Heartland

I'm just wondering what all you Mac zealots think about the announcement of Mac moving to and Intel platform? Does it change anything for you?

I find the idea of being able to run windoze on mac kit almost appealing.

Who cares? There were two good OSs for PPC, now there are two good OSs for x86. Nothing's changed

*runs and hides from the BSD/Solaris zealots*

Nothing changes really does it? Same OS, same box, same design. What makes an Apple and Apple isn't the make of the processor.

That's my understanding anyway although I'd be interested to know if I'm wrong.

What makes an Apple is Aqua, the stringent UI design requirements and the minimal hardware support. If only windows supported a somewhat fixed set of hardware, the world of drivers would be a much better place.

I don't have enough insight into the innards of any computer to say wether this changes anything or not. All I know for sure is that my mac is a cute little baby that is far more likely to do what I want it to than any PC...

Of course after this switch it is a PC.

Motz wrote:What makes an Apple is Aqua, the stringent UI design requirements and the minimal hardware support. If only windows supported a somewhat fixed set of hardware, the world of drivers would be a much better place.

A fixed set of hardware? I think it is one of the great pro's of a Windows (or most OS'es except for Mac) you can put whatever hardware you like in your PC, I like choosing the brands for every part of my PC I like best... But, that only goes if you're buying a non-branded pc...

Plus: a couple of months ago, my niece (or cousin, whatever the diff is) asked me to fix something on her iBook... Now I just luuuurve the design of the machine (really do), but, hated the functionality, it didn't get me anywhere near to fixing the bloody thing

Meanwhile: The brand new XBox G5

Obviousman wrote:Plus: a couple of months ago, my niece (or cousin, whatever the diff is) asked me to fix something on her iBook... Now I just luuuurve the design of the machine (really do), but, hated the functionality, it didn't get me anywhere near to fixing the bloody thing

A cousin is your Uncle/Aunt's kid and is non-gender specific.
A niece is your brother/sister's daughter

back to Macs.

This means there's now another *nix based OS for the Intel platform. Discuss.

hallucienate wrote:This means there's now another *nix based OS for the Intel platform. Discuss.

I found it quite interesting that Apple have moved to an OS which was based on one developed for PCs (*nix), and now are changing their processors to the PC's x86 architecture.

Extrapolating from that, the 'Apple Mac' will soon be a PC pre-loaded with a specific *nix distro (OS XI?), and painted in a pretty colour and costing twice the price, of course

Obviousman wrote:A fixed set of hardware? I think it is one of the great pro's of a Windows (or most OS'es except for Mac) you can put whatever hardware you like in your PC, I like choosing the brands for every part of my PC I like best... But, that only goes if you're buying a non-branded pc...

I have nothing against being able to choose hardware. However, from a programming point of view, when the OS designer knows which range of hardware you're going to be using, they can optimize performance far more easily, rather than just aiming for the base line of i386 processor, NE200 network card and GeForce 2 gfx card. My computer is only a 667mhz Celeron, but it completely outstrips the performance of my dad's 2 ghz Athlon for the simple reason that all of my software was compiled for my specific hardware setup (I run Gentoo Linux) whereas his fell to the whim of some random developer in Redmond.

Obviously, compiling for the specific hardware isn't possible with a closed source OS, which is why I think Apple have the right idea - give them a fixed range of hardware and make the software work excellently with that rather than filling it with nasty hacks to make the naffest of hardware work at all.

You can already run virtual PC on a MAc - no problem. The only difference is that the Apple programmers have to reset the whole thing to have run properly with the new chipset. That is probably going to cause a few problems with the updates on the OS. Other then that OS X is great, much more fluid and easier to use. Now if only there was a proper Flash projecter for it constructed.

I think today's Ctrl Alt Delete says it all

I'd have thought "Fisher Price 'My First Computer'" would better describe the patronizing default visuals of Windows XP. Guess not

Ctrl alt delete is always right about everything. fact.
just ask Chef Brian

Well, I use both, though the PC is native - simple thought is that Apple have shot themselves in the foot somewhat as many people will put off the purchase of a new Mac till the chips change in a year or so.

Also, they are not being clear on how long the software will support the old chips which smacks a little of what Microsnot have been accused of for so long...

Plus ca change....