I highly, highly doubt this is the beginning of the end of Mac hardware, and running OS X on a cheap PC will be impossible without virtualization. Macs will continue to have their own hardware, motherboards, chipsets, and so on.

It's tight integration that makes Macs so good and stable. Change that, and you don't have a Mac any more.

AND the next version of OS X will be called Lepard:
http://www.macminute.com/2005/06/06/leopard/

AS I TOLD YOU SO, I TOLD YOU SO! :D
http://creativebits.org/mac_os_x_105_codename

Btw, there is a discussion about these news here as well:
http://creativebits.org/node/1588
http://creativebits.org/node/1577

When Steve said: "I can confirm the rumors that every release of Mac OS X has been compiled for PowerPC and Intel. This has been going on for the last five years.”

My day just got 10x better.

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Josh Stevens | Nautilus7 Design

Why not?

Intel is way ahead of PPC. The idea of processors that are twice as fast and half as cheap should be good news to anybody.

For $1000 you can get a1ghz mac mini, or an emac, with 256mb of ram, a CD burner, and a 64mb graphics card.

For the same price, you can get a high-end 3ghz Intel, with a gig of ram, 256mb video card, DVD burner, tv-tuners, and a whole bunch of other options.

'Why' is obvious lol.

Even if Apple decided to use a proprietary Intel chip that wasn't so cheap, it would still be loads faster than the PPC. Not to mention how much faster Intel moves along in new speeds.

Obviously Apple recognizes Intel as the better choice. That alone should let people know which chip is the superior, and should calm some of the ruckus.

Apple is smart. Their not going to throw their company away, nor would they continue to use something if something else was more effecient and more beneficial for them to use.
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Josh Stevens | Nautilus7 Design

there can only be one!..... just as long as it isn't microsoft

What does this button d.... CRAP!

Unfortunately, the move to Intel discards one of Apple's main advantages: Altivec. Many of Apple's signature apps (i.e. Final Cut Pro/Compressor) take heavy advantage of Altivec acceleration, and still outperform similar apps on faster Intel chips. Intel has nothing that can provide the kind of performance boost that Altivec does. For someone like me who is dependent on Altivec-accelerated apps, it is going to be a long time before any Intel-based Mac gives the kind of performance a G5 will provide.
Also, Intel is known for poor performance in multiprocessor machines. Are we going back to single-CPU machines?
I just don't know what the hell is going to happen with this transition. It seems like the worst move Apple could make. Even worse, I was waiting for WWDC announcements to see if any new hardware was announced, like the overdue iBook speed bumps. Now I don't want to buy ANY new hardware until 2007. I guess I'll buy a current iBook instead of a Powerbook and stick it out until there's a top-end desktop Mac shipping. This is the classic "Osborne Effect."

Hope you like the image I added Jim! :D

... emulation. By its very nature it is SLOW. When you're running something on hardware that was not designed to run it, you have to constantly translate between the two environments. When the intel boxes come out and it takes several years for developers to get around to porting older versions of their stuff (if at all) because I don't feel like buying the newest versions of everything, I would have to deal with that. I'm probably going to choose not to.

I've been planning on buying a new 17" powerbook this summer to replace my current one that's about to turn 2. I think I'm still going to do that now, but chances are it will be my last apple purchase for a while. I'm not going to buy anything while I have to deal with transitional effects. It's just not worth the hassle. I was an early adopter of OS X back when it first came out. I even still have the beta CD. It wasn't until a year or two after that I actually finally switched to it full-time instead of OS 9. The classic emulator was just too slow and it took that long for a software base to really get started in OS X. I don't expect this to be much different. Really, how many of the independent shareware developers are going to shell out $999 for the developer's kit to do this, buy an ADC membership to do it, and get the necessary hardware? I know I won't.

You guys ever think that Intel is going to make a chip for only OS X only? I never thought i would see something like this happen but i also don't think OS X would just run off of what Intel has to offer to the public right now. I am sure that they have a chip that is better than the P4. And i am sure that the programs that require Altivec, there is something in the chip that is better then that. Especially since the programs that take full advantage of the technology is mainly Apple products. I guess we just have to wait and see what Apple has in store for us.

on various forums around for the past few weeks. This will mean a lot of things for users, and very little at the same time. By that I mean, not much will change for the user – other than you'll be able to run the Mac OS on a MUCH FASTER processor.

What it doesn't mean:
You won't be buying a $400 Dell and installing Mac OSX
You won't be running Windows natively on your Mac
You most likely won't even have a dual-boot machine

To be quite honest, I see this as a little more than a blip on the radar of most Mac users. I think this transition will be less dramatic than the switch to OSX from OS9.

Get your fix of design software tips, tricks & commentary.

Another round of speculation and rumor, trying to figure out what Apple's next move is going to be... Not to mention anticipating the developer's response. Hell, I'm still waiting on DigiDesign to release a freakin' Tiger-compatible driver for my MBox so I can have Audio Input!

All-in-all within the last 3 months, my world has been turned upside down. First I'm a Freehand user, which was just handed a death warrant by the Adobe acquisition, now, this... lol

I think I'm just going to hang drywall for a living until 2007... Nah. Sounds too much like "real" work.

I think Apple knows what they're doing and that it's a good move. I've been through this time and time again since 1984, so what's another inconvenience in the grand scale of things?

Sure beats hanging drywall, I'll bet. :)

Terry Thornhill

e-zign Design Group

Straight from "the man":

...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."

Get your fix of design software tips, tricks & commentary.

Steve jobs says that the intel processors are faster, did he look at all the bar graphs on the apple website, the G5 trounces Intel on every test (with undisclosed procedures) ? There must something wrong, no? :Þ

BTW, you guys will be proud of me: I'm getting my first mac: a titanium 15" 1Ghz, with superdrive and 1Gb ram!

pierre-etienne courtejoie

Reading through the forums here, macrumors and talking on irc, Im beginning to think that this is a good move for apple. I know it sucks huge hippo ass chunks that our recently purchased equipment is going to be given the cold shoulder in a couple of years but..

- As yoelnino said, I cant see see Apple using a standard / high end chip in their machines. Why would they? They're going to do what they did with NVidea and have a custom part made.

- The way Im looking at it is like this, Forget the fact that its 'dum de da doom *intel sound ;) * Intel Processor, if apple announced that they was using a brand new PPC chip that would require developers to rewrite their software using new rules etc, I doubt we would be kicking up such a fuss. I think the wound is the fact that its 'intel' .

As long as:
- the transistion is nearly seamless
- the next os has support for both PPC and intels new chip for apple
- the chip is cooler and faster
- Apples hardware continues to amaze us everytime
- OS X performs as well as it does now, or better

.... then i look forward to the progression from PPC to Intel.

Good Luck Apple, I shall continue to love you :)

Exactly... Better performance & reliability at a lower cost is what everybody is after.. Nothing personal..

Having an intel processor does not mean I can run Mac OS X on a Dell without additional help; the Apple ROM. I remember the old hacks of running System 6 on an Amiga 500 computer, it required the Apple ROM and not only the Motorola 68000 processor. Some other hacks were made available to run System 6 on a 286/386 PC with the Apple ROM on an expansion board.

A few years later, when Apple decided to license manufacturing to 3rd parties, manufacturers didn't do a good job and Apple pulled the plug on the licensing. From what I can remember, those manufacturers didn't apply Apple standards in quality control.

If I have the option to buy a Dell and run Mac OS+ROM on it, I'd say no. I would still buy the Apple box because I trust them more and I like their ingenuity..

You think as the new intel macs roll out, apple will reduce the prices of the current g5's? or ibooks or powerbooks?

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++
"The higher you jump on the flagpole, the higher the bonus you receive."

apple is apple, OS X will always run only on a apple machine, microsuck relys on dell, alienware, tiny etc... to sell its computers, apple will continue to make these amazing machines like my imac G5, just they will be faster. I think intel will be making a new chip that is unique to mac OS X only and will not work on any other computer then a apple. If intel decide they will not do this in the future, im sure apple would pull the plug.

I wonder if Apple will take advantage of the Intel compiler? That would rock.

As we now are moving to intel processors, does this mean we will be subject to all the normal pc viruses, or is it the OS that blocks those out for us nowadays?

If i had the time, and the money, looking all around for the perfect PC/or Mac, i would rather invest and put together my own machine. Customized, full features, everything that would make me squeal like a school girl. yeah the iMac G5 20" is definately pretty. Presentation isn't all that is cracked up to be, spit and polish goes only so far for me. $1999 for a medium grade G5 with a dual 2ghz, $2399 for a 2.3ghz, and $2999 for a dualie 2.7ghz. Any computer user should know that mhz, ghz even terahertz only takes you so far. RAM RAM RAM..... i am sure that stock RAM (512) that comes with the G5 only putters around and you cannot feel the power. so for the same price on a dell....err. gateway.... errrrr ..... HP *gag*..... tigerdirect.com.
Case $49.99 "SuperDrive" $59.99 dual processor $229.99 CPU Fan $19.99 Mother Board $119.99 Memory $199.99 Hard Drive $129.99 Video Card $59.99 Case Fan $19.99 Modem/Net $29.99 Dual 15" Monitor $569.99

lets total that.....$889.90 without the monitor Xp pro $139.99
and $1199.99 for CS2
What does this button d.... CRAP!

welcome to the land of heat, noise and overclock...

AMD currently kick intel bu.tt in the toms hardware live stress test

http://www.tomshardware.com/stresstest/index.html

The whole thing may be a political decision. If IBM comes out with a better chip Apple can use that. If Intel comes out with the fastest they can use that as well. Perfect for Apple and for us, Apple fans. I think they may be able to sell both platforms at the same time, can't they?

Just a couple days before this announcement, Intel announced a new DRM integrated into their processors. I'm really surprised that none of the articles i've read have paired these two news items about Intel together. Basically instead of just Windows users being outraged now Apple users should be as well. I'm not really sure how this could even effect Linux users (like me) but it's pretty creepy, totally outragious, and unacceptable.

That just one day after the announcement of the new Intel Macs, several companies have announced that they have already ported their apps. It was also pretty amazing to see they managed to port Mathematica in 2 hours. Even if they have exagerated and it took 20 hours, it's still amazing. I have to admit I would never have betted on this before.

I want a 4Ghz dual PM now!!! :D

I refuse to support DRM and it looks like I will have to move to Linux. DRM is inevitable.

Unfortunately Linux is not a graphic design or music production oriented OS. And don't tell me to use GIMP, it is not for professionals. It doesn't even have CMYK mode! There's WINE and CrossOver but I dunno. Does Linux even have color profiles? I just don't know if I can trust Linux in such a professional industry.

JimD:
It's not just if you are a 'pirate' or not. What if you are using your media and/or computer in a way that Intel and whoever else (Apple, Microsoft, MPAA, etc) approves of? Or if you've enjoyed that mp3 on just one too many computers?

It's really weird -- after the DRM announcement I said to myself, "At least I can buy a mac and install linux it." doh.

Phait:
Try a google search for linux color profile or linux color management. Also little cms seems to be a working option at this time.

For cmyk support in gimp you might want to look at gimp-separate.

http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/pulpit20050609.html

Spoiler:

...That's the story as I see it unfolding. Steve Jobs finally beats Bill Gates. And with the sale of Apple to Intel, Steve accepts the position of CEO of the Pixar/Disney/Sony Media Company.

Remember, you read it here first.