Musings from The Software Underground

Unbelievably Apple announced that it is indeed moving Macs to Intel CPUs. So separating the emotion from the facts, what does this mean?

Well we fully remain committed to the Mac platform regardless of the CPU being used. As far as we're concerned, it's the OS that matters. For most people, the fact that a Mac has a CPU made from Motorola, IBM or Intel, is irrelevant so long as the user experience is the same.

We are also committed to free Intel-compatible upgrades of all our products. Buy our products now, and they will run natively when there are Intel Macs available, and you won't pay extra for just that feature. We're also committed to making PowerPC native versions available for as long as feasible as well. We love the our PowerPC Macs, and plan to support them long after Apple does.

Emotionally, from a "geek" point of view, I'm a bit saddened to see this happen. One thing that has to be remembered, however is that Intel is not the only thing that makes a PC a PC. What we think of (and often look down upon) as a PC is a combination of Intel, Windows, and the industrial design of companies like Dell, Gateway, etc. Having an Intel CPU itself is not necessarily a bad thing, considering the rest of what makes a Mac a Mac should remain the same.

So, we now move into a Brave New World. There will be a lot of discussion, lots of questions and hopefully lots of answers in the near future. In the past, Mac users have been asked to let go of their 68000 series CPUs, and then their Mac OS 9. Now Apple is asking us to abandon our beloved PowerPCs. We'll find out in the next year or two whether or not this was too much to ask.