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Intel switch. 4 years later.

H

hugodrax

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Jul 15, 2007
1,230
645
What difference 4 years makes. I switched from PC's to macintosh after the intel switch to a Mac Pro and never looked back.

So how many folks here switched to a Macintosh due to the Intelswitch. How many thought this was a bad idea at the time?
 
many thought it was a bad idea

many thought macs would suddenly get viruses for some obscure reason (since it used the same chips)

there are some members here who are strongly pro ppc and anti intel still (wont name them)

i think it was a great idea and i didnt have an issue with it at the time
 
I don't think it was a bad idea, but it wasn't the best idea either.

But I know I'm biased, so I'll shut up now.

Anyway, I sort of did and didn't switch during the Intel times. I bought an iMac G3 in 2004 that was pretty much my main machine for two years, but I also used my PC a lot still. Got an Intel mini in late 2006. You make the call.
 
it was the best thing apple did, imo. i think apple's lineup is more popular now then before.

would i have purchased a macbook w/o bootcamp? no.
 
At the time of the switched I was working at Intel andmany were surprised to learn of the switch.

Reading the forums at the time it seemed many hard core Apple fanboys felt Apple caved to the man.

Intel has the capacity to supply various supply chains apple on demand (well within 45 days) giving apple to adjust order quantities
AMD wanted a hard number of processors per year, no more no less.
 
I thought it was a bad idea at the time since Intel's selection at the time was utter garbage, the Pentium 4, enough said. Of course none of us knew Intel had the Core up their sleeves.

I'd still rather use a PPC Mac for day to day purposes, they definitely seemed more reliable.
 
hugodrax said:
What difference 4 years makes. I switched from PC's to macintosh after the intel switch to a Mac Pro and never looked back.

So how many folks here switched to a Macintosh due to the Intelswitch. How many thought this was a bad idea at the time?
Click to expand...

I "switched" I guess you could say... Hmm, more like "gave it a try again" but anyway... It wasn't really because they went with Intel but rather because of all the developers that pledged to come on board at about that same time. Prior to that I used a whole host of OS's tho, not just WinTel.

I didn't think the switch to Intel for them was a bad idea. I thought it was an intelligent business decision which I guess is what it turned out to be.

I can tell you that I like OS X better than any other OS I've ever used with the sole exception of Amiga OS. That includes, NextStep, Solaris, IRIX, 4 different LINUX's, Digital 64bit UNIX, OSWarp, every version of Windows except ME which I never tried, and umm, I dunno.. others too probably.

Apple has a hit with OS X in my opinion! Now if they can just continue to please discerning hardware buyers. :) 2009 is a step in the wrong direction IMO, I hope 2010's steps are better placed!
 
have used but never owned a ppc mac, started on the core solo mac mini (painful machine) but c2d blows most things out of the water imo, made my 64bit athlon 3200 look tame to say the least

i love my intel mac
 
nick9191 said:
I thought it was a bad idea at the time since Intel's selection at the time was utter garbage, the Pentium 4, enough said. Of course none of us knew Intel had the Core up their sleeves.

I'd still rather use a PPC Mac for day to day purposes, they definitely seemed more reliable.
Click to expand...

But intel had the extreme in the production line and the Northwood and Banias processors on 90nm at that time. At that point everyone knew intel had awakened from the AMD ass kicking and began to widening the gap in the lead on breaking technology and backing it up with the factory capacity.
 
I've designed "off-brand" powerPC processors (for Exponential - a company that should be pretty memorable to Mac fans with a memory that stretches back to the late 1990's) and "off-brand" x86 processors (for AMD).

PowerPC numbers the bits backwards. Fail.

:)
 
The backwards compatibility sold me a year and a half ago. I still need windows every now and again. I don't think I'll own a Windows PC again for personal use.
 
It's simply been fantastic. The rapid competition in the x86 market has also made the Mac lineup more dynamic and exciting.

It hasn't brought the cost savings many had hoped it would. I suppose, even though they're now using Intel chips, Apple's still Apple.
 
I'm pretty new to macs as far as owning them, but I have used PPC macs and they were horrible. Not talking about speed, but stability. The macs in my elementary and high schools used to freeze and/or crash all the time (several times per class!).

I think the OS makes more of a difference here than the hardware (of course it still plays a role). OS X is stable, and Intel is good hardware.

I think the intel switch made Apple more competitive because of Boot Camp and such. It did, however, expose how uncompetitive Apple is in terms of providing modern parts for the money since the hardware is now directly comparable to PC hardware. There are no more excuses of macs "working differently, therefore, you cannot compare specs". The only trump card Apple has now is OS X.
 
Gregintosh said:
I'm pretty new to macs as far as owning them, but I have used PPC macs and they were horrible. Not talking about speed, but stability. The macs in my elementary and high schools used to freeze and/or crash all the time (several times per class!).

I think the OS makes more of a difference here than the hardware (of course it still plays a role). OS X is stable, and Intel is good hardware.

I think the intel switch made Apple more competitive because of Boot Camp and such. It did, however, expose how uncompetitive Apple is in terms of providing modern parts for the money since the hardware is now directly comparable to PC hardware. There are no more excuses of macs "working differently, therefore, you cannot compare specs". The only trump card Apple has now is OS X.
Click to expand...

They still work differently (call me when Dell implements firewire target mode). But your point is understood :)
 
cmaier said:
They still work differently (call me when Dell implements firewire target mode). But your point is understood :)
Click to expand...

Isn't that solved with a $25 card? (asks the guy who doesn't even know what the heck "target mode FireWire" is...)
 
TwinCities Dan said:
Never thought intel was a bad idea, they make great chips. But, I've been a mac user since the 68xxx days. ;)
Click to expand...

Switch "68xx" with " early G4" (think the first PowerBook G4 Titaniums) and that's me :) I think the Intel switch was a great thing.

dukebound85 said:
What I bolded is what I don't understand at all
Click to expand...

Tesselator said:
Me too. I hear people saying that Intel macs are more stable than PPC macs were. <shrug>
Click to expand...

Cassie said:
Even I don't really understand that statement. I never had stability problems on my Intel mini, at least no less then my PPC macs. :confused:
Click to expand...

Don't bother; he'll just insult you if you try to argue. Not worth the effort.

jons said:
If only that worked on the new Macbooks....
Click to expand...

Intel Macs can boot from USB drives. I don't know if this includes Macs booted into target disk mode and connected via USB, but I know this works with external drives. As Macs booted into target disk mode is basically an external drive, it should work?
 
ravenvii said:
Switch "68xx" with " early G4" (think the first PowerBook G4 Titaniums) and that's me :) I think the Intel switch was a great thing.







Don't bother; he'll just insult you if you try to argue. Not worth the effort.



Intel Macs can boot from USB drives. I don't know if this includes Macs booted into target disk mode and connected via USB, but I know this works with external drives. As Macs booted into target disk mode is basically an external drive, it should work?
Click to expand...

I'm pretty sure you can't use target disk mode over USB. There was a lot of crying about this when the new macbooks were announced w/o firewire.
 
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