Maybe I've had my head in a whole for the last couple of years, (as this has apparantly been a rumor before) but my friend just forwarded a link to an article saying that Steve Jobs is expected to announce another architecture change for Apple... From IBM's PPC to Intel X86 tomorrow morning.

If this pans out, what do you think it will entail for Apple? Does this spell the end of proprietary hardware for them, or do you think they'll cling to their flashy boxen with an X86 port of OSX?

I think they're shooting themselves in the foot here. I don't see a way to hang on to their traditional business model and move over to X86. Are new Apple apps going to come unrunnable on the older PPC arch?

On the other hand, this may open people's eyes to the fact that X86 != Windows. Apple may drop the hardware game except for their beloved iPod type accessories and focus totally on software. I think it's an interesting change coming up.

--Shade

Linky: http://apnews.excite.com/article/200...D8AHMP9G0.html

I hope they don't. From what I can see it's not the brightest move but I seriously doubt they'd do it unless they had some tricky up their sleeve. Either that or it's just a marketting ploy...

can we now expect OSX on x86? ive read about marklar for years now, but ive also recently read about apple having an x86 port of final cut pro suite that runs on "marklar".

how many of you would switch from linux to osx in this case?

Depends on the price...

I probably wouldn't switch to OS X but I'd certainly be switching my parents. They still use Windows for some software that doesn't work under Wine or Crossover but there is a Mac version...

As far as I've read. There is reason to believe they will switch to an Intel processor. However, there is no reason to believe they would switch completely to PC hardware, There are more differences between PC and mac hardware than the CPU. I wouldn't expect them to start making neither PCs nor PC software. AS far as i know changing the CPU would't require much more than a recompilation of the hardware, so i'd expect most recent software to be ported

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory?id=824152

It's official.

Sounds like a great idea. They can take the Intel Processors, the FreeBSD/Linux Operating system, put in a cute little underpowered box and over charge for it. Wait, they have almost done that already, except for the processor

Seriously, though. I found it amusing. What apple has been fighting for the last years is practically lost, the PPC architecture. It's just as funny as if MS would start supporting Open Source

my question is why. isnt the MAC CPU better and faster then anything Intel offers... or so the advertisements say

:P

i personally do not like it, it smells more like Bill Gates putting the squeeze on Apple as a 'favor' for their buy out back in the 80/90s

Yes, but doesnt this open the door for home built apple systems just like the PC, and allow apple to license its OS like MS does and in turn allows more systems to be home built and by the small computer shops and such? I would love to be able to build an apple system.

you can allready build your own mac! every part is available even the boot rom is now part a file on the os. personaly I think that apple using intel sucks! this is because they are having trouble with IBM who makes the powerpc chips (one of the reasons that there is still no g5 powerbook) I'm on a P4 now and this will be my last intel based computer for sure.

Hmmm.... didnt know that, I will have to look into that. Great, not another computer

doesnt this just mean that intel will manufacture powerpc's instead of motorola or IBM?

afterall,

http://images.apple.com/lae/powermac...ne01222002.gif