Longtime lurker, firsttime poster, so forgive me if this is inappropriate
:
Robert X. Cringely, a guy I respect, has today on his PBS site (
http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/pulpit20050609.html) an article about Apple's plan for the future. He says (without much in the way of insider information) that it's not about DRM, and its not about IBM's problems with PPC. It's larger than that; to go to war against Microsoft, Apple needs to be sold to Intel. And Intel hates Microsoft (for several reasons listed in the piece). So Apple gets bought, and that's when the fun starts...apparently.
Here's a shortened version of the article, for what it's worth:
June 9, 2005
Going for Broke: Apple's Decision to Use Intel Processors Is Nothing Less Than an Attempt to Dethrone Microsoft. Really.
By Robert X. Cringely
[snip]
Apple and Intel are merging.
Let's take a revisionist look at the Apple news, asking a few key questions.
Question 1: What happened to the PowerPC's supposed performance advantage over Intel?
[snip]
Question 2: What happened to Apple's 64-bit operating system?
[snip]
Question 3: Where the heck is AMD?
[snip]
Question 4: Why announce this chip swap a year before it will even begin for customers?
[snip]
Question 5: Is this all really about Digital Rights Management?
[snip a lot]