Marc Anthony wrote:
[quote=bik]
For Apple, the profit is in the hardware. The OS is just the draw. If you are not going to buy the Apple hardware, and you ARE going to put the OS on the non-Apple hardware, just do it. No real harm to Apple.
All the people who say "at least pay for the OS" are just fooling themselves and rationalizing. Paid for or not, putting OS X on Dell hardware is against the EULA.
Apple still makes a profit on software, just not as high of a margin. If you use Apple's software without paying, you have damaged Apple in an actionable manner; the same may not necessarily be said of violating the EULA, an act that does not equate to violating a legal statute.
You're quoting me from the part where I was trying to help people rationalize their violations. Not necessarily a point I'd want to argue.
But, since you bring up the distinction of breaking the law vs. breaking the EULA, isn't that just more rationalization? "Well, it's wrong, but it's not REALLY wrong."
How would you feel if it was your intellectual property, and you offered it for a relatively low (compared to Windows) price to enhance your hardware business, but your loyal customers took advantage of loopholes and rationalizations to use it on any old hardware?
Right now, Apple's riding high, so what do they care. But, what if a few years from now their hardware business is in the pooper and Dell Mini 9 was just the start. Maybe 3 years from now every Dell, HP, and Acme computer can load OS X, and Apple's hardware unit sales are down 50%.
Unlike the RIAA, Apple is unlikely to start suing their customers. But, as Racer X points out, they would likely raise their prices and start instituting some painful activation schemes. Then ALL Apple users can suffer for those who decided to use Apple's intellectual property as they see fit.
[BTW - I would be among those who would use Apple's IP as I see fit. But, I'm just sayin'...]
