1:30 PM

The excellent Mac OS X / Linux discussion continues with:

• Tim Bray: Unswitch
• Mark: Juggling oranges
• Tim: Time to switch?
• John Gruber: Why Apple Won’t Open Source Its Apps

The hardware/OS integration is essential to the Just Works-ness that makes the Mac (and the SGI, and NeXT, and Sun boxes, and DEC Alphas, and the Amiga, etc.) work so well. Linux’s very nature, however, is opposed to this integration, and that’s its strength. Linux runs on anything. Anything. With enough work, I can wire the tree outside my window to run Linux. But that tree won’t Just Work. You better believe I will have to recompile my tree kernel at some point.

Here is the thing I hope that a Linux vendor gets, and soon, because when they do, they’ll capture the geek market (and probably much more): Do what Apple did, but do it open source. Optimize your Linux for your hardware, and your hardware only, but leave your applications open and take advantage of all the eyeballs looking at them.

I remain pessimistic on the matter.