Leopard 64bit ONLY? What about 32bit computers?

[wako]

Im really confused about the keynote. Steve said that Leopard is built from the ground up as a 64bit operating system and that it only comes in one flavor, 64bit.

So, what will become of all the PowerPC macs? All those people who bought Powerbooks 2 years ago, the people who bought the first generation Intel macs that were Core Duos will be LEFT OUT?

If this is true, they just did a terrible move because Leopard will bound to fail immediately as nobody will buy it since most people wont be able to handle it...

 

[SilentPanda]

http://www.engadget.com/2007/06/12/fret-not-64-bit-leopard-will-still-work-with-your-machine/

We've seen there's a bit of confusion after a certain not-entirely-lucid portion of Steve's WWDC keynote yesterday, wherein he announced "top to bottom" 64-bit integration in Leopard, what he characterized as a first for the industry. As we all know, Apple is only shipping on one version of Leopard, so that led some to believe they'd be left in the lurch, their G4s, G5s, Core Solos, and Core Duos rotting on Tiger and unable to make the jump past 10.4. Thankfully, that ain't the case.

As we mentioned yesterday (but didn't really dig into), Leopard isn't entirely like Windows, where you're expected to install the 32 or 64-bit variants of the OS based on the system / CPU that will run it. We discussed this with Apple, which expressed that this latest version of OS X takes a far simpler approach for the end-user than multiple hardware-centric OS versions, opting instead to run both 64 and 32-bit apps and drivers on any 64-bit machine (read: Core 2 Duo-based), and defaulting to the usual 32-bit app / driver operation on 32-bit Macs. In other words, users with 64-bit capable Intel machines will see a performance boost if running 64-bit apps, but those that don't have a newer Apple box won't be at all penalized -- nor will they be unable to upgrade. So, we cool?

 

[66217]

It would work. Don't worry. The difference is that some apps would be faster in a 64-bit Mac.

If I am not mistaken, the MB Core Duo is 32-bit isn't it?

 

[AdeFowler]

It'll continue to run 32 bit apps on 32 bit processors natively. There's no way Apple would lock out such a huge part of its customer base.

 

[SilentPanda]

If I am not mistaken, the MB Core Duo is 32-bit isn't it?

I think everything lower than Core2Duo's are 32-bit. At least that's the impression I got from the engadget article.

 

[wako]

oh thank god...




As a daily Engadget reading, i cant believe i didnt see that article.

 

[Eidorian]

You'll be fine.​

32-bit
- G3
- G4
- Core Duo

64-bit
- G5
- Core 2 Duo
- Xeon

 

[mkrishnan]

I think everything lower than Core2Duo's are 32-bit. At least that's the impression I got from the engadget article.

The G5 is the major exception. At least, it has been reported in the past, based on Leopard previews, that it would allow 64-bit on G5. 64-bit is certainly at least possible in the non-GUI / Darwin / whatever environment on G5 now.

 

[zap2]

G4s, G5s, Core Solos, and Core Duos rotting on Tiger and unable to make the jump past 10.4. Thankfully, that ain't the case.

I'm not sure why G5 woud be left to rot using Tiger. Seeing how they are 64bit chips

 

[dartzorichalcos]

It will be probably like this:
10.5: G3 support gone, runs on 32-bit and 64-bit macs
10.6: G4 support gone, runs on 64-bit (G5 included) and intel 32-bit macs
10.7-10.9: 32 bit macs support gone, G5 still supported and runs only on all 64-bit macs
OS XI: Works only on Intel macs, PPC not supported

 

[RacerX]

It will be probably like this:
10.7-10.9...
OS XI...

And here I thought that people would have learnt with the release of 10.4.10 that the "." is not a decimal point.

Why do you think that OS XI is coming after 10.9? It could come after 10.6 or 10.23. Apple is in no way limited by this numeric system to make an OS XI at any point in time.

 

[DinnyHoon]

Don't let that wench from ZDNet fool you, Leopard will work fine on 32 bit Macs.

And as RacerX pointed out, there won't necessarily be builds of OS X going up to 10.9, then the leap to OS 11 (which I assume will be powered by magic). I think we'll get 2 more incremental upgrades of OS X (Lynx and Cougar) before we all start saying "This OS goes to 11!"

 

[liquidsgi]

64 bit apps tweaked to work better

It looks like Apple is really trying to get the jump on Microsoft on getting the 64bit boost that the OS can offer. Microsoft has been slow to roll this out (or been unable to roll out). What I am wondering tho is bootcamp-- will we be only able to install the 64 bit version of XP or Vista?