Snow Leopard officially puts PowerPC Macs on endangered species list
It was just a day short of a year ago that we first got a bad feeling Snow Leopard was going to be end of the road for the PowerPC crowd. Now we know the truth, with Apple confirming Mac OS X version 10.6 will require Intel processors, cutting the cord on that rich lineage of alternative CPU support. From here on out it's Intel or bust -- until Apple finds a new silicon suitor it prefers, anyway.
[Via MacRumors]
[Via MacRumors]

























Because this is official confirmation from Apple.
Meanwhile @ MS headquarters, a sweatstained intern has an orgasm.
"Mr. Ballmer!!!!!!, Mr. Balmer come over here i've found something bad to say about Mac Os X Snow Leopard!!!!!"
I got a used G3/450 in 2002 & ran OS9 until 2005. I finally replaced it last year with a dumpstered G4/933 & got a 1.3 ghz 12" powerbook this year. None of these old machines have put any kind of dent in my freelance animation or design income. Mac obsolescence is truly for suckers & short attention spans. I think I'm probably good until 2015 on this kit.
It's AWFULLY noble of the Apple-haters to stand up for the poor PPC owners who will not be able to upgrade to Snow Leopard. By the way, are any of those PPC users actually here to complain about it? I don't think so. It's just the broken-record Apple Haters bitching about Apple dropping legacy support, while none of the people actually affected by it actually give a shit. It's not Y2K and G5's won't suddently stop working the day SL goes on sale.
Apple decides to move forward, microsoft must always be looking backwards. Deal with it, and STFU while you're at it.
I'll complain. It's awfully soon to drop "old" hardware support, even by Apple's standards. Usually the new OS will work on 5 year-old hardware. The only reason I really care is that Leopard is a dog on my G5 and it'd be nice to have speed improvements. Maybe some of that cleaned up code will work its way into a software update someday.
But then, who am I to complain, the G5 was a work hand-me-down anyway. I sold my G3 iBook a couple of years ago.
that's fine, but you're not one of the people who paid "thousands" for your computer a mere 3 years ago. So if we can summarize the posts on this forum so far -
1) "dumb" people "overpay" for g5s
2) apple-haters laugh at them
3) apple drops support for PPC
4) apple-haters defend those same people they mocked.
Got it.
1. Woman marries drunk
2. Friends laugh at her
3. Drunk beats woman.
4. Friends defend battered wife
I thought this was already well known. Didn't Apple say this when they announced the specs on 10.6 last year or so?
Yup, it's pretty much known since the beta has been intel only from the get go. But it's more trendy to complain anyway, right? ;)
1. Legacy support eventually dies. You can't leap forward while clinging to the past.
2. Snow Leopard's advancements are hardware-specific. There's no point in for PPC, which would benefit little if at all.
3. The advances will trickle-down. Application updates will work with PPC, like the new Safari.
4. Snow Leopard does not kill Leopard. Apple is still putting out updates to Tiger! It will be many years before Leopard goes "end of life".
Apple forces you to do nothing. I like Tiger and my G5 works just fine with 2GB Ram - No need to upgrade my iMac right now.
Exactly. It's not like those PPC Macs suddenly blow up when Snow Leopard is shipping. People seems to forget what they already have.
Oh, Come on people...... Look, Mac, PC and Linux living happily Together....
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rodol/2830377602/
Where everybody knows your name....
that puts me out of the running for this OS
The problem of the new OS is not the lack of PowerPC support, but rather the lack of OpenCL support on older graphics chipsets even on the newer iMacs.
OpenCL Supported on:
NVIDIA Geforce 8600M GT, GeForce 8800 GT, GeForce 8800 GTS, Geforce 9400M, GeForce 9600M GT, GeForce GT 120, GeForce GT 130.
ATI Radeon 4850, Radeon 4870
@roach
Writing this on my HP TC1100 built in 2003 (1.1 ghz). Bumped up the memory to a gig and runs Vista good. Moved on the Window 7, now it runs like butta. Pending there is no future major hardware problem, I can see myself using this machine for another 4 to 5 years.
I DONT belive you! My Compaq X1000 even dont have drivers for windows 7 so i seriously doubt you do the things you say! I even have a hard time believing you can run vista on that thing.
http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/DriverDownload.jsp?prodNameId=376812&lang=en&cc=us&taskId=135&prodTypeId=0&prodSeriesId=376810
And yes its kind of sad that people write their opinion on things they have not even tested.
It's like this! I have a Macbook Pro and my sons have PC's. If we took our laptops to the junkyard, I would get more money for my laptop because it's made of Aluminium rather than some cheap plastic!
I admit to being slightly miffed when I found out that Snow Leopard left me out in the cold(maybe three minutes of whining). I am probably right on the exact hot spot too of any discontent as my Quad Core G5 could take advantage of improvements in multiprocessor support and its Quadro FX4500 would like the new graphics support as well. My MBP 17 inch is a 32 bit core duo configuration as well so I am balked in that direction as well. That being said both machines still run fine. In fact, my dual 1.4 G4 still runs fine as well.(Leopard with a reflashed 6800GT) The only real annoying thing is that I can't afford(or really need for that matter) a new computer right now. So any of the people out there who are still whining and CAN afford a new Mac; please go buy one! Then the economy might improve enough for me to be able to afford(need) a new one. In the long run, a tendency towards an ever slimmer foot-printed OS with more features should be encouraged not discouraged.
If worst comes to worst, you could just buy a Hackintosh for half the price.
http://www.psystar.com/
Does it really matter?
Snow Leopard really only matters to people who give a shit about performance.
That 16TB of RAM on your Mac isn't going to make a difference if you don't utilize it correctly.
IMO, Apple should of only made Snowy for XServes
Let's face it, the only reason a new OS runs slower, or more sluggishly, than the previous one is that it is Intel-based code running on Intel chips. MS and Intel have succeeded in perpetuating a PC market based on hardware obsolescence through software bloating of the CISC technology. The sad reason that the previously faster RISC technology has less market appeal is partly due to the industry not being able to conquer the heat generation of the chips in a cost effective manner.
As far as that goes, my G5 dual-2GHz PowerMac and G4 Titanium Powerbook both run software programs that ran on my first Mac, the Mac 512, designed for OS 6. And don't tell me, "who would want to do that anyway". One such program is Voyageur, a planetary observatory application, arguably still one of the best. Macs are never obsolete; their form factors lend themselves to such turnkey applications as Media databases and servers without the huge empty box that is called "the PC".
BTW, good luck with MS's next experiment, beta testers... Windoz 7.