After experimenting with OS X 10.5 on an inexpensive notebook, I have come to the following conclusions:
- Apple software developers are excellent at squeezing performance from basic hardware. On a machine that choked on Vista Home Premium, Leopard absolutely screams.
- Although relatively easy, most normal PC users will struggle getting everything to work. Quite a bit of terminal usage is necessary.
- What makes Apple great is their software. My fully functional Hackintosh notebook works just as well as a MacBook and runs cooler.
Given how well a $350 notebook runs OS X I can understand Apple’s reluctance to license the OS. It would kill sales of their products because not only can today’s bargain machine run OS X nicely, ones from a couple of years ago can too.
Also, competition from MS for OEM operating system sales would drive the license fees down. Neither company wants a race to zero.
I will say this though, OS X 10.5 is the best $130 a PC user can spend.
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