The rumors are true. Hell has frozen over. Jobs just showed OS 10.4.1 running on an Intel Pentium 4 @ 3.6 Ghz. What we all suspected is true, "Marklar" has indeed been in development for five years now.
I only wonder about porting the software to the Intel architecture. My guess is that Apple has not been happy at all with the PowerPC not being able to hit the 3.0 Ghz threshold, and this is Apple's way of saying the sh** has hit the fan. Lower prices for Apple hardware are soon to come, I would guess. And finally a faster processor in which to run OS X on.
MacCentral is updating their site live from the keynote right now.
Comments (2)
Sorry for my naive-ness and stupidity, but why is this such a big deal? People are calling this the downfall of Apple, but why is a change in chipset this huge?
Posted by Matt Paprocki | June 6, 2005 3:11 PM
Posted on June 6, 2005 15:11
I don't think this is bad for Apple at all. And this is just another place for people to say Apple is going to die.
This is something that should have happened a long time ago. It was rumored five years ago that OS X existed on Intel.
My take is that Apple got the the boiling point with IBM over the PowerPC architecture.
THere were a few questions answered today, but many still remain.
I will update this post later today with some more opinion.
But the big deal is that Intel is an entirely different architecture from PowerPC. Applications will have to be ported, just five years after they were ported to OS X from OS 9. Jobs did say that it will not be like that transition. But I will believe that when I see it.
They have an emulation environment for PowerPC on Intel called Rosetta, which is apparently not like emulating OS 9 in OS X (called Classic). I will believe that when I see it too.
But if anyone can make such a huge transition look and feel seamless, its Apple.
Posted by Ken Edwards | June 6, 2005 4:24 PM
Posted on June 6, 2005 16:24