Apple finalizes PowerPC divorce with OS upgrade
This story has been corrected. See below for details.
Apple, a company that's rarely namby-pamby about making technological changes, has put its foot down once again with its Snow Leopard upgrade to Mac OS X due in September.
When the new operating system arrives in September, it'll work only on Intel-based Macs. That means Mac OS X 10.5, aka Leopard, will be the end of the line for those with Macs that use PowerPC processors.
Though the move led to some teeth-gnashing among those who felt left behind, it's not unreasonable in practice.
First, it was four years ago that Apple first told the world it was switching from PowerPC chips to Intel's x86 chips. Even though PowerPC models arrived afterward and the first Intel-based Macs didn't start arriving until 2006, three years is still a long time in computing history. Anyone who hadn't upgraded by now isn't the sort who demands cutting-edge technology.
Second, much of what's important about Mac OS X 10.6 isn't consumer-oriented features, but rather underpinnings to let Mac software take better advantage of new processor directions--Grand Central Dispatch for multicore processors and OpenCL to use graphics chips for general-purpose computation. Although Apple sold high-end PowerPC-based machines with two dual-core processors that could benefit from Snow Leopard's abilities to juggle multiple jobs at the same time, it's likely that many people with that large a computing demand moved on to modern machines.
Apple's Bertrand Serlet touts Mac OS X at the company's Worldwide Developer Conference.
(Credit: James Martin/CNET)And supporting new operating systems on older hardware is expensive. Bug fixes and security patches must be tested on a much wider array of systems. The expense is even higher with the complexities of supporting multiple processor families.
What will PowerPC users miss?
Mac OS X 10.6 has other features, to be sure, and Apple drew more attention to them than to the lack of PowerPC support this week at its Apple Worldwide Developer Conference in San Francisco. For example, Snow Leopard gets built-in support for Microsoft Exchange servers, which will make Macs coexist more easily in corporate networks and let people avoid Microsoft's Entourage software. Also arriving is a method to more easily shift among one application's open windows is another, a faster and more flexible Finder to browse files, faster backup with Time Machine, and higher-resolution video chat.
But the way I see it, those extra features are more refinements than revolution, and the new low $29 Mac OS X 10.6 upgrade price (or $49 for a household with up to five Macs) is a good incentive to move people to an operating system that will help Apple as much as the customers themselves.
Infrastructure that will help tap into multicore processor power is important. I'm still not expecting any free lunch for developers--it'll still be hard to write software split into parallel chunks that run independently in separate threads--but providing an operating system foundation that handles some multithreading chores stands to help the Mac ecosystem broadly. The fact that the only Macs available today with more than two processor cores are Mac Pro models costing at least $2,499 indicates that Apple recognizes the today's limits of multicore chips for most users.
But Apple likes to focus on the future more than on the past, and it's clear that multicore chips are the future. Wringing performance out of them is crucial to the success of any software.
Breaking with the past
Maintaining backward compatibility is a tough act in the computing market, where hardware changes faster than customers upgrade. Microsoft, with larger market share, has extended support for elderly software such as Windows NT 4.0 and Windows XP, but Apple has been willing to draw the line on many other occasions besides the Snow Leopard change.
Here are some examples:
• The move from PowerPC to Intel chips was not Apple's first change. The company switched from Motorola's 680x0 family of processors to the PowerPC line in the mid-1990s. To ease the transition, Apple provided translation software that could run older programs for 680x0 chips on the newer machines.
• After leading the charge for years with 3.5-inch floppy disk drives that were significantly smaller than the 5.25-inch models in PCs, Apple ditched the built-in floppy drive altogether with the 1998 introduction of the iMac. Need a floppy? Get an external drive.
• Also going by the wayside with the iMac was the Apple Desktop Bus, which had been used to connect keyboards and mice. Apple embraced the USB technology that began its life on the PC side of the industry.
• FireWire, standardized as IEEE 1394, is perhaps something of an exception. The Apple creation had superior data transfer speed compared to USB, but Apple no longer embraces FireWire universally. Today, MacBook Pro laptops have FireWire ports while the MacBook Air doesn't and consumer-oriented aluminum MacBook models introduced in 2008 didn't.
• ExpressCard, which inherited the the expansion-slot throne from the PCMCIA standard, is another victim of Apple's calculus. The company's newly announced MacBook Pro line ditches it in favor of an SD Card slot for flash memory cards. Only a "single-digit percentage of customers" was using the ExpressCard slot, said Phil Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of worldwide marketing, in his speech at WWDC.
• When it comes to connecting external monitors, Apple anointed DisplayPort when seeking a successor to the mini-DVI port in earlier MacBooks, passing over an entrenched alternative to DisplayPort, HDMI (High-definition Multimedia Interface). Adapters can help bridge the gap, though, for those who need to support incompatible displays.
Innovation's consequences
Not everything is an either-or proposition. Apple's gradual transition to a 64-bit operating system--a transition it says Snow Leopard completes--was eased by compatibility for older 32-bit drivers so older hardware didn't suddenly break. In comparison, Microsoft has strained hard for years to try to get hardware companies to release 64-bit drivers to let Windows communicate with their products.
But often, change does come at the expense of last year's technology, and it can be rough on customers when companies decide it's time to move on. I recently sold off an old Vista-incompatible Wacom graphics tablet I'd used for a decade, long after the PC industry had abandoned the serial port it required, and I was sad to see it go.
But change comes, and when it does, Apple's relatively small market share and low penetration into businesses actually is something of an asset.
Microsoft has to update Internet Explorer 6, a browser introduced eight years ago, in part because so many businesses don't want to rework processes that rely on it. Apple can move ahead to Safari 4 in a much more liberated way.
Apple wraps itself in the flag of innovation, and if you're a Mac user, you should expect both the ups and downs of that philosophy.
Corrected at 7:26 a.m. PDT to reflect that Apple's sole remaining MacBook model does have FireWire support and 1:57 p.m. PDT to reflect that the household upgrade price is good for up to five Macs.
Stephen Shankland writes about a wide range of technology and products, but has a particular focus on browsers and digital photography. He joined CNET News in 1998 and since then also has covered Google, Yahoo, servers, supercomputing, Linux and open-source software, and science. E-mail Stephen, or follow him on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/stshank. 
And then using that to run Win XP programs inside another virtual machine? A meta-virtual machine. Sorry, I just couldn't help posting this comment :P but sometimes I wonder if we aren't going a bit too much virtualization happy.
Right. So when it pops up in my Dock I should refer to it as what then? A manifestation? An artifact? Nah, I think I'll stick to 'pop up' considering that's actually what it is .
Oh yeah, as for elegance the Windows Update icon just sits in the status bar nicely without bothering anyone. After you hit postpone it leaves you alone four hours rather than bouncing around like a demented beach ball. So, uh, it's actually nicer.
Was there anything else?
I only wish that I could underline things to help you grasp things better.
2 x 2 = 8? I think you forgot the part that Mac Pro's ship with Xeon quad core CPUs.
I see now how Apple's tight integration of OS and hardware is bringing more money to them.
Go figure!
That is because any benchmark or measure of 'good' or 'reasonable' or 'right' is moved by the fan club to make Apple look good.
If it makes Apple look bad, then the measurement itself is meaningless and unimportant.
on machines that WERE NOT CAPABLE
For someone who states that uses an Apple computer, you sure come off as quite the opposite sometimes. The major difference is that Apple has given plenty of warning to PowerPC users. You make it sound like Apple just sprung it on people on the day of release like "oh by the way, you can't put this on your G5. Sucks to be you". It may suck that PowerPC users are out of luck for future OS upgrades, but such is life in the Tech world sometimes. If it makes people that un-happy and they want to tell Apple where they can shove it, there are other choices in computers.
[CNET editors' note: Prohibited content deleted.]
It just amuses me that some people moaned about old hardware being unavailable on Vista - the majority of which did become available later on - whilst being quite happy to accept Apple irrevocably shutting down the entire PPC line from any new OS.
I guess it's because I use multiple platforms and operating systems that I can see both the humour and the hypocrisy.
I have a dual PowerMac G5 that has run OSX 10.3 (yes, "three") just fine since the day I bought it, and have no troubles with running the latest software on it. I fully expect to upgrade it to Leopard (or keep it as it is) until the computer itself dies completely. By then, I can replace it with a newer Intel multi-core model. If all else fails, I can install a good Linux PPC distro on it until the day that the mainboard gives up the ghost.
The first Intel Macs came out in what, 2005? Four years ago? How many four-year-old PC's can run Vista with all the trimmings? Hell, when Vista first came out, even two-year-old PCs (at that time) couldn't run it without the user spending money and time to pack it full of RAM. Of course, you all may notice how the Microsoft fanboy crowd in this topic string conveniently forget that factoid as they ramble on about things that they themselves have been guilty of in the past (while hotly defending Vista's shortcomings, no less).
Meanwhile, I can still run pretty much every OSX app to come down the pike on 10.3, and can install the current OS (Leopard/10.5) on the same machine, with everything turned on, and expect that everything will run just as well. Good luck getting a 4/5-year-old PC to run Vista without spending on hardware upgrades... if you're lucky.
I am a Windows user all the way, I don't own a single apple product, and have been building all my own equipment since that days when 386/387 chips were the hottest things out there and have used every version of Microsoft operating systems since the early versions of MS-DOS and they constantly make changes to thier coding that renders older hardware useless, often times even realitively new hardware useless for periods of time following a software revision.
Dude better be careful because security holes in Mac OS X can be easily be exploited and as usual OS X has taken the crown twice for getting hacked within the first place. As usual next year it will be the first one..am sure"
Ahhh, the hard work of a troll is never done.
OSX has never been hacked, so that is testament to how well built it is... the hacker contests you mentioned had FULL physical and password access, so they were deemed invalid... so please keep up with the news... thanks!
Uh... they didn't have physical access. Nor did they have password access.
You might want to take your own advice about keeping up.
Get your facts straight. The Mac was the 1st to get hacked, in 2 minutes! Let me do your homework for you ..
http://www.infoworld.com/d/mobilize/gone-in-2-minutes-mac-gets-hacked-first-in-contest-676
so it's clear you didn't follow the story... better luck next time...
quote from your link:
"Nobody was able to hack into the systems on the first day of the contest when contestants were only allowed to attack the computers over the network, but on Thursday the rules were relaxed so that attackers could direct contest organizers using the computers to do things like visit Web sites or open e-mail messages."
so the Mac was never hacked, just as I explained to you... they had to get full physical and password access to make the parlor trick work... that's why the contest was consider invalid a few months later.
so anyone that quotes that contest is a fool... now you know...
http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9129978
"The PWN2OWN rules stated that the researcher could provide a URL that hosted his exploit, replicating the common hacker tactic of enticing users to malicious sites where they are infected with malware. "I gave them the link, they clicked on it, and that was it," said Miller. "I did a few things to show that I had full control of the Mac."
You can eat your humble pie now if you like.
The worst economy in decades, with unemployment hovering near 10%--worse, in many states, including California--and you have the unmitigated gall to write something like that?
Every once in a while, I suggest you look up from your computer, and see what's happening in the world. The real world, not the artificial one created by companies like Apple.
I know Mac users that are perfectly happy with Tiger on old PPC Mac's that run great. They are not power users, they are just happy NON-WINDOWS users. Someday they will get a new Mac and it will have SL or whatever is on it.
Maybe you should worry about how the type of oil you put in your car is NOT related to the price of oranges, which has just as much relevance as your statement about unemployment and users that dont demand cutting edge technology.
Actually, this is an accurate statement - and when you're using a Mac, you tend to get a longer useful lifespan out of the machine than you do with a PC. And unlike a PC which you constantly need to upgrade and improve, a Mac tends to come out of the box with almost everything you really need if you spec it out.
Hence the higher cost.
Since there is absolutely no foundation to your assertions you'll forgive me if I don't take them seriously.
Thank you for your comment. Can't agree more.
I will provide the foundation for solitaire's assertions. I have both Mac and PC. The only thing I add to my Macs is extra hard drives and memory. I have 2 Macs over 10 years old that still run. I don't have to add any drivers or other integral necessities to connect any peripheral device to my Macs. My Macs run 16 hours a day, ALL DAY, no interruptions or stupid pop up windows that ask me if I am sure I want to "do this". (ROFL). My PC is used solely for the purpose of opening MS Publisher files and converting them to PDF.... yet each time I use this computer I have issues with it. I installed Win7 beta on one of my Macs, and darned if it didn't run just fine. To me that is absolute confirmation that Mac OS and hardware are just put together better.
"To me that is absolute confirmation that Mac OS and hardware are just put together better"
Better than what? Microsoft? Microsoft don't make hardware, and if you buy e-machine then obviously your stuff will break because its el-cheapo crap from China. Well actually most of electronics are made in China, including Apples. If you buy good quality PC it'll last you forever. I had a PC that lasted me about 9 years as a small linux server that I build myself with components of my choosing. It survived being dropped, flood, and a ton of cat hair.
Your illusion that macs are built better is completely unfounded and misguided.
It's no wonder shycelticwitch is messed up. He/She lives in a world where there is only 16 hours in a day. =\
"The worst economy in decades, with unemployment hovering near 10%--worse, in many states, including California--and you have the unmitigated gall to write something like that?
Every once in a while, I suggest you look up from your computer, and see what's happening in the world. "
Somehow, I think that burningbird has a sense of entitlement that he or "the poor" have a right to the latest computer equipment. He would say, "How dare Apple abandon legacy hardware?"
If you want to be on the leading edge, burningbird, you must leave the trailing edge behind. If you don't, then you end up with Microsoft's legacy problems where they have a trailing edge that is 15 years. Wintel can't seem to let obsolete hardware like PS/2 and the floppy disk go.
If you want the newest equipment, then you must pay for it. That leaves out the poor. Snow Leopard is leaving behind the PowerPC hardware which is three years old, but it will work just fine for another five years on Leopard 10.5. It will get security upgrades, but no improvements.
Leopard takes full advantage of the many registers on the G5 PowerPC processors. Snow Leopard will take advantage of the increased number of registers in the Core 2 64 bit processors. That is why it is Intel only. Snow Leopard would confer no advantages on PowerPC.
Also, the economic problems in California and the rest of the world are from governmental mismanagement of the economy, the housing and financial markets.
The California Legislature, controlled by the Democrats, has refused to economize during the five years that the state has been in crisis mode. They overspent on things like the 5 billion dollars for embryonic stem cell research and got nothing in return for the money. The bureaucracy, the teachers and the Unions have sabotaged every attempt to get the state out of debt. All the Democrats offer is more taxes for the "so called" rich. No wonder that the taxpayers are bailing out of California.
How is Apple Computers responsible or accountable for that?
Just because I prefer to keep my investment does not mean that I don't want cutting edge technology!
Stephen Shankland has much to learn about the real world.
If cutting edge tech was a priority you would have that instead of your old machine.
Yay - lets pretend our low market share is a good thing! Way to spin!
And seriously , talking about PC owners need to constantly update (nonsense but I suppose getting more advanced software more regularly does help drive that) whilst extoling the virtuals of upgrading to snow leopard for a few frivolous shiny toys. Ahahahaha.
Corporate users are very, very slow to change. They see the bottom line, the money invested in existing infrastructure and they balk at the very idea of letting go of legacy technology, even if it would be in their best interest (productivity-wise) to do so. Becoming entrenched in Microsoft software and the generic hardware that goes along with it is the whole reason most companies and institutions are still with it. The inertia is too great to switch. You see more small startups using Macs than you see old warhorse corporations using them, for that very reason. The thing is, now the integration is virtually transparent. So, instead of just buying new Windows machines, even they could start replacing them with Macintoshes, piecemeal. But old habits die hard, even when they are clearly bad for you.
This is incorrect. All Macs once again have FireWire -- the previous Aluminum MacBook lacked a FireWire port, but that machine has been replaced by the 13" MacBook Pro, which has FireWire. And the white plastic MacBook always had FireWire.
Apple is too aggressive with the Macbook line.
The Macbooks have been updated twice since I bought my black 13" Macbook last year.
Twice in under a year is excessive for any company.
So, if I do not upgrade my Macbook as frequently as Apple rolls out the updates, then according to Stephen Shankland, I "don't want cutting edge technology".
has the PS3 been remodded with a new GPU chip set and more ram, done it yesterday captain.
are the lower level git optimisations in place inside the SState Qemu drive for added umph, the russian coder group finished porting the Hewlett Packard code base last week sir.
Is the Snow Leopard fully cracked, tweaked and striped of all unnecessary data I I sir.
Got the UHD LCD at the ready Freshly conned of the sony sales man sir.
So is the 1TB media drive in place doing it now.
And lift off.
Arr is a grand sight it is it is
soon by the power of Qemu lation and our language pack making department our next gen batch of 45nm MIP processors will rule the world.
Sir one problem. Arr what's that, well I tried to update the settings and I can't find the second mouse button.
The old mouse button joke, while still good for a laugh, not viable for Mac bashing anymore.
Wrong. Picked up a macbook in Dec. One button. ***! In an OS that supports 2 buttons why in the heck would they only give me one button? The missing keys are the icing on the cake making this things keyboard and mouse interface annoying. However multi touch (which is limited on this thing) is nice.
Yes, multi-touch is nice =)
Macs have had multiple buttons since 1986, long before Windows was around... so let's all have a collective laugh at Windows users that don't understand Macs all have multiple buttons...
This whole gripe about Macintoshes only having one button on the mouse was a dumb argument back in the 1980s and it's still a dumb argument.
lol
That feature has never worked consistently on Windoze.
Finally, the windoze fanboys act like you can't run Windows on Mac hardware - when Windows actually works better and faster under Mac based virtualization for almost everything except games.
As a Mac user since 1999, I too have felt the occasional 'sting' and have cursed them to hell. However, after time, it's always the case that any major change is for the best. The thing I've found with Mac, is to maybe wait about 6-12 months before jumping onto the new train.
One thing I must say is that, I still use all four of my Macs since 1999. One is running OS9, two are running on Tiger and of course my latest is Leopard and ALL of them still work beautiful in context with the compatible software.
Starting last Monday (June 8), FireWire is on all MacBook and MacBook Pro models.
Apple only dropped FireWire briefly on the first 13" aluminum MacBooks introduced back in October of last year, but had always kept them on the white MacBooks, and all MacBook Pro models.
Another one of the pitfalls of being a Mac user, you have to upgrade to survive.
Besides, your comment is inaccurate - I seriously doubt that your 2004 PC is a 64-bit system.
http://www.apple.com/macosx/
you'll get a Mac someday! don't worry!
some of us don't upgrade for the new shiny because we don't waste money, but then we dont upgrade just because it's there like most consumers do either. It's not a good idea to disrupt your money making equipment with needless upgrades.
Apple is losing focus. They owned the video editing and pro market 3 years ago, now they seem to not care one bit about it. A new FCP suite might have enticed me, bluray burning and authoring might have enticed me. But without those two, there are zero advantages to me Spending $3500.00 to just get the new OS.
My iMac 3.06 Core2Duo Extreme is faster than your rig at FCP. Sorry to break it to you.
Now yours may be "good enough" for you, and that's fine. And 10.5.7 is plenty mature. It won't stop you from continuing to edit on your machine using FCP Studio (though any new version will be Intel only).
or, as the author says, if you don't need the cutting edge technology, just continue to use them as you were using them until they die-which in some cases could be a while.
w/ the expansion of 13" Unibody models to the "Pro" line, all Apple notebooks include some version of Firewire. the lone MacBook in white polycarbonate has Firewire 400 @ least for now, w/ the Pro models having Firewire 800.
Apple announced the intel switch in June 2005, by the time SL actually arrives it will be over four years time. All your current software will still work on your machine, it does not suddenly implode upon the arrival of SL. Second, the biggest improvements are under the hood and would not change your workflow anyways. Third, serious pros, never install the latest major system revisions until they're sure it won't screw with their workflow, usually 3 to 6 months. Fourth, the major apps like Photoshop, ProTools, Final Cut, etc. usually take another 6 months to a year to even take advantage of the new system. Fifth, two of the major advantages of SL would be almost completely wasted on PPC machines?multi-processor support (we had dual processors, but just one MacPro had quad procs) and OpenCL support. SL is optimized for modern video cards (which don't work in the PPC machines) and for 4 and 8 core processors, which didn't exist in the vast majority of PPC machines.
Anyone with any sense, knew that in 3 to 5 years, the PPC would become outdated and that is exactly what has happened.
Mac fanatics will praise anything apple does and boo anything MSFT . Thats just the nature of their view on the world. Its kind of like a religion."
That is a two way street.
Mac fanatics will praise anything apple does and boo anything MSFT . Thats just the nature of their view on the world. Its kind of like a religion."
I guess windows user don't think like that at all. If not, then what you are doing posting FUD on a Apple related article? Get a freakin' life people (same goes for Apple users who post FUD regarding Windows)!!
Actually, that is not true. Prior to Monday's upgrades, the 13" Unibody Macbook didn't have FireWire, but the 13" White MacBook always had and continues to have a FireWire 400 port. As of Monday, all MacBooks (Pro and not) have FireWire ports. The Pro models have FireWire 800, the non-Pro model has a FireWire 400 port.
The MacBook Air is not designed for those uses. It is not designed for speed (see it's slow processor, limited RAM). For better or worse, the vast majority of Air owners would say "FW what?" or at minimum "I don't really need FW on this". It would make the machine thicker unless the 4-pin version was used, but that doesn't provide bus power, which makes it's usefulness on an ultraportable that much less.
i rarely comment & so used both means, in the future will only use the report button. my apologies if you feel i was remiss in trying to make a case in in a more direct response.
- by ppgreat June 10, 2009 7:56 AM PDT
- Updating to a new PC or a new car or a new home is your choice.
- Like this Reply to this comment
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Showing 1 of 3 pages (149 Comments)You can't wake up one morning and say you want your 1930s era Cape Cod home to be 99.9% energy efficient without making a substantial investment. Why would you expect to take advantage of cutting edge technologies on your old PC?