Apple to unleash first builds of Snow Leopard since WWDC - Page 2

Logically, that's how it should happen but with Apple it seems to be different. They have switched from OS9 to OS X in 2000 and from PPC to Intel in 2005. These were huge changes - in 5 years, OS 9 apps were made largely obsolete. To switch to Intel-only in 2009 would only mean obsoleting 4 year old hardware and it's not really obsoleting it as it can still be used for the job it was used for the previous years. It's well outside of warranty anyway.


That's what I think a lot of people will do, which is why I think them discontinuing PPC is one of the best things they can do for profit. It will force people who don't want to be left behind to let go of older hardware. When you spread the cost of a new computer over the course of a 4 yearly upgrade, even an entry level Mac Pro will cost about the same as your phone bills over that period of time so it's a fairly inexpensive item.


Magic 8-ball says: All signs point to yes.

I don't think it's explicitly stated that the final version won't have PPC support but the developer release didn't:

http://www.macnn.com/articles/08/06/...rd.intel.only/

If they intended to continue PPC support, I imagine they would have done so from the beginning. Supporting 32-bit and 64-bit is hard enough without adding 32-bit and 64-bit PPC into the mix. Plus they are focussing on optimization and reducing OS X's footprint. The PPC bloat takes up about 2GB:

http://www.cs.rutgers.edu/~pxk/cs/osx-space.html

If their aim is to lower the footprint, this stuff has to go. It'll be interesting to see what stage Snow Leopard is at in terms of performance and footprint.

Supposedly Apple were maintaining internal PPC builds but who knows. They could separate them into two releases - that isn't quite the same as multiple Windows versions as each release only targets one set of hardware.


If they do what I hope they will do and finally go with all dedicated graphics chipsets then I would say yes, you should see a benefit. Not necessarily in 3rd party apps at first but core elements like Quicktime and apps depending on Core libraries. Even in the worst case, if you don't benefit from 10.6, you'll at least benefit from SSE4 in the new processors somewhere.

[QUOTE=GregAlexander;1315965]Yes millions will upgrade anyway. And Apple must be working on making the new system not just stable and ready for the future - but able to use all the old stuff without a hitch. I just don't know enough to say whether that's possible. Apple can rewrite drivers for all their own hardware so that's fine - do peripheral drivers need rewrites? Are there things that can not be made compatible no matter how much effort?[quote]

This is a problem MS has had with their 64 nit version. a completely 64 bit OS needs 64 bit drivers. But MS needed to make those drives (I forget the term) "confirmed" for security purposes, so like apps getting into the new app store, MS has to check them out first. Anyway, there were lots of problems. Hopefully, Apple's model will be better than that. It's great not being first.


I think Apple will do what they always do, try to prevent more than a few things from breaking. I don't see how they can allow major apps like CS4, Office, their own pro apps, etc. to break again. It's way too soon after the last time.


I don't see it as being required. There's a lot of talk about this "breaking" apps by those who apparently don't know what's going on. I just don't see it happening.


MS hs problems that Apple doesn't have right now.

I've been wondering why Apple is refusing to push into enterprise and government with the Mac, they way they seem to be interested in doing with the iPhone platform.

My thoughts are that Apple doesn't want to do that until 10.6 is out. It's different enough that very likely while "standard" apps won't be affected much, the very specialized, and OS dependent business apps that most large companies write for themselves, could be. Also, features in the 10.6 regarding multiple cores will move the OS into bigger servers, and otherwise more powerful machines. Business has not been very receptive to Apple's servers because there is no upgrade path. That's important to them, and until this, the OS hasn't been very multicore friendly.

After 10.6, I really do believe that Apple will push more in that direction.

Yes, all Macs with Core 2 Duo (or later) CPUs will benefit from Snow Leopard.