Abercrombieboy said:
Fair enough...
but this whole thing is not going to go down as rosey as everyone thinks on here...there are going to be a lot of issues along the way. I just hope more then just the "die-hards" like myself and others on here are going to stick around when the road gets a lot of big pot holes in it.
If Apple were to go with a switch to x86, then I would agree. But I think the x86 scenario is a red herring. Apple isn't going to go the x86 route and here's why:
1) Tiger. This year, The WWDC is about three things: Tiger, Tiger, and last but not least - Tiger. If Job's announces anything remotely close to a switch to x86, then regardless of the rollout timetable you're going to have a convention filled with folks who write Mac software for a living contemplating what effect it will have on their business and their customers. In wouldn't matter how Job's spins it. An announcement like that would just snowball the convention, much like the rumor has done here and elsewhere this weekend. TS is reporting the possible release of 10.4.2 next week. Normally, that would be the almost exclusive talk of these boards, but not now. And that example previews a catastrophe for Apple if there is an x86 announcement on Monday.
But as of this weekend, the Tiger booths are all still there, just as if nothing else was happening. There are no perceptible changes at all to the Tiger orgy WWDC agenda. Given the big "news" this weekend, why? Perhaps it's because there is simply no reason to alter the agenda or bring in the Red Cross tents. Jobs may have an announcement regarding Intel, but it won't be x86. Everyone is too quick to associate Intel with x86. Think different.
2) According to cnet's report, the initial recipients of the new Intel "product" will be the Mac mini and other low-end machines. Once again, why? According to most of what's been said on the web and the news reports, Apple isn't as displeased with the performance of the G5 as they are the scalability of it. Job's isn't getting the versions he wants for the form factors he needs, chiefly the powerbook at this point. Apple itself may have realized it hit the wall with the G5 iMac for compressing the G5 in the smallest space possible. Still not small enough (or cool enough) for a laptop, unfortunately. Intel, on the other hand, has shown they have the smarts for getting fast processors into small form factors such as laptops. Too bad they didn't make the G5...
So perhaps cnet misconstrued the interest in the mac mini as Apple's outfitting the "lower-end" macs first. Maybe it's the small form factor that counts. Imagine a G5 class processor in the mac mini... Want one?
3) This story literally caught fire this weekend. The only other indication that Apple was sniffing out Intel (or visa-versa) was the WSJ article of about a month ago, which was widely regarded as far too vague. Other than that, it still looks like Jobs is going to waltz into Moscone Center with his usual rallying speech to the developer masses. Why has everything been kept so quiet. Shock value doesn't win any points at all when a platform change is imminent. Not to mention that amazingly bad timing of such an announcement coinciding with the release of your flagship OS.
The only solution that ties all of this together is Intel has agreed to manufacturer the 970 under a open source license (any maybe technology sharing license) with IBM. Both Apple and IBM have been major proponents of open source. Intel gets what it has said it always wanted, Apple as a customer (and possibly the added bonus of enlarging it's offerings in other areas beyond x86 and it's derivatives). Apple gets what it wants, a smaller G5 at the very least for it's smaller G5-less form factors from a technologist that specializes solely in chip design and manufacturer, and also the likely end of CPU shortage issues in general. And IBM gets what it wanted, Job's off it's back and may remain in the game anyway to the extent it makes some sort of profitable contribution to Apple's ever-innovative designs.
And the rest of us? Developers and users alike? What do we get? Nothing right now, and thats pretty good news after this weekend. Maybe a G5 mac mini and powerbook line up in the near future (once Intel can begin to ramp up enough production - hence the one year or so time frame that was reported). And the Tiger booths will be filled as they normally would have been - no "distractions" or reasons to keep anyone away.
Well, we'll find out tomorrow, won't we...
