The Logic Off Topic list

Paul  wrote:
>This makes a lot of sense. I think there is a problem in the Mac community
>itself. Too attached. I am going to switch to OS X as soon as Logic is
>available in that format, perhaps sooner. I think MS is doing Apple a big
>favor with this statement.

If M$ follows through on its threat to drop OSX support it will be
interesting to see what happens. It was widely acknowledged in 1997 when
Microsoft invested in Apple (US $150 mill) and promised five years of
continued development of Office that no office => no mac. M$ is the largest
developer of Mac applications from all reports -- bigger than Adobe and all
the rest in terms of volume of products.

Apple is trying to get it's users to migrate away from what they are rusted
onto -- it's old interface -- to the new OSX interface. Some will like it
-- some won't. Also -- a lot of apps like audio apps and plugins will not
make the transition without modification/rewrites. 

There are similarities here with Intel and its ambitions for the Itanium
(IA64) chip series. Intel has a new 64 bit platform with some degree of
(low performance) backward compatibility with x86. It wants the high end
(multiprocessor servers) to migrate to IA64/Itanium  and eventually (2008?)
your granny will be emailing on it. 

In the short term this plan is going nowhere - they have sold a few
thousand chips. AMD has  a processor with 64 bit extensions to x86
(Hammer). This beast runs all existing x86 faster than current generations
and add 64 bit address space etc for higher end applications (eg addressing
more than 4 GB of memory). It seems likely that Hammer will murder the IA64
Itanium chips in the market. The problem is similar to the one that
confronts Apple:  getting a user base to change  platforms  (OS and
new/ported applications) is a tough job.

OSX and IA64 are undoubtedly techical advances -- whether people will leave
what they have money invested in, what they know and feel comfortable with
remains to be seen. Apple is probably in a better position to  force its
customers to move on. 

Regards,
Murray

Regards,
M