First, a disclaimer: I am not a Mac zealot. In fact, I am not even a Mac owner. The entire extent of my Mac experience stems from the early-days of the Apple][ eighties and a few months of OSX use during some web development subjects at university. Linux is my flavour of choice, and I like it that way, but I am going to jump on the (very over-crowded) bandwagon anyway and bring up the topic of Apple making the switch to Intel processors.

I realise this story has already been flogged harder than a Windows user at Steve Jobs’ latest keynote, so I will keep this as concise as possible. (read: point-form)

Are Mac users/zealots/sympathisers supposed to forget all of that crap about RISC versus CISC?

C’mon Steve. Mac users are a loyal bunch, but to tell them one processor is junk compared to Apple’s superior architecture for so many years, only to ultimately make the switch to said junk CPUs, is sheer ignorance. You are pushing your luck with your most avid supporters with this move, and I think even the most dedicated Mac zealot may have to gag a few times before swallowing such blatant hypocracy.

Why Intel?

If I was a car manufacturer and wanted to compete against my biggest rival company, I certainly wouldn’t stick the very same engine under the bonnet. I realise that is a terrible analogy, but contemplate this for a second: If Apple really wanted to stick it to Microsoft, they should have continued to excel in areas where Microsoft have failed, or at least lagged. If I were Steve Jobs, and wanted to topple the ivory tower that is Wintel, I would have hit them where both companies have played second-fiddle: 64 bit architecture. Both Linux and Apple have beaten Windows to the 64-bit-punch and Intel has done a veritable U-turn on their stance on 64 bit processors, and they have been playing catch-up ever since. No prizes for guessing the logical partnership in my view would have to be Apple and AMD. Imagine OSX on AMD x86-64. The mind boggles with the possibilities.

Will Apple on x86 hurt Linux more than it will Windows?

I vote no, although my opinion is not exactly qualified. I can see the merits of some people’s view that Linux on the desktop will suffer from Apple’s switch to Intel, but I tend to disagree. Despite opinions to the contrary, I still believe Apple and Linux have a common enemy in Windows, despite being on the same architecture. Besides, they are both Unix-brethren, which places Windows firmly as ‘the other OS’ in desktop computing.

What of OS9?

Walk into any self-respecting graphic design or video editing studio founded within the last decade and you are bound to trip over an OS9 box or two, humbly going about their day still generating a decent amount of revenue for many a small business. Apple has effectively already ruled out porting or emulating legacy OS9 applications on x86 architecture, so this leaves these computers stranded in no-longer-supported land. Sure, they can be upgraded, and they can be replaced, but why fix what isn’t broken? Those kinds of forced updates are Microsoft-esque.

Do I really care about any of this?

That is a definite maybe. As a Linux user, I feel like a nerd living on a street full of bullies who just got news that another nerd is moving in next door very soon. Just like this nerd, I don’t expect to see any sweeping changes on the street anytime soon, but just having someone else to step in to bat against the same team of bullies every now and again is exciting. As they say, the enemy of my enemy is my friend.

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 9th, 2005 at 10:03 pm and is filed under Apple. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.