IT'S OFFICIAL: Apple is switching to X86 chips

[pindal]

"We will not sell or support Windows, but we are not doing anything in the hardware that would preclude someone from using it"
If this is true The best move for Digidesign is to make Pro Tools only for Windows. If you want Pro Tools just install Windows in your IntelMac and that´s all!

[mjteix]

The best move for Digidesign is to make Pro Tools only for Windows.

No. The best move for Digidesign is to order the "Developer Transition Kit" including the Intel-based Mac prototype and XCode 2.1 and start porting Pro Tools. The fact that the next generation of Macs will be Intel-based will ease the development of the 2 versions (MacOSX and Windows): more code will be shared.

M

[myke2242]

Your over looking Mac OS. OS X is a lot more efferent and powerful OS then Windows XP. With Windows countless delays in producing a modern OS that will actually competes with the current version of OS X is years off. With the road map for the PowerPC chip is very unclear. IBM having a few set backs that has slowed development with the chips. Forced Apple to make the switch. Apple will still be making boxes with the PowerPC chip in them as well. Also, there may be a Mac only chip that Intel will produce. Apple will still be producing computers to its standards. You wont have the hardware conflicts as you would have with a PC. This has been a five year development process. OS X has secretly been running under a PPC and Intel chips with every build. That's is true QC and development. How has Windows changed in the last five years

[digiengineer]

"We will not sell or support Windows, but we are not doing anything in the hardware that would preclude someone from using it"
If this is true The best move for Digidesign is to make Pro Tools only for Windows. If you want Pro Tools just install Windows in your IntelMac and that´s all!

No, it won't be a good move. As you pointed out Apple will not support Windows on a Mac. If Apple won't support it, Digideisgn won't either.

Many users, if not most users of Mac do so because of the operating system. As a Mac and PC Pro Tools user, PT works very well on Windows, but if given the choice, I prefer to run my sessions on Mac OS; PT being Windows only would be a huge problem for me, my clients, and my colleagues. However, having an Apple that could potentially boot and run Windows natively would be a big plus for those of us that use Windows-only audio apps such as WaveLab.

With all that being said, there has been a lot of overreaction to the switch, and I doubt we will see that much of a change operationally; Apple has had over 5 years to plan for this and has another year to perfect it. By this time next year, Intel will have their dual-core, 64-bit processors on the market (which were announced a few days before Apple announced the switch), and Apple will have designed a motherboard and chipset that will make the transition seamless to the average user.

[rockridge]

The G5 has not been out all that long... it seems very uncharacteristic for Apple to announce that they are switching to some form of a Pentium a year or more before it will happen.

Are they in that much trouble? If they are, how are they benefiting from this?

[myke2242]

Apple is not looking at the short term. They are looking into the future. IBM's PPC chip takes a lot of power and has had development issues. The PPC is a awesome chip but, Due to the G5 PPC power consunption you may never see a Powerbook G5.
I dont think we will see any serious changes with Apples product line. A serious over reaction by the DUC. I remind everyone that is a two year process! this isnt going to happen next week while you are out of stutio.

[Robert U]

Some interesting points from their site:



Should people hold off buying a Mac that uses the IBM PowerPC processor, which Apple will soon abandon, and wait for the new Intel Macs?



No. If you need a new computer and the Mac was the right choice for you last week, it's still the right choice. Today's PowerPC Macs are, in my view, the best consumer computers on the market, and Apple plans to roll out additional PowerPC models this year.

Plus, all new software for the Mac will continue to run on PowerPC models for at least a few more years, the likely life of any Mac you buy now. That's because Apple has created a tool for software developers that easily creates "universal" programs capable of being run on either the PowerPC or Intel models.


Now that Apple will be using the same processor as Dell, H-P and other competitors, will people be able to run the Mac operating system on these non-Apple machines?

Unless some hacker does a masterful job, the answer is no. Apple intends to keep its operating system and hardware tied tightly together. The new Intel-based versions of the Mac's OS X operating system will be designed so that they cannot run on non-Apple hardware, and Apple has no plans to license OS X to other PC makers.


Will users be able to install and run Microsoft Windows on the new Intel-based Macs?

Apple's official position is that it won't block the use of Windows on its new machines. Unofficially, however, the company says people won't be able to just buy a copy of Windows XP and install it on an Intel-based Mac. That's because Apple is unlikely to build in all the standard under-the-hood hardware pieces that Windows is designed to mate with. And it won't supply any special software called "drivers" to help Windows use the unique under-the-hood hardware Apple will use.

However, I expect some third-party company to supply the missing drivers and otherwise make it possible to run Windows on an Intel-based Mac. Microsoft itself might even do this. That would allow Mac users to run Windows programs that lack Mac equivalents at speeds comparable to a Windows computer's.


Will Mac prices fall due to the switch to Intel?

There's no way to tell now, but I doubt it. Apple's lower volumes, higher quality and unusual designs will likely keep it out of the very basement of the market.



-Robert

[Electrox]

Here's something you all should consider. There may be more going on than you are discussing here. Go to: http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/pulpit20050609.html enjoy!

[lancejorton]

Here's something you all should consider. There may be more going on than you are discussing here. Go to: http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/pulpit20050609.html enjoy!

that's so crazy, but interesting and crazy.

--
lance

[ProToolsguy56]

>Problem is, that even todays fastest MAc's can't keep up with the fastest AMD64 machines.
>So in less than 2 years, they will be buried by the performance of PC's.

Yes, it's sad isn't it. I think Mac is always going to be behind Wintel. They'll always be one step behind...they simply can't compete..they are a mom & pop shop compared to... As far as people suggesting to 'buy up G5's now' would be the single most moronic idea. For here and now, the G5 PowerPC is now obsolete. Apple has basically announced to the world that their flagship machine is a dead end., and it's time to think about their next direction.

By the way, the average Mac user probably won't care or even know that it is Intel inside. Even if they did know I don't see how it would change them.

Now these new AMD products coming out for Windows...things are going to get interesting.