peharri said:
The scene last week:
Potential Switcher: I'm kind of new to this Mac thing. I need a machine that can run Microsoft Office. Do you sell Microsoft Office?
Hapless Apple Store employee: Why, yes.
Potential Switcher: Well, I'll have an iMac and Office please. *hands over credit card*
The scene next week:
Potential Switcher: I'm kind of new to this Mac thing. I need a machine that can run Microsoft Office. Do you sell Microsoft Office?
Hapless Apple Store employee: No.
Potential Switcher: Oh, ok. I'll just get a Dell. *walks to Best Buy*
Seriously Apple: you need to be a little more selective. I agree putting pressure on non-UB producers is a good thing, but you'll do no end of damage if you just ban everything.
Umm, that scenario won't happen as Apple has said that it'll special case Adobe and MS products, so you'll still be able to purchase the PPC only version of MS Office (as a side note, Office 2004 Trial is part of the bundled apps on the Intel Mac CD's, though I don't think it's installed by default, you have to actively install it)
Anyway, what is the big fuss? Apple is pulling PPC *only* software from their stores. If there's a Universal version, then it'll work on PPC and Intel, so where's the problem in that situation?
So you need an app that is PPC only, well, you purchase it direct from the developer or a reseller.
Regardless of what Steve might say, creating a Uni version isn't 5 mins worth of work, unless the app is very simplistic. Otherwise, you're looking at a fair amount of development work.
Another factor to slow arrival of Universal builds is that most people initially thought we'd see the first Intel based machines in June this year, not January, so we thought we had a bit more time to work on things. However, they came in Jan and so most people have been playing catch up. Plus there is the fact that the DTK's are different from the released machines, and thus there are differences, so you need to test against the released machines to ensure full compatibility, and so you have to wait for the DTK Exchange programme to kick into effect before you can switch your DTK for an Intel Core Duo iMac, or you have to purchase a new machine if you don't want to wait.
One last comment, on the subject of not going Intel because VPC for Intel isn't out. You should check out
Q. I've been using it on my 17" Core Duo iMac and the latest build is working very well for me, and runs both Win98SE and XP Pro SP2 quite happily.