Mac OS doesn't need DOS on Intel machines. In fact, it wouldn't even need Windows at all.
Remember, one of the primary differences between any of the Windows Operating Systems (3.0, 95, NT, etc) is that they really aren't operating systems. They are humungous applications that run on the one true OS... MicroSoft Disk Operating System version (xx).
Without DOS, Windows is dead in the water. Every instruction you give to an application has to first be translated to Windows wich in turn passes the instruction to DOS, which in turn passes the instruction the Intel Chip. That's why there's a big fuss over how many megahertz your machine runs at. Windows needs that speed to get out of the quagmire of it's own code.
The Mac OS on the other hand is closer to the machine level and requires fewer instructions to get the same job done. It's this nimbleness that gives the Mac the advantage. In it's heyday the lowly Mac Classic was going head to head with 386 machines running around 33 mhz on MS Word. Sounds like an even contest? Well, that Mac Classic has a processor rated at 8MHz. Windows apps needed three times the processor speed just to keep up!
Ultimately, if they port the Mac OS to an Intel platform, this thing will blow away Windows in Benchmark tests. I imagine an even test would be like Mac OS with Pentium 100 in one corner versus Windows97 with Pentium 300 in the other corner running MS Office and the Mac would have speed to spare!
That is, if Apple doesn't try to cut corners and build their OS on top of DOS. |
