Comments on: Myths of Snow Leopard 1: PowerPC Support

By: What, Where, When, Why & How much - Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard - ThinkTeen Forums

Sat, 13 Sep 2008 12:41:11 +0000

[...] mash up of a series of ongoing articles by Daniel Eran Dilger at roughlydrafted.com Myths of Snow Leopard 1: PowerPC Support June 16th, 2008 Snow Leopard is going to be the first version of Mac OS X that only runs on Intel [...]

By: Myths of Snow Leopard 4: Exchange is the Only New Feature! — RoughlyDrafted Magazine

Tue, 24 Jun 2008 13:20:50 +0000

[...] 2008: New in Mac OS X Snow Leopard Myths of Snow Leopard 1: PowerPC Support — RoughlyDrafted Magazine Myths of Snow Leopard 2: 32-bit Support Myths of Snow Leopard 3: Mac Sidelined for iPhone Myths of [...]

By: SaudiMac » Info about the next Mac OS X, Snow Leopard

SaudiMac » Info about the next Mac OS X, Snow Leopard — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 08:56:24 +0000

[...] here are some links with information about the new cat: Apple’s official Snow Leopard site Myths of Snow Leopard 1: PowerPC Support Myths of Snow Leopard 2: 32-bit Support Snow Leopard confirmed to be Intel [...]

By: Myths of Snow Leopard 2: 32-bit Support — RoughlyDrafted Magazine

Myths of Snow Leopard 2: 32-bit Support — RoughlyDrafted Magazine — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 21:18:12 +0000

[...] - Mac OS X Leopard - Snow Leopard WWDC 2008: Is Mac OS X 10.6 the Death of PowerPC? Myths of Snow Leopard 1: PowerPC Support Omni Software Update [...]

By: unscriptable

unscriptable — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 01:36:42 +0000

“Snow Leopard is going to be the first version of Mac OS X that only runs on Intel Macs.”

Am I the only one that finds this odd (and also a bit disappointing)? I thought Apple was specifically attempting to make OS X processor-independent. First, with PPC and Intel support (aka “Universal”). Then, with ARM support in iPhone and Apple TV.

Furthermore, I assume that Grand Central / OpenCL will support multiple GPUs, not just NVidia’s, right? Then why not support great multi-core processors like PPC 6 and AMD 64 while we’re at it?

I know, I know. It’s all about the resources. But, man, I was hoping we’d finally be breaking out of the Intel monopoly. :-(

By: Avon B7

Avon B7 — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 23:11:09 +0000

We also lack data on how many intel mac owners are also PowerPC mac owners. That data would put things more into perspective.

I am writing this from a Tiger based G4 desktop but I also have an intel mac here. Snow Leopard will not really represent an issue for me as the G4 machine is going to stay on Tiger anyway.

By: hylas

hylas — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 21:59:57 +0000

I’m one of those PowerPC lovers and even though we, as a business, have moved to the latest and greatest Intels, we still have a sizable stable of high end PPCs that won’t be put out to pasture soon. We *just* “lost” quite a few G4s with this last OS (10.5.x) offering, and it would be a bit of a 1 - 2 punch to lose such a chunk of workstations (combined).
I am hoping that 10.6.x will be optimized for PPC, it would be a highly desirable update and a fitting end (EOL) for these wonderful computers.

By: davebarnes

davebarnes — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 19:24:31 +0000

“That means that despite the huge influx of new Intel Macs sold in the last couple years, there is still a large active installed base of PowerPC Mac users to sell Universal Binaries to.”

Maybe or maybe not.
The data that we lack is how much money people with older machines actually spend on software each year.
I suspect (I have no data) that the older the machine, the less that is spent annually on software.
But, I could be completely wrong.
But, if I am right, then developers will be quick to leave the PPC-world behind.

By: WWDC 2008: New in Mac OS X Snow Leopard — RoughlyDrafted Magazine

WWDC 2008: New in Mac OS X Snow Leopard — RoughlyDrafted Magazine — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 17:27:37 +0000

[...] More New Than the Who’s-Who Knew, Too. Of course, there’s a lot more that all this going on in Snow Leopard. In fact, there’s so much that’s new that Apple’s line about “no new features” is a bit misleading. Snow Leopard pushes things ahead in a way that will confuse and befuddle tech pundits used to arranging Apple’s marketing names like refrigerator magnets. The next article will attempt to clear things up with a look at Myths of Snow Leopard. [...]

By: John Muir

John Muir — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 17:22:38 +0000

Brent Simmons – the developer behind NetNewsWire – thinks otherwise re: the general question of supporting PowerPC. Note: he wrote this before any of the Snow Leopard rumours.

http://inessential.com/?comments=1&postid=3486

“But the testing was the big thing. Even though, in the ideal case, another architecture is just a checkbox, you still have to test. And it’s time-consuming — it takes time that could be used to fix more bugs.”

It’s a good little read, but I think he’s taking Omni’s numbers too literally.

Whether the numbers are right or not doesn’t actually matter though. What matters is how many developers feel this way and cut the supply.