Craigslist Goes Green

AlterNet: EnviroHealth: Craigslist Goes Green

Craig list are a major player online and their decision to launch an eco-friendly portal on their primarily US audience is significant. This link tells you more.

The following piece is not mine - it's a newsletter editorial from Info Economy and say it all really. The link in my latest clicks only gives you the news, so this comment is welcome. Macintosh diehards are not going to like this, but it was inevitable. A little less variety on one level, but more compatibility and choice on another.

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Apple and Intel: Just a chip change.

For as long as most of us can remember, the personal computer world has been split into two very different, and often opposing, camps: the vast majority use PCs with Intel processors and the Microsoft Windows operating system.

The rest - between 4% to 8% - use the Apple Macintosh, a peculiar but loved system that uses IBM chips, its own operating system, and often, peripherals that won't plug into anything else. These Macs cost more, but users get a system that is more stable, is able to handle graphics better, and is virtually virus free.

If reports are to be believed, this is all about to change today, when Apple's CEO and founder, Steve Jobs, announces that for the first time in its history, Apple will start to use Intel chips in its desktop and laptop computers.

There are two ways to look at this development and the press can be expected to be full of speculation over the next several months.

The first view is the one that Apple is likely to put forward this week. That is, that Intel processors are both cheaper than the current chips (designed partly by Apple but supplied by IBM and Freescale Semiconductor, formerly Motorola Semiconductor) and are much more effective in laptops. In this analysis, a chip change made sense, and won't affect the customer in any way except in terms of better prices, improved performance and some possible minor software incompatibilities.

The second view, unlikely to be discussed openly by Apple, is that the move will enable Windows software to run on Apple computers much more easily - and for the Mac operating systems and associated software to run on non-Apple systems more easily.

This second scenario is, theoretically, the most dramatic. Apple's highly regarded software stack now runs on a Linux base, and, if it were to become available, many business and home users worldwide, and no doubt many PC makers, would adopt the Apple operating system as an alternative to Windows.

While the great majority would most likely stick with Windows, this move could break open the desktop software market and finally undo Microsoft's monopoly.

Would it happen? In an industry where arch enemies Microsoft and Sun are now partners, and where Intel and Apple are about to share a stage, anything is possible.

But Apple, while a bold company, is unlikely to take the risk and open up its operating system, as it once might have done two decades ago. It could risk losing hardware sales to cheaper rivals, and falling out of favour with its biggest application software provider - Microsoft. What value would the Apple operating system have if it could no longer run Word, Excel or PowerPoint?

While all this may happen in the future, there is probably no cunning plan here - at least for today: Intel simply makes cheaper, better chips - especially for the all important laptop market.

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That's it for now - Monday's always busy. Later.