“If Snow Leopard is all about a bedrock for the future of computing, why do so many people still call for their legacy hardware to be supported?” Seamus Byrne asks for APC Magazine.
“The focus of Snow Leopard is on core upgrades, not shiny new features. A bedrock focused update that delivers a streamlined, enhanced OS X. Stability. Efficiency. A ‘new generation of core technologies,'” Byrne writes. “All this is about raising the floor on the entire system. Multi-core optimisation, support for 16TB RAM (yes, Terabytes), and a language to allow developers to tap the power of the graphics processor are just a few of the key upgrades. But you can’t lift the floor and let people walk around where the floor used to be all at the same time.”
“The shift to Intel coincided with the greatest leap in processing power this decade, as Core Duo chips left the competition far behind. Back in 2006, video editing tests at Creative Mac showed a Core Duo MacBook (entry level, not a MacBook Pro) was directly comparable to Dual G5 desktops of the day,” Byrne writes. “Laggards, you have two options: suck it up and join the future, or leave the rest of us to enjoy the spoils of progress. Cutting legacy support should be applauded and embraced…”
“Accept it, folks. You’re on old hardware, the clock is ticking… and Apple isn’t Microsoft with its eternal legacy support at the expense of OS advancement,” Byrne writes.
More in the full article here.
Hey guess what? I will continue to use my “old” PPC hardware until you have to pull it from my cold dead hands!! (Or until they come out with a Macbook Pro with a 1 TB SSD.)
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what a TB?? Why not just wait for the pedabyte??
You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to figure that out.
PowerPC users, keep using those computers for as long as they run, until they’re 6 years old. They are great machines. Then it’s time for a new Mac.
Should read , “Why a TB, why not just wait for the PB??”
One of the days I will learn to shit and type on this iPhone at the same time.
nothing wrong with my G4’s……it’s just that my Mac Pro is like a Ferrari.
Bring it on. Do it now – you’re going to be dead a long time.
What about the G5 PowerBook?
“Why not just wait for the pedabyte??”
Leave the little kids alone.
I agree with this article, BUT probably still a full third of the Macs out there are running on PowerPC chips.
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, 10.7 or even 10.8 should have been the cutoff from a consumer’s perspective. Then again, Apple has a lot of folks smarter than me running the show.
And, no, I don’t want the future of the OS held back by legacy stuff. I just want stuff I bought a couple of years not to be considered legacy.
This is spot-on. Sorry, G4 users, but you will be left behind with plenty of good stuff fully available for your machines. Food will be dropped from Dharma every month. You’ll be OK.
Progress requires sacrifice, and legacy support has indeed been MS (and Intel’s) undoing. Where is multi-threaded / multi-core Windows? NOWHERE.
Classic example: since the beginning of time, formatting a drive of any kind in any OS puts you in a dead wait state. Why? With a multi-core OS this should never be. But there is no true multi-core OS out there. Perhaps Snow Leopard could be a step in that direction.
This is why Apple is technologically lightyears ahead of Microsoft: they are not afraid to drop support for legacy hardware/software when it is time to do so.
It’s funny to see the comment about Microsoft viz a viz legacy.. Isn’t Vista impossible to run on anything but a top spec’d current PC??
Sounds much worse than Apple forgoing PPC which they stopped selling back in 2006.
Thank you for participating in the Apple Power PC OS X Beta. Please hand over another 3K in order to use the real OS X.
Have a nice day.
@Mid WestMac, I understand your concern, but really, can you expect improvements to continue to be made to your Mac for MORE than 2 years into the future?
After all, it isn’t as though it will stop working when Snow Leop is launched.
What’s the big deal? It’s not like time has stopped since Snow Leopard has been announced. PPC G4/G5 computers can run Leopard for the foreseeable future. Apple will provide plenty of updates to benefit those PPC users. Heck, Apple still puts out 10.3 updates from time to time…
Keep using your PPC Mac until it doesn’t do the job for you anymore.
“Isn’t Vista impossible to run on anything but a top spec’d current PC??”
impossible to run on “top spec’d” too.
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ha!
I agree with the article, and surely the PowerPC systems will still run Leopard as well as they ever did.
Even if they did offer this to PowerPC systems, what would be the point?
16TB RAM? No point.
Multi-Core optimisation? No point.
OpenCL? Dunno, any point?
Since PowerPC systems will not benefit from (m)any of the advances, it’s a great opportunity to leave those systems ‘behind’, running Leopard, which most people here believe is the best OS there is to date and surely has enough years of value left in it. My laptop is a PowerBook and I’m happy to leave it with Leopard while I upgrade the other systems.
I’m retired. I walk dogs for pocket change. I like my Dual G5. It gets the job done for me. I don’t want to upgrade. I don’t need to upgrade. I can’t AFFORD to upgrade.
Maybe, if they stuff a Quad in an iMac, I can afford that. Or if they finally come out with a Mac midi – a much less expansive, and expensive, “tower” set between the Pro and the mini. It will take more than just “Snow Leopard” and a faster CPU to hook me. Another couple of cores at a lower price point might be enough. Must walk more dogs!
MD I think you have forgotten about the G5 which is PPC with mutlicores. There was a Quad G5 before there was a Quad Mac Pro.
Wanker. Easy to say if you don’t own one.
My 8 year old hardware is fine for what it does – iTunes server, email, surfing online, and full time @folding machine.
Not so easy to upgrade if you are out of a job and have limited funds.
“Not so easy to upgrade if you are out of a job and have limited funds.”
So don’t upgrade already! I can’t afford a new car. Guess what? I’ll make do with my old one.
If Obaminate wins you’ll get an upgrade for free, even on welfare.
So, a complete overhaul and optimization for TODAY’S and tomorrow’s hardware will be well worth the effort. Yes, it will cause some pain for many by not being able to upgrade to the latest OS. Ultimately it’s the right move.
Apple has managed to establish the OS lead by cutting ties to older hardware standards and embracing the new. Snow Leopard will leave Vista and Windows 7 (whenever that appears, if ever) further back in the dust!
Where would Macs be today if the had clung to floppies, Nu-Bus, ADB, serial ports, PC Cards and SCSI?
I’ve done some unscientific rendering tests with the same VectorWorks 2008 files on my MacBook Pro 2.4 and a 2.4 (?) PowerMac Quad G5. The difference is astounding, probably about 3 times the speed with the MBP. I can live with that… for now.
jonahan, you’re correct, I was forgetting that.
So there would be value in working on PowerPC systems, but would dual core optimisations apply to both architectures, or would you have to do all the work twice, separately for each? In which case I could see why they might not think it worthwhile. Especially with so many people saying such things are not worth paying for, and should be free updates!