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Report: Pixar switching to Apple’s Mac OS X on Power Mac G5s

Wednesday, March 10, 2004 · 9:11 pm · 27 Comments

“Pixar is switching to Mac OS X and will be using Power Mac G5s for its work, according to a MacNN reader who attended Apple’s Uncompressed for Final Cut Pro seminar in New York on Wednesday morning. In his Keynote presentation, Apple’s Don Peebeles said that Pixar has used Linux and Intel-based architecture in 2003, but that Pixar was switching to Mac OS X and G5 workstations for its production work: “Peebles went on to say that this switch was ‘a move that no doubt made common CEO Steve Jobs very happy,’” MacNN.com reports.

The Pixlet CODEC developed by Pixar and Apple apparently helped to seal the deal – along with Mac OS X and Apple’s Power Mac G5.

Full article here.

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Comment Feed

27 Comments

1 2 Next »

baukunst

Wednesday, March 10, 2004 - 10:22 pm · Reply

as it should be
IONLYUSEOSX

Wednesday, March 10, 2004 - 11:01 pm · Reply

Did someone say quad G5 clusters? Render the next Monsters Inc. in one day. =)
Steven Georges

Wednesday, March 10, 2004 - 11:03 pm · Reply

To fulfill its contract with Disney, Pixar should deliver to them “Bob the Potato Chip,” “Bob the Potato Chip 2 ,” and “Bob the Potato Chip 3.” Disney just loves sequels.
rogozhin

Wednesday, March 10, 2004 - 11:18 pm · Reply

Now, if they only knew someone who could get them an employee discount…
okcalla

Wednesday, March 10, 2004 - 11:31 pm · Reply

i see major innovations in apple graphics chip designs.
Sputnik

Thursday, March 11, 2004 - 12:00 am · Reply

How sweet a company that Mr Jobs is the CEO of uses a Apple product.
Big Deal…
Take a look around at the real world of video production and MS is No. 1.
Multi-screen setups with fast video cards the Apple products don’t even come close. And what about the noise problems on the audio of the G5′s; they may look cool but NOBODY is using them.
�
Bill Gates

Thursday, March 11, 2004 - 12:07 am · Reply

Sputnik,

Thanks for the boost. Your $1 Trolling fee is in the mail.
tumok

Thursday, March 11, 2004 - 1:32 am · Reply

I’m going to pretend that I’m Sputnik, it’s a year ago, and the topic is the iPod and iTunes music store:

How Sweet, Apple want’s to break into the portable music market.
Big Deal…
Take a look around at the real world of portable audio and WMA is number 1.
Various portable music players that all support Windows. Apple doesn’t even come close. The iPod may look cool but NOBODY is using them.
�

Hehe…. the future is closer than you think, Sputnik.
JadisOne

Thursday, March 11, 2004 - 1:52 am · Reply

Tumok, that was funny.

Switching to Macintosh computers and OS X was just a natural progression for Pixar. Now they can make twice as many movies in half the time.
Ashan McNealy

Thursday, March 11, 2004 - 2:05 am · Reply

I like trolls. they get the juice going.

if you don’t like macs you are either ignorant or a bitter virgin.
NoPCZone

Thursday, March 11, 2004 - 2:14 am · Reply

If PIXAR is not “real production” what is?
Avid is the most used in local-yokel TV and in Newsrooms and FYI it runs on Macintosh and Windoze. In Hollywood LINUX and Macintosh reign supreme. Nobody in their right mind would trust the crash-happy PC for high dollar video/mopic poduction. Delude yourself if you wish, but a PC is a at it’s best as a glorified typewriter with a lousy browser and e-mail client. The Windows platform sucks so bad that Micro$ofopoly has spawned a huge industry cleaning up the mess left in the wake of “trustworthy computing”. Norton, McAfee and others have made a ton dealing with the most insecure consumer computer prouct ever launched.
shadowself

Thursday, March 11, 2004 - 2:23 am · Reply

All I have to say is two things:
1) It’s about time!
2) Apple better ramp up production of the XServes! (A large Pixar render farm is going to eat up many of them [not to mention the conversion of the System X supercomputer at VTech]).
Harry

Thursday, March 11, 2004 - 4:08 am · Reply

So..the Macs were not that good as we thought !
One guy from Finland

Thursday, March 11, 2004 - 4:26 am · Reply

Move on.. No news here.
Of course Pixar uses Apple computers.

NoPCZone
Agree with you. Nobody uses Avid+PC with Video. With Audio we some times have to use Avid = ProTools. Then again ProTools runs on Os X. So no PC there.

Sorry NoPCZone, but I will borrow these;
“crash-happy PC”. (I have to remember that.) LOL
“PC is a at it’s best a glorified typewriter with a lousy browser and e-mail client”. (Typewriter does not crash and paper does not have worms.)
Sol

Thursday, March 11, 2004 - 5:34 am · Reply

Now that Pixar is commiting to OS X we shall see what technology comes out of it. Given that no high-end 3D cards are supported on the Mac, Pixar will most likely use their new Apples in a renderfarm.
Dave H

Thursday, March 11, 2004 - 6:25 am · Reply

One guy “Agree with you. Nobody uses Avid+PC with Video.”

Sorry to disagree, but I know of two satellite TV channels here in London that do just that.

I bet they really wanted Macs, but Andersen Consulting (or whatever they are called now) proved how wonderful PCs were, then charged them a �30k fee, f**ked up their network, and disappeared without leaving any documentation about the installation. Not that I’m saying Andersen’s do that all the time, just every time I’ve come into contact with them.
old news

Thursday, March 11, 2004 - 6:36 am · Reply

OLD NEWS. REPORTED IN OCTOBER 2003.
Vernosaurus

Thursday, March 11, 2004 - 7:33 am · Reply

Took Steve long enough to convince his own company to buy Apple computers….
Shabaz

Thursday, March 11, 2004 - 10:52 am · Reply

Well, if you come out with a great product (g5) people will want to buy it. The G4…that’s another story.

Pixlet is a codec derived from an older codec, so, whoopdeedoo.

If I’m not mistaken, Renderman and Marionet look the same on both X86 hardware or PPC, so that’s not an issue.

“twice as many movies in half the time. ” …movies aren’t like cars…just because you have fast hardware doesn’t mean you can just pump them out.
And show me where a G5 is 4 times faster than any other comparably priced hardware. (I know g5 cluster #3, but Opteron cluster #6)

As to the Avid….Many movies are edited on avid, such as brother where art thou, the matrixes(though lacking in story), American Beauty, et al. In fact, editing with final cut pro is a pretty new undertaking, that’s why apple features stories about movies that do. Full frontal, Cold mountain, a few others.

NoPCzone, do you have any hard facts to back up what you’re saying, or are you like O’reily’s “nospinzone” where he can’t come up with a logical string of thought to save his life? You give opinion, I want facts. If indeed they are facts, please cite specific examples, and don’t give me the old “I use a pc at work, so I know all about them” or “my friend had an emachines, and it was terrible.”

For those who want to bring up ‘shake,’ well, apple didn’t come up with it, apple didn’t create it’s reputation.

As much as you guys love to bash x86, it’s a decent architecture. Windoze (sic) isn’t that great, but it’s funny how all your ‘windoze crashes all the time’ stories are either about a friend who has spyware and shit programs installed up to his ears (even OS X will be flaky if you have poorly written programs. The reason yours sails along is that you only run the iApps, Adobe and Macromedia products (and konfabulaor)), or your stories are about your mom who has either windows 98 or an emachines. And FYI only once has a hack been released before the security patch. What? you say, only apple releases fixes “before it’s too late.” You guys talk about “FUD”…I see it all day long in these news posts. I know I am a “troll” but what fun is preaching to the choir in other forums? Apple is superior in many respects (excluding price of desktops), but they way you talk about windows you’d think it was the plague
(typical response: “it is the plague, stop spreading your ‘FUD.’”)
Trevor7578

Thursday, March 11, 2004 - 11:24 am · Reply

Shabaz,

Where are your facts? You’re spouting off about how no one here ever uses any facts but I don’t see one fact coming from you. Why don’t you elaborate on your points with actual facts to prove them if you’re going type that kind of crap?
The Man

Thursday, March 11, 2004 - 11:30 am · Reply

Shabaz, you think your arguments hold water? Pixlet is new. It does what it does better than anything else on the planet by far. There has not been many original ideas in the past 100 years or so. So what is your point? Pixlet is new, or they would have been using it before. You talk like a Republican apologist explaining away WMD.

FinalCut Pro has done a few others? How about Lord of the Rings Return of the King? Huh? That’s no small potatos. The video guy I work with is still skeptical of FCP, but he’s been an Avid user for years. Give Apple time. He’s coming over to FCP slowly but surely.

Oh, and your Opteron cluster is way slower and cost way more.

Straw men seem to be your specialty.
Shabaz

Thursday, March 11, 2004 - 12:02 pm · Reply

I didn’t say it was small potatos. I also reference Cold mountain and full frontal, so I’m not bashing FCP, Calm down. What I was saying was that NoPCZone was talking about AVID as if it were windows movie maker.

As to my points with actual facts:

G5 is a much better product than a G4, am I right there? The hardware they use (DDR, Hypertransport, PCI-x) has much more value than Motorola’s G4 architecture, even you can’t deny that.

As to my “arguement” on pixlet, I just said “whoopdeedoo.” Technology is improving all the time, of course, and they all build upon older research. The idea of wavelets has been around since the early 1800′s and there are many other companies that Have wavelet based technology, (including lead, and bink video) A natural progession of technology is hardly a revolution, especially when apple is trying so hard to seed themselves into hollywood. That’s hardly lying the the country about nonexistant weapons in order to force a hamhanded regime change in the Islam dominated middle east.

About the windows patch release and exploits: I would ask you to go to the BBC for that http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/3485972.stm

As for your expertise on windows, just read the rest of the postings on this site, “my mom has a pc that sucks” “my friend has this pc” “I use a pc at work.” Well you know what? I use a windows box AND a 15″ powerbook, so I’d say I’ve got a one up on most of you guys.

So there are my facts..where are yours.
Shabaz

Thursday, March 11, 2004 - 12:12 pm · Reply

“You’re spouting off about how no one here ever uses any facts but I don’t see one fact coming from you”

First off, I wasn’t aware I needed facts just becasue I was asking for some from someone else…Secondly, on the points I was making where I needed facts, I believe I provided them, then I elaborated on them in the subsequent post. I think you should brush up on your reading skillz, dawg.
AjaxBruno

Thursday, March 11, 2004 - 4:04 pm · Reply

The 3D department at the Academy of Art College has been using SGIs and Win 2000 machines. Old news. Now they are making some changes to the curriculum, adding Macs and phasing out the SGIs. If other schools out there are doing the same, the next generation of computer animators will be a little different.

BTW, the Motion Picture and Television department uses all their programs on Macs, too. (Media 100, Avid, FCP,…)
Boeing777

Thursday, March 11, 2004 - 5:29 pm · Reply

I’ll pretend to be Bill Gates addressing Sputnick a year later.

“You remember the cheque of 1$ we sent you? We need that money back as quickly as possible. Thank you.”