[CS-FSLUG] Apple to drive OpenBIOS support on x86?

[Timothy Butler]

On Jun 11, 2005, at 1:32 AM, Nathan T. wrote:

> Tim, any idea why they made the announcement a year *before* being
> ready to put one Intel based Mac on the market? It seems to me that no
> one is going to buy a Mac now until the first Intel ones in 2006

     Yes, to keep the developers happy. After two past transitions,  
developers have already taken a lot. You don't want to anger them too  
much by announcing the change *after* you start selling systems.

> As if that wasn't bad enough, Apple said they want to phase out PPC
> macs by 2007, who is going to buy a computer that's going to be
> obsolete and possibly unsupported in two years? YDL may start finding
> itself with a large number of new users with otherwise useless PCC
> hardware in two years, probably one of the reasons they decided not fo
> follow Apple over to the Intel side.

     Well, even after Intel systems come out, PPC ones will be more  
desirable until everyone has Universal Binaries. Rosetta isn't going  
to be a speed demon, so a G5 will still be preferable to a Intel  
system unless your app has the fat binary. If your app *does* have a  
fat binary, it will run nice and fast on the Intel system, but it  
will run nice an fast on the PPC system too. Therefore, the PPC  
system will remain superior for awhile.

     Eventually, people will quit making binaries for PPC systems,  
but with a very large install base, expect that to come quite awhile  
after the transition, just like many companies continued to offer OS  
9 compatible Carbonized apps for years after switching to OS X, and  
likewise the M68k switch of the 90's.

     -Tim
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