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Mac OS X 10.6 to Drop PowerPC Support?

I'm surprised that after 6 pages no one has asked for screenshots yet, so:

Can someone please host pictures of 10.6 and tell us how stable bootcramp 9.3 beta is? how about the dock? Can we make it go into the back of the screen now?

And is safari any snappier?
:rolleyes:
 
Cleve said:
OSX will have to be multi processor to keep support for the upcoming iPods and iPhones which run (quite well) on Samsung ARM processors
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As someone else mentioned, the ARM version of OS X has no bearing whatsoever on PowerPC support. I doubt the "core OS" programmers even take ARM into account, the translation is probably solely handled "after the fact" by the iPod group.

But, it is also possible that the reason we don't have an "official" iPhone SDK is because Apple is going to convert the iPhone and iPods over to Intel processors soon, too. After all, at Intel's recent developer's forum, they announced that next year they should release ultra-low-power "system on a chip" processors that are so obviously targeted at the iPhone that Intel even showed off a 'prototype phone' that looks remarkably like an even-wider-screen iPhone. And they will be coming out with even lower power processors in 2009, that would be appropriate even in the nano.

I can very easily see that Apple is waiting for these new processors (which are Intel-architecture, so they are 100% code-compatible with the processors in the Mac Pro,) to open up the iPhone, so that programmers could quite literally write one piece of code, and only compile once, for all Apple products.
 
[snip]

Multimedia said:
Given that Intel Macs started in Tiger, I doubt Leopard will be the last PPC supported system, The base of G4 & G5 PowerMacs is HUGE and will continue to dominate the overall population of Macs by 2009. Quad G5 is not going to be dead by then unless they all start leaking bloody murder. It is only a little slower than the Quad 2.66 Mac Pro.
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[/snip]


Dominate? I think not.Apple is selling around 4 Million Intel Macs a year now.By 2009 that number will probably be 10 Million.So..

In 2009 there would be an Intel base of around 25 Million..While there would still be plenty of PPC Macs out there it will in no way comprise the majority.
 
It's not just Apple who has to support PPC... it's the 3rd party developers. Apple's obviously trying to attract more users/developers if they want to grow the platform.

Look ahead 2 or 3 years. If you were a new developer (say a shareware developer) interested in developing for Mac OS X in 10.6, would you even bother developing for a PPC platform that's almost 7 years old? Probably not. That's one advantage Windows and M$ has always had... Windows developers never had to deal with the drastic changes we Apple users/developers had to go through.

Supporting both PPC and x86 isn't just a checkbox in XCode. A lot of Mac users are creative people... and use audio/visual applications that could potentially take advantage of each processor's architecture. That means, if you want your application to support the hints in each platform (eg Altivec or SSE3), you have to code accordingly for each platform as well.
 
they'll have to keep G5 support for 10.6, then drop PPC altogether by 10.7, seriously are PPC machines that crap that after 4 years they become obsolete...

I know apple always loves you to go out and buy their latest machines but still, this is pretty much saying you'll never get a long term investment in macs...
 
10.6 Alpha Testers Are Under NDA

TheChemist said:
I'm surprised that after 6 pages no one has asked for screenshots yet, so:

Can someone please host pictures of 10.6 and tell us how stable bootcramp 9.3 beta is? how about the dock? Can we make it go into the back of the screen now?

And is safari any snappier?
:rolleyes:
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All the 10.6 Alpha testers are under NDA so we can't see those shots yet. :p
 
damienvfx said:
This is pure speculation and warrants little to no attention. Shame on you macrumors.
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I hear from a good source that 'Liger' (aka 'Tigon') the new hybrid AI interface OS from Apple due in 2012 will only run on post Intel Macs and not support any Intel chips as they will not be able support the thought transference beam required to operate the 4 dimensional space / time interface.
 
Schtumple said:
I know apple always loves you to go out and buy their latest machines but still, this is pretty much saying you'll never get a long term investment in macs...
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What's the average Windows machine last? 4 years tops?

Just because you can't run the latest Mac OS X version doesn't mean your "investment" is going to suddenly stop working with all the software you already have.
 
Peace said:
Dominate? I think not.Apple is selling around 4 Million Intel Macs a year now.By 2009 that number will probably be 10 Million.So..

In 2009 there would be an Intel base of around 25 Million..While there would still be plenty of PPC Macs out there it will in no way comprise the majority.
Click to expand...

let assume there are 8 million G4 and G5 machines out (lots of mac mini's, powerbooks, ibooks, imacs, powermacs). lets assume about 25% would legally upgrade to 10.6. that is 2 mio times $129. for ~250 mio dollars they could easily come up with a PPC version of OS 10.6 i would think. or are my numbers off?
 
It would seem logical if they drop it. I've read a lot of reactions here that 4 years isn't that old for a computer etc.

But it's not like your imac G5 will stop working when 10.6 will be released for intel only, you can still use your mac just not run the latest software, how long after 10.6 would people write off their g5 indefinitly when they see that performance isn't that great anymore, betting between 6-12 months ...

Is it really worth it to devote a lot of time & energy for a small percentage of the users by then for a short amount of time they would use it ... I don't think so, and when the release day of 10.6 gets closer there will be too few ppc users that apple won't even notice them.
 
ezpk69 said:
Is anybody seriously suggesting that there'll be anything in 10.6 that a Core Solo Mac Mini will handle just fine, but will be "too much" for a G5 Quad?
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Who says that the core solo will handle it just fine? After four years, the first intels will be getting long in the tooth as well.

FoxyKaye said:
The switch to Intel-based Macs is only two years old - what about all that BS about Universal Binaries and not leaving PPC Macs behind that Steve spouted when they went Intel?
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Wasn't that "BS" along the lines that they're not leaving it any time soon...they didn't promise they'd NEVER drop support, did they? And this IS just a rumor, for all we know 10.6 may support PPC.

termite said:
[*]Pissing off a first generation G5 user who has a good computer with quad-2GHz processor and 8GB of memory is silly -- that's still an excellent computer.
[/LIST]
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The quads were hardly the first gen of G5, more like the last gen.
 
longofest said:
By late 2009, it would have been 4 years since the last new PPC mac was sold.
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Just to get our numbers straight... by August 2009, it will have been exactly 3 years since the last new G5 machines were sold.

But Apple was shipping refurbished G4's as recently as this year - a trip to the Wayback Machine tells me that they were in the Apple store at least in January.

That means that their AppleCare extended warranty may not have expired by January 2010. That makes me think, at the very least, Apple will continue to push security fixes compatible with those computers until that time at the earliest.

Sure, you might not be able to install the latest operating system on the machines. I think I can live with that.
 
Any PPC vs Intel user statics available? Maybe this 10.6 prediction is based upon a predicted stat of 90% Mac users will be using Intel chips vs 10% PPC (hypothetical statistic) by 2010? Though there are users including myself who use both Intel and Power PC machines daily.
 
lord patton said:
Well, if they're dropping the support for 800 MHz PPC systems, what would the cutoff be in late 2009 for 10.6? 1.5 GHz? If so, nearly all PPC portables would be out of spec.

Maybe that'd be fine, but I'd think G5 iMacs and Power Macs would still be good enough. Until Apple says something definite, I'm betting 10.6 will be universal, but with specs that preclude all but the most powerful PPC systems.
Click to expand...

I'm betting the same, and would go as far as saying that 10.7 will be the OS when PPC is out entirely.
:apple:
 
10.6 will not be out until 2010. Even then software companies will continue to support 10.5 for at least a year, making it 2011 before ppc users find themselves unable to load certain aps. i really doubt ill be using my G4 powerbook by then, and i bouth the last gen. model.
 
I said it before & I'll say it again: I don't believe Apple will drop the G4 w/o dropping the G5 at the same time. Because what Apple laptops have G5s? Oh right, NONE! And laptops are a pretty huge chunk of the Mac market and Apple would be pretty stupid to drop that yet keep the G5 desktops.
 
10.5 is soon to be released, but I'm still running 10.3 on a few older G4s here, and they are still every bit as productive as they were when I got them. The vast majority of applications requiring higher than 10.3.9 also require more power than my unmodded G4 Cube can provide anyways. By the time 10.6 is released, pretty much all PowerPC users, with the probable exception of the highest-end Power Mac G5s, will be in a similar position. Anything that requires a Mac OS higher than 10.5.x will require more power than any G4 Mac can provide, and will exclude even some G5s. Thus, there won't much of a real need to upgrade most PowerPCs to 10.6, and I think that 10.5 will keep people happy for some time now. The only people truly left behind by an intel-only 10.6 would be the multiprocessor G5 crowd, as these machines still have a lot of fight left in them, but I don't know if that is enough market to justify the resources to continue a Universal Mac OS.
 
This will make everything obsolete:

liger.jpg
 
I'm having a hard time believing that...:confused:

How long was it before they stop supporting OS9? I know, the change between X and OS9 was dramatic but still...

I bet it could happens for 10.7 but hardly for 10.6
 
Data said:
Why not keep developing both versions, as they did starting from os X , in that way , if ibm would come out with something spectacular and new that Intel missed , the switch back wil be very easy. Only if it's really ,really expensive then it would be considerable, to stop the universal versions in my opinion.
But i'm not a programmer so it's basicly a big wild gues ;-) .
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Then all the Windows-on-a-Mac publicity goodness will have been wasted...

WestonHarvey1 said:
What does that mean? There have been multiprocessor PowerPC Macs for years and years. Quad G5s anyone?
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S/he means multiple processor architectures (Intel and PPC)
morespce54 said:
Yes, but not everybody (outside MR) changes computer every 4 years (or less)...
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Most people do...and if they're not close enough to the cutting edge to get new hardware (by then the now-current hardware will be a cheap upgrade anyway) then they probably won't want 10.6 that much...
 
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