Comments on: Apple finalizes PowerPC divorce with OS upgrade

Mac OS X 10.6 won't work on PowerPC-based Macs. But Apple picked a good moment to put its foot down and focus on multicore chips of the future.

[bvdon]

My Mac G5 PowerPC dual 1.8 is done at OS X 1.4.... no Leopard for me. And I don't care... it's a beautiful machine, runs without any issues and still years ahead of any other OS out there. I figure another 3 years of full time use and then I will get a new intel based Mac.

Started with Quada 605, then G3, then my G5. I also had an older G4 at work, and currently am running a newer G4 at work (and it's a great machine... outlasted two PCs so far).

I'm all for Apple pushing forward.

[NoDeceit]

I smell a law suit coming. When I bought my Dual Core 2.33 GHz G5 64bit machine I was sold on it because some day the operating system would take advantage of the dual core. Why would Apple sell me a computer that would be not be supported 3 years later.

[ClaBR]

Because we are talking about Apple here. Backward compatibility was never a priority with Macs.

[Hamranhansenhansen]

An important thing to notice is how few PowerPC Macs there are still in use. It's a surprisingly small number. They were in the minority even before v10.5 Leopard shipped. At this point they have all been upgraded once or declined to upgrade. The number of people who would reasonably show up at the Apple Store in September 2009 with $129 in hand looking for a Snow Leopard box for their PowerPC Mac must be just insanely small.

It's important to note that the latest Mac OS X and iLife always cost $198 on DVD, but they also cost only $400 more than that if you want them on Mac mini instead of DVD, or only $800 more on a new MacBook. If you buy with the hardware you get a warranty and you don't have to install anything. Consider the difference. Upgrading the software is not necessarily a bargain.

If you are still handing on to a PowerPC because you're on a tight budget, that is not necessarily a bargain, either. The way to do cheap Mac computing is to pick a model you can pay for every 3 years, even if it is the lowest-end Mac, buy AppleCare also (3 year service plan), and then sell the machine when it is 3 years old, get half what you paid, and buy another one of the same model. You can do a decade of MacBooks this way, in 3 payments of $1250, $750, and $750 across the decade, and you always have a current system, and always have a Genius and AppleCare tech on call for you for no charge. It's an extremely good value that asks very, very little from you other than to use the computer. Also, the minor chore of moving into a new computer every 3 years is rewarded with 3 years of progress, you will still have a MacBook but it will be faster and have a brighter screen, faster wireless, many improvements.

So Snow Leopard for PowerPC wouldn't be good for anybody. It would be like Apple giving PowerPC users enough rope to hang themselves.

[kcotham]

Interesting idea on continual upgrades there. But don't discount PowerPC totally. They are still going strong because they were so far ahead of the contemporary competition. And it wouldn't surprise me that much if Apple switched back if the POWER7 or e700 are as good as they look like they are going to be. Nothing's written in stone in computing.

[mdulcey]

The real problem for PowerPC owners is not that they won't be able to upgrade to Snow Leopard; but that, if Apple's historical record holds, updates for previous versions of Mac OS X will cease. Those owners will either have to upgrade to new Macs or leave their systems vulnerable to new malware. It is as if Microsoft had dropped support of XP the day Vista was released, leaving all the owners of computers that could not be upgraded out in the cold.

[Maccess]

Expresscard go a bad rap because of its dual support for USB and PCI-E bus interfaces.

So many Expresscard manufacturers made cards that used the USB (slow) channel, and proclaimed them Expresscard USB/PCI compatible, when they only worked with the slower of the two available busses.

This led to consumer disappointment when their Expresscard USB channel only devices weren't faster than devices that plugged into USB.

There are several high-speed Expresscards that use the faster PCI-E channel, but they're drowned out by the cheaper USB channel only Expresscards.

[lazycat202]

i've 2 Windows Server 2008 running and invested only $300/each (software and hardware). I couldn't image what I would I do with $300 on Apple. Purchase an Apple logo and stick on my computer?
Microsoft = Flexibility (software, hardware,etc ... to ... cracking)
Apple = for "richies".

i'm just a labor guy who is getting paid for only $15/hour and i've bills to pay.

[vaporland]

you've got Windows server 2008 and it only cost you $300 for hardware and software? what is it, student edition or P2P edition...?

[vaporland]

cNest is getting their click-through money's worth from the flamebait war generated by this article...

[espeed623]

Sausagebiscuit wrote:
"It's no wonder shycelticwitch is messed up. He/She lives in a world where there is only 16 hours in a day. =\ "

Sausagebiscuit, that was perhaps the funniest response to a comment ever! Indeed shycelticwitch is messed up. Makes you wonder if she's smoking some good crack.