MacOS X isn't going to harm Linux now that they support Intel processors. It's like claiming that a good Orange harms the value of Bananas. MacOS X is not Linux. And that's a good enough reason for most Linux users to avoid it. Linux licensing does matter to many people. I'm surprised all the time about how huge proprietary companies are waking up to the real value of GPL code. Most Linux distributions are a vast ocean of GPL software. MacOS X has a few ponds of GPL software.

So, why is Linux going to remain relevant for a very long time?

1. Linux supports hundreds of processor architectures including PowerPC. I'd venture to guess that there are as many or more PowerPC machines running Linux than all versions of MacOS combined.
   
2. Until Apple allows MacOS X to run on unmodified PCs then MacOS X Intel remains a curiosity. Rosetta means won't matter to Apple customers except that the Intel machines will be much faster. When Dell is selling MacOS X on Dell PCs then I'll be impressed.
3. MacOS X is Proprietary Software. MacOS X is not Free Software. MacOS X isn't even Open Source. MacOS X is a "based on open source" OS. You may be able to access and legally reuse or improve some bits of the source code. But you don't have any of the source code for the interesting parts like the desktop environment. Apple is better about licensing than many companies, though.
   
4. Linux is Free Software. Most of the components of MacOS X are not Free Software. A Free Software license provides Linux with tremendous value over nearly all other operating systems. Under a Free Software license the source code is liberated from the tyranny of it's original authors. The only significant power the original authors of GPL code have is the power to sue you if you don't provide the source code for any derivative works. Anyone can use Free Software . And anyone can redistribute or make derivative works of the software as long as they obey the license. You can't legally take your MacOS X disk, copy it, and give it to 100 friends. You can, and are encouraged to, do that with most Linux distributions.
5. MacOS X runs on exactly two computer architectures: PowerPC and x86. Linux runs on most computer architectures. Linux runs on exotic cluster computers the size of small towns down to computers as small as a wristwatch. MacOS X runs on proprietary Apple-built desktop, laptop, and small server computers.
6. Linux and Free Software allows engineers and developers to collaborate freely at all levels. If they want to share source code for some new idea then they can share it on the spur of a moment. They won't have to go to a third party and plead their case or renegotiate contracts. If they need something deep in the system to be changed or fixed then they can do it themselves without necessarily relying on some third party vendor to provide the fix.
   

Labels: linux