EXACTLY! If Apple ships Snow Leopard in June, that will be less than 3 years of support for a hardware product. Very Microsoftian if you ask me.
WHAT? Unless you're using the phrase "Microsoftian" as a completely meaningless general insult, this is possibly the exact opposite of something Microsoft would do. Microsoft's problems have been about too much legacy support.
A better example of something "Microsoftian" would be if Apple STILL supported the Motorola 68000 processors and was STILL backwards compatible with classic Mac OS apps in Snow Leopard.
I'm reading many posts about the removal of PPC code is needed to significantly reduce the file size. I recall last year, on AI, that the UB code (32-bit PPC, 64-bit PPC, 32-bit Intel, 64-bit Intel) accounted for little of the app and that it was the exclusion of the unneeded NIB files thy was shown to be the real reason for the app shrinkage.
But you know damn well people with PPC Macs are going to buy SL and expect it to work. Not everyone in the world follows Mac news 24/7.
Apple should just come out and say (perhaps when they release it for pre-order) Snow Leopard will be Intel Mac only. I'm sure developers are up to speed with this already but the agreement they have with Apple prevents them from saying so?
I don't think anyone was so stupid that they bought Leopard without reading the system requirements. No one will be that stupid with Snow Leopard either. If they are that stupid, they shouldn't be using a computer in the first place.
So why doesn't apple just come out and announce it?
And for the record, with 10.5, early developer releases were intel only with PPC support released later in the dev cycle, so that's not evidence of anything.
Because Apple has never announced official system requirements on beta software. Who knows, it may even shut out some early Intel models, especially single-core models. And where is your evidence to prove that Leopard only ran on Intel during development?
The big choice is WHEN to buy an intel mac. Right now the G5 quad can handle everything I need to do. If 10.6 supports it, I can probably go much longer, but if it doesn't, and software follows suit, it can force an upgrade before the machine has lost its usefulness. This is particularly a big question for corporate purchases that are budgeted well in advance.
I just don't get the reasoning for Apple not just coming out and saying that it will be intel only, other than they expect a backlash and are being cowards about it.
I would enjoy taking your Quad G5 if you think software will suddenly stop working once 10.6 arrives. I will get years of use out of it, unless of course the damn thing is leaking coolant. 10.6 is getting optimized, it is not going through drastic changes. Software will still run just fine on Leopard. Software still runs on Tiger too.
WHAT? Unless you're using the phrase "Microsoftian" as a completely meaningless general insult, this is possibly the exact opposite of something Microsoft would do. Microsoft's problems have been about too much legacy support.
A better example of something "Microsoftian" would be if Apple STILL supported the Motorola 68000 processors and was STILL backwards compatible with classic Mac OS apps in Snow Leopard.
I was using Microsoftian in the totalitarian/dictator sense. I realized the possible confusion in my statement, as I am well aware of their albatross of legacy support, after I posted, but I was at work and unable to edit my post.
I don't think Apple will drop Rosetta support in any version of Mac OS X. Even though Snow Leopard won't run on PowerPC hardware, it should still support PowerPC emulation for older software programs. A lot of people don't have money to invest in new versions, or may prefer an older version of a program. Even when they transitioned to PowerPC from the 68040, Mac OS 8.5 dropped 68040 Macs and only ran on PowerPC's, but the Mac OS still ran 680x0 software all the way through Mac OS 9.2.2. The Rosetta emulation for PowerPC is completely different than trying to continue support for the Classic Mac OS. They can easily retain Rosetta support.
Ok this is very good to know... it may give me the confidence to wait for a Rev2 of the Macbook or MB air with snow leopard in it.
Comments
EXACTLY! If Apple ships Snow Leopard in June, that will be less than 3 years of support for a hardware product. Very Microsoftian if you ask me.
WHAT? Unless you're using the phrase "Microsoftian" as a completely meaningless general insult, this is possibly the exact opposite of something Microsoft would do. Microsoft's problems have been about too much legacy support.
A better example of something "Microsoftian" would be if Apple STILL supported the Motorola 68000 processors and was STILL backwards compatible with classic Mac OS apps in Snow Leopard.
But you know damn well people with PPC Macs are going to buy SL and expect it to work. Not everyone in the world follows Mac news 24/7.
Apple should just come out and say (perhaps when they release it for pre-order) Snow Leopard will be Intel Mac only. I'm sure developers are up to speed with this already but the agreement they have with Apple prevents them from saying so?
I don't think anyone was so stupid that they bought Leopard without reading the system requirements. No one will be that stupid with Snow Leopard either. If they are that stupid, they shouldn't be using a computer in the first place.
No surprises here. iMovie '08 didn't run on PPC Macs either. This is not a new trend.
iMovie '08 does run on PowerPC Macs. You need a 1.8 G5 or faster.
So why doesn't apple just come out and announce it?
And for the record, with 10.5, early developer releases were intel only with PPC support released later in the dev cycle, so that's not evidence of anything.
Because Apple has never announced official system requirements on beta software. Who knows, it may even shut out some early Intel models, especially single-core models. And where is your evidence to prove that Leopard only ran on Intel during development?
The big choice is WHEN to buy an intel mac. Right now the G5 quad can handle everything I need to do. If 10.6 supports it, I can probably go much longer, but if it doesn't, and software follows suit, it can force an upgrade before the machine has lost its usefulness. This is particularly a big question for corporate purchases that are budgeted well in advance.
I just don't get the reasoning for Apple not just coming out and saying that it will be intel only, other than they expect a backlash and are being cowards about it.
I would enjoy taking your Quad G5 if you think software will suddenly stop working once 10.6 arrives. I will get years of use out of it, unless of course the damn thing is leaking coolant. 10.6 is getting optimized, it is not going through drastic changes. Software will still run just fine on Leopard. Software still runs on Tiger too.
WHAT? Unless you're using the phrase "Microsoftian" as a completely meaningless general insult, this is possibly the exact opposite of something Microsoft would do. Microsoft's problems have been about too much legacy support.
A better example of something "Microsoftian" would be if Apple STILL supported the Motorola 68000 processors and was STILL backwards compatible with classic Mac OS apps in Snow Leopard.
I was using Microsoftian in the totalitarian/dictator sense. I realized the possible confusion in my statement, as I am well aware of their albatross of legacy support, after I posted, but I was at work and unable to edit my post.
I don't think Apple will drop Rosetta support in any version of Mac OS X. Even though Snow Leopard won't run on PowerPC hardware, it should still support PowerPC emulation for older software programs. A lot of people don't have money to invest in new versions, or may prefer an older version of a program. Even when they transitioned to PowerPC from the 68040, Mac OS 8.5 dropped 68040 Macs and only ran on PowerPC's, but the Mac OS still ran 680x0 software all the way through Mac OS 9.2.2. The Rosetta emulation for PowerPC is completely different than trying to continue support for the Classic Mac OS. They can easily retain Rosetta support.
Ok this is very good to know... it may give me the confidence to wait for a Rev2 of the Macbook or MB air with snow leopard in it.