“It was a ‘Hell-has-finally-frozen-over’ moment: In early June, Steve Jobs stood before the most devout of the Mac faithful, software developers for the Mac, and told them that Mac hardware will be based on Intel CPUs in the future. Even though rumors of the news had been circulating for a few weeks, the announcement still came as a shock, since Intel is so closely associated with Microsoft,” Rebecca Freed writes for PC World.
“It’s a testament to Jobs’s persuasive abilities that the news was accepted with relative equanimity by many Mac users and developers. Presumably, all those developers are now working to port their programs to the new Mac architecture,” Freed writes. “On the whole, I bought the story too, although I know that it won’t all go smoothly. Anyone who owns or is considering buying a Mac has to have questions; these are what I think the answers are.”
Freed asks and answers the following questions:
• Why Did Apple Do This, Anyway?
• When Will I Have to Worry About This?
• Will I Have to Buy a New Mac?
• Will My Old Software Work on the New Macs?
• Will My Old Peripherals Work on the New Macs?
• Will This Mean That Macs Get Cheaper?
• Will the Mac OS Run on a PC, and Windows on a Mac?
Full article here.
Related MacDailyNews articles:
Ars Technica: What the switch to Intel means for Apple – June 07, 2005
Apple’s Intel move not without issues – July 03, 2005
MOOOOOO!!!
The switch will be virtually transparent to the buyer/user. Software and drivers will be prepped and ready. By the time these machines hit the streets, people will have to upgrade software anyway, and the upgrades will likely be for both PPC and Intel users. Example: If you’re running a PPC Mac with Photoshop, you’ll upgrade as usual. If you move to an Intel Mac, Adobe will likely have an upgrade, at the standard upgrade price, that will be available for the transition to Intel.
• Why Did Apple Do This, Anyway?
Kind of irrelevent, no?
• When Will I Have to Worry About This?
What’s to worry about?
• Will I Have to Buy a New Mac?
Eventually, we ALL buy new Macs.
• Will My Old Software Work on the New Macs?
For how long would your old software work with newer PPC-based Macs? You gotta upgrade sometime, regardless. (Also, see upgrade comments above.)
• Will My Old Peripherals Work on the New Macs?
This will likely be a non-issue. Download a new driver, maybe?
• Will This Mean That Macs Get Cheaper?
Why would this ever be a relevent question?
• Will the Mac OS Run on a PC, and Windows on a Mac?
Why would this ever be a relevent question?
Right now the only question that matters is which Mac will get the x86 treatment first. Developer PowerMacs do not count.
One word: Celeron
Next months headline: OS X Coming To An eMachine near you!
Apple users = Morons
I love it when people say crap like “Apple users = Morons”
Translation: I would have bought a Mac, but I’m such a frigging cheapskate, I got this lousy ghetto box instead.”
Not only that, but they wont be celerons you dolt, I bet the cheapest chip they use will have at least 1MB cache.. and most will be dual core… they are using Pentium M architechure wich is based on P3 architechure witch in modern day is the most powerfull AND most efficient chip you can buy.. see bechmarks on toms hardware etc, they are beating out AMD 64s big time at the same or even slower clock speeds, and as a pc user you should already know that the amd64 is faster than the P4s.. Dont knock Pentium M! Its the best chip for mac or peecee today. <– period (if you didnt notice)
and about licensing, IF apple decides to license they would likely go to OEMs like asus etc before a PC company like emachines or dell, its in apples best interest to put those guys out of business, while asus etc on the other hand are clammerintg to be able to produce parts the next ibook or the like from apple, and apple wants to keep them on their good side, also if they license it will be locked down, so you will have to buy Apple Certified hardware. And to get the Apple Certification guess whos bitch your gonna have to be…
Hey Justified,
Apple users = Morons because they spent way to much to run BSD.
Jo Mama,
The Mac Mini WILL be a Celeron. Care to wager?
Steve Jobs,
If someone makes 20x (or more) the money they spend on a machine, I’m not seeing a moron factor there. I could go cheaper, but then again, I could get from point A to point B in a cheap car, I could get laid on a cheap date, I could buy a cheap house, but it would probably be ugly. Cheap can get the job done, but it doesn’t often satisfy one’s sense of quality of living.
Pretty accurate but old news overall. The only thing that was interesting was her supposition that Apple would exert pressure to upgrade by offering features that only work on the new hardware.
I think that to a certain extent this will be true due to the nature of the beast – Windows apps will run better on an intel chip. But I don’t think any software from Apple will be geared to do this. It would alienate their core user base who already have Macs and I don’t think Apple would want to do that. The inherent increased functionality mentioned above should be plenty to motivate people to upgrade.
I would have bought a Mac, but I’m such a frigging cheapskate, I got this lousy ghetto box instead. Translation: I am an arrogant racist slob who believes that I am better than you because I spent more money on my material posessions.
Recently switched over from Windows. I am enthusiastic about having a laptop the same size or smaller than my 12″ powerbook AND being able to run software necessary for my job without an emulator slowing it down. It would be the best of both worlds.
To the Mac faithful, I would suggest adopting a tone of bemused superiority-short of smugness-when dealing with windows users.
To the Windows fanatics-don’t you have spyware to remove or something?
Omnipotent. Translation: Troll
Justified,
I’m a troll because you use terms like “ghetto Box”?
Or is racism “Jusitified”?
Your self-rightous superiority complex is BS. No doubt your s**t don’t stink either. If you define Troll as someone who does not blindly accept the hype (read: crap)
put forth on these Mac cheerleader sites, then yeah I’m a troll. And you are still a moron.
Omnipotent,
As I live in one of many kinds of ghettos, I would never equate “ghetto” with race as you so pathetically have. But hey, whatever you say, I’m sure.
just a few thoughts for those of you worried about mac switching to intel chips.
A) I don’t know about you guys, but i been WAITING for faster laptops for some time now, but with supreme cooling issues, its been dificult.
B) I’m not to sure about this thought, but it just came to me. Would a processor make the difference of Tiger being able to be run on a windows box?
Keep those two thoughts in mind, and now add intel to your mac. Also, with Tiger on WB’s, that sounds like a LOT more swtchers over to our side if ya ask me. Just my two cents.
Justified,
Quote: “If someone makes 20x (or more) the money they spend on a machine, I’m not seeing a moron factor there. I could go cheaper, but then again, I could get from point A to point B in a cheap car, I could get laid on a cheap date, I could buy a cheap house, but it would probably be ugly. Cheap can get the job done, but it doesn’t often satisfy one’s sense of quality of living.”
Must be some kind of “ghetto” to satisfy your quality of living.
*sits and wonders when, and if ever, this will become a place for intelectual people to discuss matters that interest them without someone(s) turning it into a worthless debate over something that is totally irrelevant*