What does a switch to Intel mean for the average user?

[jessearl]

I'm not a PowerMac-user who creates design graphics in his spare time. I use my PowerBook to run my small business with, e-mail, research, letters, etc.

What does a switch to Intel mean for future Apple computer purchases for people like myself?

 

[MattG]

Well, hopefully it'll mean faster processors, and hopefully it'll mean Apple won't have such issues with the supply of processors.

As for what it means for you, the equipment you have now, and the equipment you'll buy in the future...knowing Apple, they wouldn't just make a big change that would render millions of computers unusable. Whatever they do, I'm sure they'll make it so past, present and future hardware/software work with each other.

 

[njmac]

This will get answered on blogs and news columns ad nauseum in T minus 6 minutes and counting.....

 

[yellow]

What does a switch to Intel mean for future Apple computer purchases for people like myself?

I'd wait until the rumormill stops first, before asking this question.

 

[Raid]

I'd wait until the rumormill stops first, before asking this question.

Well now the rumourmill has stopped and Jobs has spoken, yet jessearl's question still remains valid. I'm not really sure what to expect from the future... With an x86 structure does that open up Apple to a wider range of software? Can I finally get a Mac and play all the hottest games? Are they now trying to directly compete with Windows and Linix by giving current x86 users the option to buy OS 10.4? Sure we've now got a new chip, but how are the current PPC users going to transition? I was going to recommend a Mac to family members, but now do I tell them to wait a year or two?

 

[yellow]

Well now the rumourmill has stopped and Jobs has spoken, yet jessearl's question still remains valid. I'm not really sure what to expect from the future...

Yes it is. What will it mean to the average user? Not a damn thing. You will still have OS X and all the apps you love/use. You'll just have an intel chugging away inside.

Can I finally get a Mac and play all the hottest games?

No. At least, not if they still use DirectX. They still have to be ported to use OpenGL. I cannot imagine M$ licensing DirectX for the Mac. They won't even update MSNMessenger

You'll still have to buy a Mac from Apple in order to run OS X. It'll be a while before Apple takes Microsoft on directly. I think the success or failure of Longhorn will have a lot to do with that decision.

 

[jim.]

Well now the rumourmill has stopped and Jobs has spoken, yet jessearl's question still remains valid. I'm not really sure what to expect from the future... With an x86 structure does that open up Apple to a wider range of software? Can I finally get a Mac and play all the hottest games? Are they now trying to directly compete with Windows and Linix by giving current x86 users the option to buy OS 10.4? Sure we've now got a new chip, but how are the current PPC users going to transition? I was going to recommend a Mac to family members, but now do I tell them to wait a year or two?

Quite simply, no. Moving to x86 will not expand your selection of native games or applications. OSX has a pretty well thought out API that has high abstraction of the hardware layer, so very few programs access the hardware directly. A porting job to x86 OSX would be the same as porting to PPC OSX for the most part unless you are working at a low level in the kernel.

Speaking of the kernel, OSX will not have the driver support to work with homegrown boxes. x86 is plagued with incomplete implementations of technology, and inconsistencies (ACPI, APM, BIOS, etc.). OSX's kernel isn't the same as the NT kernel. It doesn't have the hardware support. Just moving to x86 doesn't make everything work. This is why it is going to take much more than a simple hack to get OSX to run tolerably on your homemade machine. To illustrate this, OpenDarwin is the OSX kernel. It is open source. It has been ported to x86. You can run it on x86, but it doesn't support much. Why haven't people hacked Aqua to run on OpenDarwin? Why is it different now that Apple is going to x86? All they have to do is use some bit of abstraction, and people can't hack it without a LOT of work.

Jim

 

[mersea]

Originally Posted by Raid
Well now the rumourmill has stopped and Jobs has spoken, yet jessearl's question still remains valid. I'm not really sure what to expect from the future...

Yes it is. What will it mean to the average user? Not a damn thing. You will still have OS X and all the apps you love/use. You'll just have an intel chugging away inside

But what about having to rebuy applications? Will this Rosetta program really fix that?

 

[spaceballl]

Don't listen to what people say this will mean for the average user... The truth is - we really have no idea. Jobs said the company will move to Intel (x86). We just need to wait and see for now. My advice would be that if you're a current mac user, don't worry about it but keep your eyes and ears open. If you're in the market for a new PC, just wait off for a bit and see what happens.

-Kevin

 

[vouder17]

No. At least, not if they still use DirectX. They still have to be ported to use OpenGL. I cannot imagine M$ licensing DirectX for the Mac. They won't even update MSNMessenger

You'll still have to buy a Mac from Apple in order to run OS X. It'll be a while before Apple takes Microsoft on directly. I think the success or failure of Longhorn will have a lot to do with that decision.

Ok well what could be possible is that you load up Windows onto your iMac or whateva computer you have and then play games... According to Phil schiller it most probably will be possible to have Windows on a Mac but not OS X on a PC.. now that is cool

"There are no plans to sell or support Windows on an Intel-based Mac. That doesn't preclude someone from running it on a Mac. They probably will. We won't do anything to preclude that."
However, Schiller said the company does not plan to let people run Mac OS X on other computer makers' hardware. "We will not allow running Mac OS X on anything other than an Apple Mac,"

Linky

 

[bosrs1]

Ok well what could be possible is that you load up Windows onto your iMac or whateva computer you have and then play games... According to Phil schiller it most probably will be possible to have Windows on a Mac but not OS X on a PC.. now that is cool




Linky

See. According to Shiller and Jobs nothing has changed. To the average user this change will be transparent. Like going from G4 to G5 was.

 

[pubwvj]

What does a switch to Intel mean for future Apple computer purchases for [ordinary users] like myself?

Not much, once the dust settles. Apple is pretty good at this sort of transition.

 

[spaceballl]

See. According to Shiller and Jobs nothing has changed. To the average user this change will be transparent. Like going from G4 to G5 was.

Haha this is completely different than G4 to G5

 

[bosrs1]

Haha this is completely different than G4 to G5

Not by much. We're not going to have to buy new software, not going to be prematurely obsoleted... for the average user this change will be seamless.

 

[stevey500]

Even thought I went from using a 2.4ghz P4 running XP to a PowerMac G4 800mhz ( Overclocked from 733hz) with m-audio theater sound ( m-audio sound cards kick-ass by the way ) and now having a worse video card and slower performance ( faster in some apps ) I will never switch back over to windows... I must admit i didnt care for apple at all when I was using windows.. I went from windows 3.1 to 95 to 98 to 2000 to XP to xp 2nd edition and got to know dos very well... yet I have been on OS/X for about 6 or 7 months now and I just dont feel at all a reason to go back to windows... People always call me to fix their computers.. we live in a small town... and 99.8% are using windows and the other .2% are using linux or a mac. It's not that I hate windows, its just that I dont see how I could ever use it for every day living while even my powermac G3 tower is perfectly usable for every day activities. Now apple is being converted over to Intel chips, which i see nothing bad about that... it's still going to be the same OS/x, hopefully better performance.. which the G5 Dual seems fast enough already.. Steve J. showed us that now Xcode 2.1 now allows you to compile your programs for Intel and PowerPC processors... and allows you to make your program for both processors.. in one executable, sounds great to me!! More PC users may see a better reason to move to apple since they will be using Intel chips... Doesn't bother me at all!!
_________________