reason not to do it.

Now if Apple were to say release OS X, and say charge like $50.00 for it, they could put a big hurt on Microsoft. Microsoft would have to respond by lowering the price of Windows, I also think the number of OS X users would just explode.

So will Apple do the unthinkable? I don’t think so, not as long as Steve Jobs is running the show at Apple. Steve wants to control your PC experience on both the hardware, and software side, I think as a way of quality control, at least in his mind anyway. But if he did do it, I think it would be a game changer.