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Photos of Snow Leopard Disc and Retail Packaging?
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Except that the whole PPC vs. Intel discussion is moot. It's pointless. It solves nothing and nothing will come of it.
The solution is simple, really. If you've got a 3+ year old PowerPC, stick it out for another year with Leopard and enjoy a solid, mature OS, or just buy a new machine now.
Once Apple switched to Intel, the writing was on the wall. Those people who chose to hang on to their PowerPCs were going to get cut off sometime. But PowerPC machines continue to work, just not with the newest, shiniest OS, "only Leopard", which is still far better than the alternatives.
To understand some real benefits of leaving PPC behind, just consider the fact that point updates of every version of OS X have had to test updates for multiple platforms, but no more. Wouldn't it be nice for Apple to have the flexibility to get critical updates out the door more quickly? System updates that are potentially much smaller? Focus on fixes for Intel only, without distractions for such disparate chipsets? I'm totally in favour of the shift. The diminishing percentage of active PPC users is not reason enough to hobble future development.
The thing is, most (not all) PPC processors were not 64-bit, and most were not dual-core. Even if Apple were to rewrite the core applications for 32-bit, there would be no benefit to Grand Central or any of the other 10.6 functions. The difference between Leopard and Snow Leopard is based on using these differences under-the-hood. For Apple to build a version for PPC, even for the dual core, 64-bit versions, there would not be any substantial gain in performance anyway.
It is just not worth supporting a discontinued (years ago) architecture. Especially in light of the fact that SL needs to be as fast, as lean, and as efficient as it can be. And especially NOW, amid all this apparent competition. Google's OS looming just over the horizon, A Vista that finally works as it should (well, we'll see), and the continued presence of Linux. A "next-gen" OS has no business supporting an architecture that has been discontinued years ago.
You can still get very good money for G5s on ebay, however. Late model dual G5 towers are still getting around $1000 or so. That's not half bad - proof that Apple hardware holds its value pretty well and that there are people out there looking for the old stuff.
The funny thing is... Snow Leopard running in 64-bit mode would generally be SLOWER then 32-bit when on a G5. The G5 (PowerPC in general) already has a large register set so going from 32-bit to 64-bit nets little beyond the larger address space yet you are now pushing around pointers that are twice as large.
Now x86-64, unlike PPC-64, doubles the number of named registers and handful of direct and related improvements. These allow 64-bit Intel code to generally run faster then a 32-bit version despite pushing around larger pointers.
Now x86-64, unlike PPC-64, doubles the number of named registers and handful of direct and related improvements. These allow 64-bit Intel code to generally run faster then a 32-bit version despite pushing around larger pointers.
Right, CUDA, NUMA being a memory access technology in SMP architectures. I'll correct my post.
Show me the light!
Wow, looking at these pictures, all I gotta say is (the obvious):
Apple REALLY needs to add a flash to their next gen iPhone and iPod Touch!
I'm astonished even a low-end cell phone from a couple years ago has one, but not Apple. But now I'm ranting and getting OT here.
Wow, looking at these pictures, all I gotta say is (the obvious):
Apple REALLY needs to add a flash to their next gen iPhone and iPod Touch!
I'm astonished even a low-end cell phone from a couple years ago has one, but not Apple. But now I'm ranting and getting OT here. 
in fact it even looks as if snow leopard still comes with a lot of binaries that are universal (even the kernel).
Keep in mind that Universal doesn't just mean PPC/Intel. Universal just means it contains executables for multiple architectures. This includes intel 32bit and intel 64bit - they are different architectures thus to support both means apps must be universal.
You make some valid points regarding the time to move on factor, but once again, I've ALWAYS been arguing about G5's, both iMacs & Powermacs, all of which were 64bit, some of which had the capability to run really powerful graphics cards.
All of the Snow Leopard optimizations would benefit these machines. All of the BUG FIXES in Snow Leopard would benefit these machines. And all of the machines are capable of running Grand Central to some extent more so than the early INTEL graphics Macs are capable of running OpenCL.
These are just indisputable facts and go completely against what many of the PowerPC-haters here are ranting about.
I don't think anyone has ever suggested that Apple try to support G4 processors. I certainly haven't.
Steve Jobs and Apple during the INTEL announcement sort of made a commitment to support PowerPC to keep Apple sales going for about a year during the transition.
I think they broke that support commitment, maybe not legally, but certainly ethically.
Snow Leopard breaks an historically long Apple support model for Macs for a good portion of the Mac community.
And 2-3 years is bad support in my opinion.
Obviously, lots of people disagree, but almost ALL of them own INTEL Macs only, go figure! LOL
It would cost Apple a lot more, not only in supply costs, but also in weight for shipping. Discs are far cheaper to to manufacture and distribute.
Well how much do you think you can get for all your hardware? I'm not talking in terms of principles here, just practical terms. I'm guessing you've got quite an investment in PowerPC goodies.
Lots of people are looking for those. There's a reseller of used (and unopened) PowerPC equipment in my area and he's been in business for a long, long time. Those things can fetch a pretty penny. I remember asking recently about an iBook G4 (later model) and he wanted something like $675 CDN for one.
There are Quad-core G5s going for $1,300 CDN on Kijiji (Toronto.) iBook G3s are going for anywhere between $350 and $500 CDN.
Plus, it wouldn't exactly be perceived as 'green' to have all these 'disposable' USB keys/fobs/etc. manufactured. Never mind that they're reusable. Congresspersons, judges, and pundits rarely respect context.
Opening top
All my Mac OS X boxes (I don't own boxes for 10.4 or 10.5 since they came with my computers) open from the top except, my box for the beta and 10.1.
Hugh
All my Mac OS X boxes (I don't own boxes for 10.4 or 10.5 since they came with my computers) open from the top except, my box for the beta and 10.1.
Hugh
I don't really want to sell any of my hardware honestly except for possibly my G4s.
I don't have any G3's in current use, I do have a few mothballed though, hmmm.
Note to self about Ebay... LOL
My G5s are faster than many INTEL Macs! That's why they retain their value.
Steve Jobs has never backed off on his "Megahertz Myth" claim even after the INTEL transition!
So yes, Snow Leopard does pour lots of salt in the wound for G5 owners.
Yeah, that's not really the case though. Each update to OS X brought a new list of ineligible macs... 2-3 years, actually. This is really no different.
I never understood the connection Apple tried to make between cat names and stars/auroras.
It makes so much more sense having the photo of a cat printed on the package itself when the OS shares the same cat name.
If they are going to print auroras and stars why not name the operating systems after constellations or galaxies? May be they could do that for Mac OS XI 11.0 all the way up to 11.9? Just an idea...
It makes so much more sense having the photo of a cat printed on the package itself when the OS shares the same cat name.
If they are going to print auroras and stars why not name the operating systems after constellations or galaxies? May be they could do that for Mac OS XI 11.0 all the way up to 11.9? Just an idea...
Well, certainly in recent years they have slid out. I don't really see Apple straying from that simple design.
Or how about they just name it after famous people who contributed to our knowledge of space? OS XI 11.1: Galileo, 11.2: Hubble 11.3: William Shatner etc etc
Both Leopard and Tiger supported Macs 6-7 years old & Apple continued to support those machines throughout the operating system lifetime.
The oldest Mac supported by Leopard IIRC was introduced July, 2001!
Geez, I keep dispelling these myths over and over, but people just keep posting them over and over! LOL
True. USB fobs are not really common for software distribution. USB fobs are only good if you actively need them (like for security) otherwise there is the temptation to wipe them for 6+ gigs of storage. Problem is, that wiping your installation disc makes things problematic should you need to re-format (say a corruption of some kind) and you now have no way to install SL again. Discs are useful because you can have an install disc that you can store for years at a very high quality. The only way the disc could fail would be scratched discs or some physical problems with the disc itself - which is easy to prevent if properly stored.