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A new spin on Mac OS X for Intel

wrldwzrd89

wrldwzrd89

macrumors G5
Original poster
Jun 6, 2003
12,110
77
Solon, OH
I think that the day we see two editions of Mac OS X: PowerPC Edition and x86 Edition, is the day the same thing happens to MS Windows.

Therefore, we'll go from 2 major operating systems to 4:

-Before-
Mac OS X (for PPC)
Windows (for x86)

-After-
Mac OS X/PPC
Mac OS X/x86
Windows/x86
Windows/PPC
 
I hope you're not serious ...

LOL

lol.jpg
 
wrldwzrd89 said:
Windows/PPC
Click to expand...
I think we can tell what the demand for such a product would be by the fact that it was available for at least two years and no one seems to have noticed.
 
Hello everyone -

Sorry for the confusion as to the purpose of this thread.

I just think that it would make sense for Windows to go PPC if Mac OS X goes x86. That way, the people clamoring to try Mac OS X on their x86 hardware can do so, and the people who can't stand Mac OS X, but still want to keep their Apple Mac can do so as well. The reason for the simultaneous release (if it happens) is so that neither side (Apple/Microsoft) thinks they're favored.
 
wrldwzrd89 said:
Hello everyone -

Sorry for the confusion as to the purpose of this thread.

I just think that it would make sense for Windows to go PPC if Mac OS X goes x86.
Click to expand...

This has been discussed to utter DEATH. Porting OS X to (crappy) x86 would undermine Apple's hardware sales and eventually kill the company. Porting windows to PPC? Well,
rollinglaugh.gif
is really all I can say
 
5300cs said:
This has been discussed to utter DEATH. Porting OS X to (crappy) x86 would undermine Apple's hardware sales and eventually kill the company. Porting windows to PPC? Well,
rollinglaugh.gif
is really all I can say
Click to expand...

Windows was already on PowerPC until Windows 2000, and then Microsoft discontinued support for it. Grab a Windows NT 4 CD-ROM and take a look at the supported hardware. You can install it on DEC Alpha, MIPS, PowerPC and x86. One of the most heavily touted features of Windows NT back in the day was its' Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL), and the ease with which this allowed it to be ported to different architectures and machines.

Of course Microsoft lost interest somewhere along the way, but the fact remains that Windows NT already runs on PowerPC.
 
oingoboingo said:
Windows was already on PowerPC until Windows 2000, and then Microsoft discontinued support for it.
Click to expand...

:rolleyes: Ok, read my last message as XP for ppc... better?
 
wrldwzrd89 said:
Hello everyone -

Sorry for the confusion as to the purpose of this thread.

I just think that it would make sense for Windows to go PPC if Mac OS X goes x86. That way, the people clamoring to try Mac OS X on their x86 hardware can do so, and the people who can't stand Mac OS X, but still want to keep their Apple Mac can do so as well. The reason for the simultaneous release (if it happens) is so that neither side (Apple/Microsoft) thinks they're favored.
Click to expand...
What do you know about the market prospects of Win XP on PPC that Microsoft doesn't know?
 
oingoboingo said:
Windows was already on PowerPC until Windows 2000, and then Microsoft discontinued support for it.
Click to expand...

Just to clarify for someone else who might read this, this was not a PowerPC used in Apple computers. It has never been possible to install Windows on a Mac without 3rd party hardware/software.
 
yellow said:
Just to clarify for someone else who might read this, this was not a PowerPC used in Apple computers. It has never been possible to install Windows on a Mac without 3rd party hardware/software.
Click to expand...

I think it was aimed at CHRP systems, wasn't it? I don't think Apple ever got around to releasing anything which was CHRP, but IBM did (from memory, could be wrong).
 
I would just like to point out that Apple is already developping a x86 version of OSX and has since the begining. This is not a rumor but a known fact admited by Apple.

This version will probably never be released, it is ment as a "plan B" in case the PPC procs production would stall as in the G4 era. With the G5 availlability, it just confirms that this code will never be released.

My guess is that MS does the same and has a PPC version of window, 'just in case'...
 
5300cs said:
:rolleyes: Ok, read my last message as XP for ppc... better?
Click to expand...

Yes, thankyou :)

Still, there isn't a huge amount of difference between NT 4 and XP under the hood. Remember that the current rumours for the Xbox2 involve a PowerPC processor and a Windows OS. Windows XP for PowerPC really isn't all that ridiculously far fetched in a technical sense.

And not that this is really directed at anyone in particular, but also remember that NeXTSTEP (which Mac OS X is a direct descendent of) was available for multiple platforms, including Intel. Early developer releases of Rhapsody were available for both PPC and x86, and there are persistent stories of 'Marklar', a variant of OS X which is maintained for x86. I'm not saying for one moment that Apple is going to release OS X for x86 (I agree with everyone who says that releasing for x86 would eventually kill Apple), but multi-CPU platform OS support is the actually the norm rather than the exception in the IT world. It's usually for a marketing/financial/resource reason that an OS is not multiplatform, rather than a technical one.
 
oingoboingo said:
...remember that NeXTSTEP (which Mac OS X is a direct descendent of) was available for multiple platforms, including Intel. ...
Click to expand...

Did not know that. Don't know too much about NeXTSTEP, except the clone window manager WindowMaker which I used to use in/on/under(??) Linux.
 
One important thing to keep in mind: Should Apple ever decide to leave the PPC platform and use x86 cpus instead, this doesn't mean that you can run Windwos on those Macs unless MS writes a Windows version that supports all hardware components (e.g. chipset controllers, which are still designed by Apple).
 
5300cs said:
Did not know that. Don't know too much about NeXTSTEP, except the clone window manager WindowMaker which I used to use in/on/under(??) Linux.
Click to expand...

NeXTSTEP was available on Motorola 68030/68040 (the hardware that powered the original black magnesium NeXT Cube and later designs), x86, and also Sun SPARC I believe. I'm not to hot on NeXT history, but I think OpenStep evolved from that, and was also available on HP PA-RISC and PowerPC. Someone who knows more about the sordid past of Mr. Jobs might want to 'step' in here and help out...but anyway...the point is that NeXTSTEP and in fact Apple's Rhapsody were both available on x86.
 
oingoboingo said:
NeXTSTEP was available on Motorola 68030/68040 (the hardware that powered the original black magnesium NeXT Cube and later designs), x86, and also Sun SPARC I believe. I'm not to hot on NeXT history, but I think OpenStep evolved from that, and was also available on HP PA-RISC and PowerPC. Someone who knows more about the sordid past of Mr. Jobs might want to 'step' in here and help out...but anyway...the point is that NeXTSTEP and in fact Apple's Rhapsody were both available on x86.
Click to expand...
I knew someone would post that both Windows for PPC and Mac OS X for x86 either exist or are rumored to exist...I'm just wondering if both will ever be widely released and marketed. I suppose Microsoft's monopoly position could be a factor in this.
 
wrldwzrd89 said:
.I'm just wondering if both will ever be widely released and marketed.
Click to expand...

Apple's won't. They are a hardware company first and foremost. That is their source of revenue. If they started selling OSX for the x86 architecture, why buy a Mac when you can build a cheap, crappy, IntelThon? There goes Apple's source of income. I guess they could fall back on OSXx86 if worse came to worse, but I doubt that would keep them afloat.
 
yellow said:
Apple's won't. They are a hardware company first and foremost. That is their source of revenue. If they started selling OSX for the x86 architecture, why buy a Mac when you can build a cheap, crappy, IntelThon? There goes Apple's source of income. I guess they could fall back on OSXx86 if worse came to worse, but I doubt that would keep them afloat.
Click to expand...
You're right - with IBM doing what they're doing with the PPC architecture, this issue shouldn't ever come up.
 
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