For some time I have maintained that the day that Steve Jobs stood in front of a MacWorld crowd and told the world that OS X will run natively on the PC platform that would be the day that Microsoft would really begin to worry. As utopian as that might sound the chances of it happening are probably slim to none mainly due to Apple’s iron grip on the hardware used.

So while the chances of OS X coming to a PC platform near to you there is another alternative that is garnering some attention. According to a couple of reports from various sources that there is a possibility - however remote - that there may be a day when you will be able to install and run Windows native programs right on OS X without the need of 3rd party applications to provide the needed emulation layer.

In a post on wired.com Scott Gilbertson proposes that on the basis of an article on Ars Technica that Leopard at this point actually goes out looking for any needed DLL files when Leopard tries to load a Windows binary file. Scott does realistically admit that this maybe nothing more than rumor and based on some failed project within Apple:

It’s possible this code is just some remnant of a failed or abandoned project, but it’s also possible this is the first whiff of something much bigger — Apple’s attempt to run Windows apps alongside Mac OS X apps, no emulation needed.

While the post on Ars Technica expands on the idea a little further based on a mailing list post called Interesting Behavior of OS X David Chartier does suggest that there could be the building blocks being put in place to allow OS X to run Windows native applications:

… More poking around revealed that Leopard’s own loader tries to find Windows DLL files when attempting to load a Windows binary.

Yes, that last bit is the juicy one. According to the fledgling investigation in this as-yet short message thread, folks are suspecting that Leopard contains at least the building blocks for Apple to one day add a compatibility layer to Mac OS X for running Windows apps right alongside Mac OS X apps.

If truth be told that while it would be nice if OS X was able to run natively on the PC platform the fact is that Apple could still cause enough of a disruption by allowing Windows native applications to run within OS X. That alone could give the Microsoft executives a nice big headache and a few sleepless night as more Windows users would suddenly have an entirely new reason to look beyond Microsoft and the PC platform.

Listening to: Gregorian - Master of Chant I - The Sound of Silence

[tags]Microsoft, Vista, Apple, OS X[/tags]

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