Apple creates most of the problems. For instance, the main reason Universal Binaries and support for PPC software in general is disappearing is because Apple removed all support for it from XCode (and now QT). They purposely make it extremely difficult for developers to keep support for older machines and versions of the operating system. They certainly don't need to do that. They're as big a company as Microsoft these days and flush with cash. They can afford to keep things running smoothly for everyone, but they're greedy so they try to force users to upgrade hardware even if their hardware is working perfectly fine for them.
People can shout "Your old Mac or iPhone still works!" all day long, but it doesn't change the fact that if you don't have a modern up-to-date browser and security updates to keep your system safe, your computer's days are pretty much numbered as many sites will no longer work and your machine starts becoming a security risk as new found vulnerabilities aren't patched leaving your machine open to hacking or other exploits.
If iTunes drops all PPC support, it means you can't run newer iOS devices off your library anymore, etc. None of these things have NOTHING to do with the computer being too slow (let's face it, most every-day tasks just don't need a Quad-i7 and a Quad 2.5GHz G5 is still a pretty fast machine, especially since gaming isn't much of an issue on Macs due to a lack of support from both Apple and gaming developers alike). So in this regard, you're better off with Windows as it gets supported forever by comparison (an XP machine from 2000 can still run almost everything out there including the latest iTunes, Safari, Quicktime (laughable since Apple supports Windows better than Macs at this point in that regard), Flash, etc. that will no longer work (or will not soon) in PPC.
Does anyone
really want to see all this repeated again with ARM processors and watch Intel binaries start disappearing just like PPC ones? If Apple goes to ARM, I'm done with Macs period. It's bad enough I have to keep a Windows PC (or partition) around to run games, but if they're going to go back to the days of no software in general + slower hardware, there'll no point in running OSX anymore. Windows7 doesn't suck like Vista did and everything moves full steam ahead there from graphics drivers and support for gaming (DirectX updates, etc.) to the latest hardware assuredly becoming available sooner or later (i.e. TB will be supported but also USB3, SLI, Blu-Ray, etc. as well). With Apple, you get what they feel like supporting and a middle finger when they don't feel like it). People make fun of Bill Gates' bit about 640k ought to be enough for anybody, but Steve Jobs entire mantra anymore is whatever he feels like putting out ought to be good enough for anybody, whether that means no Blu-Ray or no gaming, it's just pathetic anymore for 2011 when Apple has so much money. There should be
no excuses why OSX is inferior in
any way to Windows at this point.
So much for the 'Best OS on the planet' BS. Notice how the Mac Vs. PC commercials stopped because they know PC would be smacking the Mac guy upside his head at this point as Windows7 (with 8 in the works) is pulling ahead and the Mac guy is stuck living in the past, too busy playing with his smart phone to notice that the PC guy has kept moving full steam ahead into the future for full scale desktops and notebooks, not just smart phones.
I think it sucks. I got my first Mac in early 2006 (used PowerMac at a computer show, since upgraded and running my whole house audio/video server and I bought a new MBP in late 2008. I was THRILLED to be away from Windows after putting up with the blue screen of death in Win98, endless malware in XP and couldn't stand the thought of going to Vista which I new was completely buggered. The Mac seemed so much better. But like the stories of Intel's impending demise when AMD briefly overtook them for the best CPUs, it's not going to last because Apple doesn't care about that market anymore. Steve is so sure that future computing is mobile phone-based, that they are letting OSX wallow and fall behind. THAT is not the direction that
I am interested in and since Steve won't let someone else run the computer division, it's looking like Windows will be in my future once again. I'll probably build a Hackintosh next, but I have this feeling that I will end up booting Windows more and more often as time goes on and OSX stagnates.
Lion shows no interesting new features what-so-ever IMO. It's just "smart phone junk" brought back to OSX. Things like the App store are clearly money grabs more than anything else and that's about as interesting to me as PCs shipped with advertising junk installed by default.
Snow Leopard was supposed to be optimized Leopard (seeing as Leopeard was the first version of OSX to be SLOWER than the previous version), but it wasn't optimized at all. It's a bit slower than Leopard, not faster. It had a few new technologies that sounded interesting, but don't deliver squat for the average user, IMO (OpenCL support in programs is non-existent and Grand Central does nothing at all for mere dual-core computers as witnessed by the fact that Leopard runs faster in every test on my 2008 MBP).
Resolution independent displays (a really advanced OS feature) were announced as a possibility for Tiger. We're now heading for 3 OS major revisions further along and it still isn't finished because Apple lost interest in modern OS features. They're too busy playing with smart phone features. OpenGL 4.x has advanced right up to the latest DirectX features and more on the pro-side. Apple is just now getting ready to move to a full OpenGL 3 standard (sorry, but being 4 years late is pointless in the computer industry).
Try running any game made for OSX and Windows on the same Macintosh running Boot Camp and the Windows version will SPANK the Mac version
every single time without exception even on full conversions that are not Cider based. This is due to old/bad graphic drivers and ancient OpenGL. Many gaming companies have begged Apple over the years for better support in OSX for gaming and Apple has done little more than give them lip service (rarely even that much). For a company with over $70 BILLION in cash reserves, that is just
pathetic. Apple sees how gaming is big for the iPhone, but they don't stop to think it might be useful on the Mac too? After all these years?
Sorry, but this is one Mac user that's becoming very disillusioned with Apple. I was never a fanboy, but I really liked the operating system better than Windows. But Apple can't expect to let OSX rot and users to stick around forever while they're busy playing with their phones....
