Could Apple redesign their OS to work on PCs and ultimately compete with Microsoft?

Answer 1

In a way, they just did. Their Intel macs are running on essentially the same hardware as Microsoft uses. I know several people who dual-boot their laptops to OS X and Win XP, so it is entirely possible.

I think you are a bit off on your assessment of the competition between Mac and Microsoft, though. They already compete, so I am not sure why you are wondering if they will begin to. Basically, I doubt Mac will ever enjoy the popularity that Microsoft has achieved. The popularity of Microsoft software is primarily due to the cheap IBM-compatible "PC clones" which mimiced the IBM BIOS, therefore were able to run the MS-DOS operating system. These cheap computers were the logical choice of consumers who did not want to spend a wad in the days of expensive computers with less power than a cell phone has today. Since the only way to run the Mac OS was to buy an expensive piece of hardware manufactured by Apple, they never really caught on with the small consumers very well. Microsoft got a huge head start, and Apple is hard-pressed to recover a portion of that market.

Answer 2

OSX can work on a pc, but could not compete against Microsoft simply because Microsoft's legal department would use frivoulous litigation as a business strategy ( an illegal abuse of the legal system, but M$ can afford the fines) to bankrupt Apple and remoove them from the market.

The kernel of OSX is based on the BSD unix kernel, which already runs on PCs and and many other non-intel processors as well.

Answer 3

the ability is already out there in the general public, and Apple has been able to do it as well. The real question is why? Apple computers are made with better components and in many cases, cheaper.

technically there are a lot of bargain bin pc's out there that are cheaper, but they are not nearly up to specs. (all Macs nowadays are Vista compatible, while not all pc's are and NONE of the bargain bin pc's can run Vista)

Answer 4

The biggest threat to microsoft is going to come from the free operating systems. Even though UBUNTU has no advertising budget it is spreading by word of mouth or through sites like Yahoo answers. Get a live CD and test it. Once you have it installed you gain access to thousands of free programs.

In addition to UBUNTU there are other free, reliable and up to date distributions which will run on older computers.

Spread the word.

Answer 5

I'll bet that they could, but I doubt that they will. They would then lose business, that's why they made apples with intel chips (bootcamp). That way, they get more business.