Ben Rosenberg wrote:
On 9/17/05, Fred A. Miller
wrote: On the other hand, I'm not sure I agree that the PPC has become an unacceptable processor for Apple's purposes. Apple's stated reason, that the power consumption characteristics of available processors were a problem in designing portable computers, rings hollow to me. Just a few days after Apple's announcement of the switch to x86 there was an announcement from IBM / Motorola of a lower-power PPC chip meant for portable uses.
Randall, maybe you or someone else knows for sure exactly what the differences will be, IF Apple is being honest about it, between a "normal" Intel spec. box and an Apple "approved" box.
It will be Apple approved hardware... why do you think they are using the EFI firmware and the those damn TPM modules. :(
They said OS X will only run on their branded machines but it wouldn't preclude someone from running Windows on it. If you look at the last couple articles on OS X for Intel then binary files compiled for 10.4.2 (new dev release) will not run on the first dev. release.. so who knows what will happen on the final release shiped on Mactels.
I can say this.. I doubt that OS X will run on any old Dell or whitebox... and if it does it wouldn't be supported at all. It would be a support nightmare.. and since PC makers do the support and NOT Microsoft directly... I wouldn't rail on Apple to want to keep the hardware configs high and tight so they can support it.
Ah well. Tis all speculation anyway.
-Ben
Speculation indeed, but I think Apple are after 2 things, a greater margin on their x86 boxes and more unit sales, the second of these seems to put them back where they were with Power, Apples for Apple loyalists. Taking Sun as an example, their x86 boxes aren't shifting Solaris x86, they are largely shifting Linux, but at least they bring in revenue which Apple won't be able to emulate unless they will also support Windows -- MS definitely won't on those boxes. Regards Sid. -- Sid Boyce ... Hamradio License G3VBV, licensed Private Pilot Retired IBM/Amdahl Mainframes and Sun/Fujitsu Servers Tech Support Specialist Microsoft Windows Free Zone - Linux used for all Computing Tasks