Questions about leopard
I will be purchasing an intel iMac in October and have a question relating to Rosetta and Leopard.
Currently, if you want to run a lot of mac software on tiger at native speeds (for intel machines) you must buy and download universal updates (such as for prologic) so it will not have to run the Rosetta emulator software (which runs apps much slower).
However, when Leopard is released won't rosetta become obselete (at least I am hoping). In other words leopard should be able to use the intel chips and all/most apple software at native speeds right?
My main reasoning for this question is that since it will only be a matter of 2-4 months I have to wait after purchase until leopard is realeased shouldn't I just wait for leopard instead of updating software to be universal. In other words, this would be a waste of money right?
Sorry if this is confusing. I am a bit confused myself.
Currently, if you want to run a lot of mac software on tiger at native speeds (for intel machines) you must buy and download universal updates (such as for prologic) so it will not have to run the Rosetta emulator software (which runs apps much slower).
However, when Leopard is released won't rosetta become obselete (at least I am hoping). In other words leopard should be able to use the intel chips and all/most apple software at native speeds right?
My main reasoning for this question is that since it will only be a matter of 2-4 months I have to wait after purchase until leopard is realeased shouldn't I just wait for leopard instead of updating software to be universal. In other words, this would be a waste of money right?
Sorry if this is confusing. I am a bit confused myself.
Comments
Originally posted by Dunebug38
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However, when Leopard is released won't rosetta become obselete (at least I am hoping). In other words leopard should be able to use the intel chips and all/most apple software at native speeds right?
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No, Rosetta will not be obsolete--not even close. Take one major software developer, Microsoft. Microsoft's productivity suite Office 2004 is not Universal Binary. They probably won't be Universal Binary until 2008--if then.
Take another major developer, Adobe. Adobe's applications are not Universal Binary. Microsoft, you can understand. It wants world domination. But, Adobe's bread and butter is Macintosh apps. Still it drags its heals.
Then there are the users. A lot of users are perfectly happy with their PPC apps and don't want to update just because they buy a new machine. Those old apps are going to run under Rosetta.
Long story short, Rosetta will be with us for a very long time.
Originally posted by Dunebug38
Currently, if you want to run a lot of mac software on tiger at native speeds (for intel machines) you must buy and download universal updates (such as for prologic) so it will not have to run the Rosetta emulator software (which runs apps much slower).
First, the OS version doesn't effect whether or not an application runs natively or not. That depends on the application. Universal or Intel Only applications will run natively. A PPC application requires Rosetta for both Tiger and Leopard.
Second, from all accounts the speed hit is nil. With the exception of a couple of high power, cpu intensive applications, you may not notice any slowdown at all. -- Even the most complained about app, Photoshop, is said to be acceptable for the occasional use.
And finally like Chucker said. Most apps are currently Universal. So unless your updating from an older PPC with a lot of old software you should be ok.
What are your thoughts?