Part one
Not wanting to miss out on the orgiastic frenzy surrounding Apple’s bombshell Intel announcement, I wanted to go on the record with my predictions and armchair quarterbacking as to the ramifications to the open source community. I’ll try to not differentiate my predictions from my suggestions. That way, when my predictions are right, I’ll look clairvoyant. When they’re wrong, I’ll claim that they were suggestions and appear visionary.
Higher volumes, lower margins for Apple
Apple just became a software company, but they might not realize it yet. Let me be the first to promise it: OS X will run on vendor X’s beige box computer. Despite Apple’s best efforts, I’m positive that somebody will figure out how to install OS X on non-Apple hardware. If people managed to write a frickin’ PPC machine emulator to run OS X on Intel, someone will hack Darwin and run OS X on their Dell. Finally, Apple hardware won’t be that different. Alert reader Tim Uckun reports from WWDC that he’s already seen one of Apple’s prototype Intel Macs run Knoppix without issue.
Market share for OS X will rise as a result of piracy. Just as you can buy hacked versions of Windows XP that don’t require registration on the streets of Moscow, you’ll be able to buy hacked versions of OS X on professionally stamped CDs. This may even be Apple’s strategy for the near term. As long as the pirates aren’t too aggressive about it, I suspect that Apple will be content to build market share in this way. Remember when Microsoft’s stance on piracy was, “well, at least they are pirating Microsoft”? Apple can get a risk-free way of building pent up demand and device drivers.
For corporate users and ethical home users who can’t simply pirate OS X, they’ll have a choice: Buy Apple hardware with OS X or buy Dell and Windows. Given the escalation of malware and Windows’s “weak by default” security posture, some will switch to presumably cheaper Intel Macs. Others will stick it out with their existing contracts with Dell. I bet at least one such company will beat on Dell to give them OS X. Dell will in turn apply pressure to Apple. Eventually demand will rise to the point where Dell gives Apple a really sweet deal on licensing OS X for a handful of corporate customers. After this, it’s only a matter of time before lawsuits and changing markets lead Apple to license OS X for the masses.
The Rise of Darwin
When first released, Darwin caught a lot of attention. Would it be useable as a standalone operating system? Would it get all the goodies (minus GUI) that OS X got? How does it compare to Linux / *BSD?
Well, interest died quickly. Apple didn’t release Darwin in a form that was particularly easy to install. Performance always felt doggy on Intel (mostly due to a brutally slow frame-buffer driver). Hardware support made Solaris for Intel look good. Plus, there were quirks that the standard *nix crowd didn’t like or understand: NetInfo, strange rc scripts, um… NetInfo. But most damningly, Darwin on Intel was boring. All of the good stuff was on OS X, and for that you needed a Mac.
Well, all of this is still pretty much true, but a larger install base of OS X changes things a little. Device drivers will be written for Darwin to accommodate the hackers who just can’t live without OS X on their Athlon QZXR 77000 with an NVidia H-Bomb video card. There will be back spill. All of a sudden, a community of early adopters starts running their personal web server on Darwin.
I don’t know whether this market upsurge will cannibalize users and developers from Linux, FreeBSD, NetBSD, and OpenBSD. I kind of hope so. I’d like to see a little more consolidation of the open operating systems. Not too much, but a little would concentrate brain trust.
Some will recognize that Darwin is a great deal for the open source community. Linux, FreeBSD, NetBSD, and OpenBSD are all great systems, but that’s usually not because of the kernel. That so many people believe that Mac OS X actually runs FreeBSD’s kernel instead of the Mach micro-kernel is proof that it’s the user land that people care about. Even tech savvy people seem to believe this. This provides a great opportunity for OS hackers to improve the OS, while leaving kernel design to paid professionals. This isn’t a jab at the open source community; far from it. I think that NetBSD is the cleanest, best designed OS out there. But it’s not the kernel that makes me gooey inside.
GNUStep for the people
Though I love my PowerBook and Mac OS X, I still secretly long for a platform by, of, and for the people. I envision that we’d all live in peace and harmony in a land free of intellectual property and intangible possessions. An open system and strong cryptography would guarantee our civil liberties and the free flow of ideas. People would code unencumbered by profit motive and would advance the cause of human knowledge.
Apple has some great technology, and they are mostly not evil. But the fact remains that Apple could turn evil, or go broke, leaving us to the mercy Bill Gates. I believe the world really does need a free (Free?) open platform.
Apple has a proven model for making *nix user friendly and facilitating consistent user interface development. They were even nice enough to release specifications for it. The Open Source community will figure out that KDE and GNOME will always fall short of Apple and its NeXT underpinnings. Developers will repent and flock to GNUStep to save the world. Plus, wouldn’t it be great if developers could target Apple and Linux/BSD with the same code base?
GNUStep has the potential to do this. It’s a nearly complete OpenStep compliant system. The open source community is so self conscious about chasing tail lights, but it has proven that it can do this and win. Linux and BSD have all but killed the traditional Unix implementations. Firefox wasn’t really so much about innovation as it was about building an evolutionary improvement to an existing invention. The open source community has no shortage of innovation. What it lacks is strategy and a willingness to make tactical decisions.
A Darwin/GNUStep platform has a long way to go in terms of quality and polish. But it would be an extremely tactical move. Maybe people won’t recognize this. Maybe people are content to eat Apple’s admittedly gourmet dog food. What do you think? Is this tilting at windmills? Does the world need an open platform?
Next time: Wine, Qemu, and Xen
Comments (archived)
doc modulo, on Jun. 12, 2005 wrote:
You are absolutely right about GNUStep. I read the site behind the link and did a little research via Google after that and my conclusion is, like I said, that you’re right.
I’ll contain myself and try to keep it short. I’ve deleted a lot out of earlier versions of this post which was mostly technical.
- Users only care about user land. They care about where to find files and programs. The choise users make is on the level of KDE, GNOME, GNUStep or Cocoa not on the level of Linux, FreeBSD or Darwin.
- KDE and GNOME are just a thin shell around the underlying kernel. When you use FreeBSD, you will get confronted by FreeBSD. When you use Linux as a kernel, that will shine through in it’s own way as well. However, Open/GNUStep create a complete user environment. A stable place for a human to call it’s home on the PC. No matter what the underlying kernel is, the user will see GNUStep.
One of the user land features of GNUStep that both KDE and GNOME do NOT have is application folders/bundles/appfolders. This means that an “installed” program is always completely encased in it’s own directory called “program.app”. Install the program by just copying one directory/.app file over to your PC. Uninstalling is just as easy. This is so great because it makes the PC so much better to use for a human being.
Traditionally, installing a program meant that the program’s files were thrown all over different directories on your PC’s hard drive. If you wanted to get rid of your program because it was misbehaving, you’d have to rely on something called an “installer” that had to have a perfect record of where all the individual files were thrown to in the past. This perfect record never happened of course.
This and a couple of other user land things that are really nice, like a standard directory structure which is the same no matter what kind of kernel is running under GNUStep, is why GNUStep will win the fight of becoming part of the ultimate operating system of the future.
- We’ve all fantasized about the ultimate operating system, and I now know what it will look like: An NetBSD, OpenBSD or *BSD kernel for their technical excellence and simplicity, GNUStep on top of that and lots and lots of programs ported to that new operating system in neat little “.app” appfolders.
- Because Windows, MacOS X and Linux can also host GNUStep, programmers are able to write programs only keeping in mind the GNUStep Programming Environment. Windows users that want to keep using their Windows games can keep running their usual OS while at the same time get used to the superiour GNUStep way of appfolders and the GNUStep programming language (Objective-C).
Another easy way for people to transition over to the “Ultimate OS” is with Intel processors with the “Lagrande” feature (AMD has something similar). This feature will allow you to run 2 operating systems on 1 processor AT THE SAME TIME. This means you can switch between the “Ultimate OS” and Windows/MacOS X without rebooting. Problem of the world moving over to Freedom and technical excellence is hereby solved.
- The only “tactical choise” that could improve the “Ultimate OS” is the programming language. The new programming language of GNOME (Mono C#) and GNUStep’s language (Objective-C) compare like this:
** Deleted a lot of technical stuff again **
I would like the GNUStep OS to switch to another programming language because I think Objective-C does not prevent the #1 security bug, buffer overflows. Other “languages” will automatically prevent that bug and of those languages I would like it to be either DotGNU’s or Mono’s C#, Erlang or Haskell. C# because it’s almost the same as Java, but the Mono and DotGNU versions of it are under Freedom licenses.
Erlang and Haskell are functional programming languages which prevent even more types of bugs in programs automatically. Also, because they are functional languages, it is easy to write programs that automatically use multi-processor/core processors. Great feature because that’s the way Intel and AMD are going to increase processor power in the future, not more MHz.
Anyway, great article, I agree and the link convinced me of the way to go in computing, hope others will be convinced as well and we can go where we all want to be as fast as possible.
doc modulo, on Jul. 5th, 2005 wrote:
People who want to further discuss and read about the future ultimate OS should go here:
http://akaimbatman.blogspot.com/2005/06/linux-desktop-distribution-of-future_15.html
Have fun and help make it happen.
Timothy JsD Quinn, on Feb. 22nd, 2006 wrote:
Hey dude,
I have been keeping my eye closely on GNUStep as well. I have people tempting me with $ to go C# .Net windows based development but personally, I would rather work at McDonalds.
I am hoping that Mono and GNUStep can get really friendly soon so I can finally start building serious enterprise software to go against the giants. (Once I find a company brave enough to fund of coarse :) SAP and eMatrix look out!
Love my OSX but would be equally be happy with Darwin + GNUStep, with a serious pinch of UI polish and tweaks.
Now if only I can find customers brave enough to go further down the open platform & language road and steer from the dark side :]
Thursday, June 9, 2005
Tuesday, June 7, 2005
Dell shows rare moment of social conscience, pulls back from brink of sanity
I told myself that I wouldn’t be one of those bloggers who replies to news stories on the Internet, but then I came across this article and I couldn’t resist:
Dell red-faced over salesman’s Lenovo jibes
The Register’s normally wry, acidic treatment of corporate foibles is usually spot on, but I have to take issue with this one. The author fell asleep at the wheel in choosing to mock Dell for putting its giant corporate foot in its mouth.
The issue at hand is that a Dell salesman, in hot pursuit of Lenovo customers, told some folk that they might want to avoid Lenovo given that it’s owned in part by the Chinese government. In case you missed it, Lenovo bought off IBMs lackluster PC division. If IBM’s clunky hardware wasn’t enough to turn you off, this Dell salesman was betting that supporting the chinese government would.
As The Register rightly pointed out, Dell isn’t exactly the most ethical company with its own race-to-the-bottom outsourcing policies. But The Reg dropped the ball in that they let Dell weazel out of sticking to its guns. No, the real news here is Dell is apologizing for what seemed to me to be a reasonable statement. Who wants to support a company that makes money for a regime that has its own section at Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International?
Now, I’m not sure where all Dell has outsourced labor to, but I’ll bet some of General Tso’s finger-lickin’ chicken that they’ve got some interests in China. Where does that leave us? We’re up in arms over a little hypocrisy; some Dell sales rep is getting slow roasted on a spit; and a little snowflake of reason falls into the bonfire of globalization.
Dell red-faced over salesman’s Lenovo jibes
The Register’s normally wry, acidic treatment of corporate foibles is usually spot on, but I have to take issue with this one. The author fell asleep at the wheel in choosing to mock Dell for putting its giant corporate foot in its mouth.
The issue at hand is that a Dell salesman, in hot pursuit of Lenovo customers, told some folk that they might want to avoid Lenovo given that it’s owned in part by the Chinese government. In case you missed it, Lenovo bought off IBMs lackluster PC division. If IBM’s clunky hardware wasn’t enough to turn you off, this Dell salesman was betting that supporting the chinese government would.
As The Register rightly pointed out, Dell isn’t exactly the most ethical company with its own race-to-the-bottom outsourcing policies. But The Reg dropped the ball in that they let Dell weazel out of sticking to its guns. No, the real news here is Dell is apologizing for what seemed to me to be a reasonable statement. Who wants to support a company that makes money for a regime that has its own section at Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International?
Now, I’m not sure where all Dell has outsourced labor to, but I’ll bet some of General Tso’s finger-lickin’ chicken that they’ve got some interests in China. Where does that leave us? We’re up in arms over a little hypocrisy; some Dell sales rep is getting slow roasted on a spit; and a little snowflake of reason falls into the bonfire of globalization.
Friday, June 3, 2005
Pouring salt water through my nose
We all knew this would happen. You all start reading this weblog to hear all about my exciting adventures only to be disappointed when I’m off hunting tigers instead of filling the Internet with stories of tiger hunting. Now I’ve been dragged back from the bush to blog some more. Here you are: another post. No tigers were harmed in its creation.
Anybody who knows me knows that I suffer from Insanely Horrible Allergies. You’re probably imagining that I’m a thin, sickly, pasty white guy with a protruding adams apple who gets sick all the time. In reality, I’m reasonably healthy. I walk to work, hike, bicycle, and practice judo and Danzan Ryu jujitsu (more on these later). Unfortunately, I’m constantly sniffling and clearing my throat. I always have a hanky with me. Spring, with its pollens, is a special hell.
This is the point that I should probably put up a disclaimer that I’m not a physician, lawyer, shaman, or anyone else possibly qualified to give medical advice. But, if taking medical advice from random strangers on the Internet is your thing, then I’m the best game in town!
At various points I’ve been on various prescription allergy medications: Zyrtec, Claritin, etc. Unfortunately, these drugs didn’t really do it for me. Furthermore, I’m not a big fan of the “take this pill once a day for the rest of your life” philosophy. First, it’s expensive. Second, it’s not sustainable. In the strange, post-apocalyptic world of tomorrow, you’ll be scavenging boards for shelter and hunting giant cockroaches for food. Zyrtec will be the last thing on anybody’s mind. Those of us with sinus problems will have long since perished anyway. You’ll envy us.
I’ve never thought of myself as being a hippy, per se. And any reasonable geek in my position would have gone to a general practitioner who would have prescribed some other worthless allergy medication. At that point, he would then request a referral to an ear nose and throat doctor who would probably be able get to the bottom of the condition…
I instead chose to take random medical advice from a fellow at my wife’s aikido dojo and purchase a neti pot.
Basically, a neti pot is a tool for nasal irrigation. That is, you pour salt water through your nose to clean out all manner of nasty stuff. In my case, the insane amount of mucous that I produce as a result of my allergies all gets flushed out in the rinse.
Does it work?
Neti turned out to be pretty effective for me. I’m still sniffling, carrying a hanky, and clearing my throat, but it’s much, much less severe than it normally is. Furthermore, I’m able breathe mostly through my nose instead of through my mouth. I’ve been doing this for almost two months now and the effects have been pretty dramatic. So far, this has been the best spring allergy season that I can remember. You can really feel it pull mucous out of your sinuses. If you use it while you have a sinus infection, be prepared for the scary stuff it removes from your head.
One important thing: get the right neti pot. I originally bought a ceramic neti pot (yeah, this one). It’s better than nothing. Unfortunately, it’s too small. It doesn’t fit in your nose properly. You’re always worrying about breaking it. It’s hard to mix salt in. It’s supposedly not terribly sanitary or easy to clean. The list goes on.
When I talked my sister into trying the neti pot, I told her that I would have preferred a different design. Being the clever person she is, she went and found a review and decided on this model. She was kind enough to buy a second one for me.
The hippies at Health and Yoga make a damn fine neti pot. It stands head-and-snot-globules above the ceramic model. It’s cheap too. I recommend getting the instructional video if for nothing more than a laugh. The instructional booklet that it comes with is also useful, but gets a little *cough* scary at times. I’m not putting urine up my nose, thank you very much. Fortunately, they don’t go into the details of that endeavor.
Comments (archived)
Devin, on Jun. 5th, 2005 wrote:
Hurray! You have stalked the tiger that is your allergy, and you have harried it into flight. Congratulations on being a well-armed mouse that inserts rather than removes thorns from predatory felines, and congratulations on drowning the heathen creatures of snot with the purifying fire.
Heather, on Jun. 16, 2005 wrote:
Hey Bro- You may wish to clarify that this ~particular~ post is not related directly to the title of your blog. We all know that you don’t think with your nose, and that while jala neti might yield higher volumes, it is not generally the “gold mining” method of chioce for the nasally obsessed… Congrats on hitting the quarter century mark yesterday. :)
lyn, on Jul. 12, 2005 wrote:
I am wondering if anyone has used the neti pot for improvement of hearing that has suffered as a result of post nasal drip or because of allergies……
Thank you for this blog for suggesting a better pot than ceramic and a model! I’m on my way to try the recommended brand.
Peter, on Jul. 16, 2005 wrote:
Hi, Iyn. Thank you for the reply. I’ve been traveling Europe for a few weeks and just got back. Yes, I brought my neti pot with!
I have not heard anything good or bad with respect to hearing damage caused by post nasal drip and allergies. Is the hearing loss transient with respect to the severity of the post nasal drip? If so, then I’d imagine it may have some effect. If hearing has been permanently damaged, I’d speculate that neti probably wouldn’t have much of a result.
The good news is that I did, in fact, see an ear, nose, and throat specialist. While he did not say anything about ears specifically, he was quite fond of nasal irrigation in general. I asked him about the neti pot, and he seemed to think that it was a fine method—provided that the neti pot is kept clean. Somehow I feel a bit better knowing that an ENT has signed off on me using it.
Ben, on Aug. 15th, 2005 wrote:
I found this submission very intriguing when I read it some time ago. It was only recently that, while I was enjoying honey bought from the farmers’ market, I remembered hearing that eating local honey helps people with allergies. The idea is, I think, that since the bees use the same pollen that makes you so ferociously congested for their honey, eating it helps you build a tolerance for those local environmental allergens. And you support the local economy while you’re at it! I thought I’d let you know on the off chance you hadn’t already heard or disproved this theory.
Anybody who knows me knows that I suffer from Insanely Horrible Allergies. You’re probably imagining that I’m a thin, sickly, pasty white guy with a protruding adams apple who gets sick all the time. In reality, I’m reasonably healthy. I walk to work, hike, bicycle, and practice judo and Danzan Ryu jujitsu (more on these later). Unfortunately, I’m constantly sniffling and clearing my throat. I always have a hanky with me. Spring, with its pollens, is a special hell.
This is the point that I should probably put up a disclaimer that I’m not a physician, lawyer, shaman, or anyone else possibly qualified to give medical advice. But, if taking medical advice from random strangers on the Internet is your thing, then I’m the best game in town!
At various points I’ve been on various prescription allergy medications: Zyrtec, Claritin, etc. Unfortunately, these drugs didn’t really do it for me. Furthermore, I’m not a big fan of the “take this pill once a day for the rest of your life” philosophy. First, it’s expensive. Second, it’s not sustainable. In the strange, post-apocalyptic world of tomorrow, you’ll be scavenging boards for shelter and hunting giant cockroaches for food. Zyrtec will be the last thing on anybody’s mind. Those of us with sinus problems will have long since perished anyway. You’ll envy us.
I’ve never thought of myself as being a hippy, per se. And any reasonable geek in my position would have gone to a general practitioner who would have prescribed some other worthless allergy medication. At that point, he would then request a referral to an ear nose and throat doctor who would probably be able get to the bottom of the condition…
I instead chose to take random medical advice from a fellow at my wife’s aikido dojo and purchase a neti pot.
Basically, a neti pot is a tool for nasal irrigation. That is, you pour salt water through your nose to clean out all manner of nasty stuff. In my case, the insane amount of mucous that I produce as a result of my allergies all gets flushed out in the rinse.
Does it work?
Neti turned out to be pretty effective for me. I’m still sniffling, carrying a hanky, and clearing my throat, but it’s much, much less severe than it normally is. Furthermore, I’m able breathe mostly through my nose instead of through my mouth. I’ve been doing this for almost two months now and the effects have been pretty dramatic. So far, this has been the best spring allergy season that I can remember. You can really feel it pull mucous out of your sinuses. If you use it while you have a sinus infection, be prepared for the scary stuff it removes from your head.
One important thing: get the right neti pot. I originally bought a ceramic neti pot (yeah, this one). It’s better than nothing. Unfortunately, it’s too small. It doesn’t fit in your nose properly. You’re always worrying about breaking it. It’s hard to mix salt in. It’s supposedly not terribly sanitary or easy to clean. The list goes on.
When I talked my sister into trying the neti pot, I told her that I would have preferred a different design. Being the clever person she is, she went and found a review and decided on this model. She was kind enough to buy a second one for me.
The hippies at Health and Yoga make a damn fine neti pot. It stands head-and-snot-globules above the ceramic model. It’s cheap too. I recommend getting the instructional video if for nothing more than a laugh. The instructional booklet that it comes with is also useful, but gets a little *cough* scary at times. I’m not putting urine up my nose, thank you very much. Fortunately, they don’t go into the details of that endeavor.
Comments (archived)
Devin, on Jun. 5th, 2005 wrote:
Hurray! You have stalked the tiger that is your allergy, and you have harried it into flight. Congratulations on being a well-armed mouse that inserts rather than removes thorns from predatory felines, and congratulations on drowning the heathen creatures of snot with the purifying fire.
Heather, on Jun. 16, 2005 wrote:
Hey Bro- You may wish to clarify that this ~particular~ post is not related directly to the title of your blog. We all know that you don’t think with your nose, and that while jala neti might yield higher volumes, it is not generally the “gold mining” method of chioce for the nasally obsessed… Congrats on hitting the quarter century mark yesterday. :)
lyn, on Jul. 12, 2005 wrote:
I am wondering if anyone has used the neti pot for improvement of hearing that has suffered as a result of post nasal drip or because of allergies……
Thank you for this blog for suggesting a better pot than ceramic and a model! I’m on my way to try the recommended brand.
Peter, on Jul. 16, 2005 wrote:
Hi, Iyn. Thank you for the reply. I’ve been traveling Europe for a few weeks and just got back. Yes, I brought my neti pot with!
I have not heard anything good or bad with respect to hearing damage caused by post nasal drip and allergies. Is the hearing loss transient with respect to the severity of the post nasal drip? If so, then I’d imagine it may have some effect. If hearing has been permanently damaged, I’d speculate that neti probably wouldn’t have much of a result.
The good news is that I did, in fact, see an ear, nose, and throat specialist. While he did not say anything about ears specifically, he was quite fond of nasal irrigation in general. I asked him about the neti pot, and he seemed to think that it was a fine method—provided that the neti pot is kept clean. Somehow I feel a bit better knowing that an ENT has signed off on me using it.
Ben, on Aug. 15th, 2005 wrote:
I found this submission very intriguing when I read it some time ago. It was only recently that, while I was enjoying honey bought from the farmers’ market, I remembered hearing that eating local honey helps people with allergies. The idea is, I think, that since the bees use the same pollen that makes you so ferociously congested for their honey, eating it helps you build a tolerance for those local environmental allergens. And you support the local economy while you’re at it! I thought I’d let you know on the off chance you hadn’t already heard or disproved this theory.
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