[fpc-other] RE: Mac OS on Windows

[Richard Ward]

Like Florian indicated,  you need to hack  Mac OS to run on PC  
hardware.   It is something that Apple REALLY frowns upon (i.e. can  
take legal action) but people have done it - just underground right  
now.   There are websites which explain what needs to be done and from  
what I have gleaned is not too difficult if you have a good grasp of  
unix  & command type interfaces.

I am thinking that it may not be too far in the future, we may see a  
some kind of official porting over of the Mac OS's since there is no  
processor differences between platforms now.   I would bet Apple is  
thinking every day how to move i n that direction without causing too  
much disruption.  They are making money right now so it is not in  
their best interest to make major changes in their business plan this  
instant.   Apple is not hampered by backwards compatibility of PC  
legacy code in any porting their OS which makes it all technically  
possible.   In fact Apple has several applications which run on  
Windows:  the Safari browser, QuickTime, FileMaker, etc..  I have  
heard Safari has an 8% market share.   So it is just a matter of time  
in my opinion

If you search the web, I think you might find an OS hack published.    
Don't be surprised if not EVERYTHING works perfectly though.    
Alternately, you might be able to pick up an older Apple Mac mini for  
say $200 or iMac for $300-$400 and try that out.   The former option  
would be cost effective if you already had a monitor and usb  
peripherals.   Just make sure you have a dvi to vga adaptor if your  
monitor doesn't take a dvi input.   And you may find even cheaper  
prices on ebay than I've indicated.

I am biased having used Macs since they came out, but I know several  
people who have switched and after about a month of griping about how  
things are done differently, they get to like the Mac and recommend  
them to others.   One thing I don't particularly like about Apple is  
their interface with developers which is a bit haughty and controlling  
at times.   Not blaming the technical people but rather the corporate  
policies and mandates which seem to come from the legal department.    
Apple provides a nice way to program iPhones but due to legal stuff,  
it is not quite legally possible to entirely port FPC to it although  
technically it seems very doable.

The only official development path is through Apple, namely Objective  
C, Cocoa and their Xcode platform.   Carbon (the procedural C  
framework) is on a bit wobbly ground now.  The nice thing is that FPC  
and GPC, Lazarus, and the Lightweight IDE are available for OS X.    
That's the only reason I started writing programs again after many  
years.   Ironically, Pascal was THE first class citizen for quite a  
long time at Apple  until  NeXT was introduced.  But that gets into  
another discussion on ancient history of golden ages past and  
barbarian takeovers.  heh :)

- Richard Ward