June 6, 2005 18:56
GPSNavX Wrote:Time will tell if this is a good move for Apple. I think they are now pitting themselves against the low cost Wintel clone makers. It's just a matter of time before someone has OS X running on a Dell. So then the question becomes why pay extra for Apple hardware? Maybe that is the goal is to offer an alternative to Windows and Linux.
I don't know about that. Most people are assuming that a move to Intel processors means that Apple is going to move to the standard (a term I use loosely) wintel motherboards which is not what I heard. Let's not forget that the same PPC chips that we have been using in our Macs are used for all sorts of other applications: everything from powering the systems in a lot of automobiles (PPC 601 was and may still be standard in most Ford vehicles) and the Mars Rovers (Ruggedized 603s if I remeber correctly) and IBM uses them in many servers which soes not mean that those servers can run OS X.
The real question here has little to do with the actual processors and more to do with the motherboard. The really interesting thing to see will be whether or not OS X actually runs faster than Windows on an equivalent processor. The comparisons will seem a little less apples to oranges and a little more Granny Smith to Golden Delicious now. In any case, for the vast majority of mac users I would imagine that the reaction will be "As long as it still runs as well as my old Mac ..."