WWDC 2005: One More Thing

Apparently Steve Jobs was on CNBC's "Street Signs" according to Think Secret, and this jumps out at me;

The move is "not as dramatic as you're characterizing it," Jobs told host Ron Insana

Read my timeline again. Think about that, plus the fact that as mentioned during the WWDC keynote that Apple has been running everything on Intel "just in case" for the past 5 years. Then also remember that NeXT (the OS that Mac OS X is based on) had to be ported from Intelx86 chips in the first place.

In fact, for those of you who remember, OS X was originally rumoured to be able to run Windows applications in emulation, aka "The Red Box". This is not as dramatic as it may seem. And I understand, it shocked hell outta me. :)

9:28:25 PM     Discuss: []


WWDC 2205: After-thoughts

So, everyone have some crow. :)

Well, having had a bit to digest what was actually announced, I have a few throughts.

First off, no "declaration of war". That's solved by the fact that Apple will not be allowing Mac OS X for Intel to run on non-Apple hardware. However, I wonder what Apple would do (hypothetically) if Dell comes to them going "Puh-leeeze! We wanna make Mac-compatible machines!!" For now, not happening. Thought for the future.

Secondly, I haven't seen anything that keeps IBM from being able to redeem themselves, so to speak. They start cranking out 6Ghz G5's, Apple can keep using them, right? Dunno.

Thirdly, If you can run Windows on Apple hardware running Mac OS X (I*), say goodbye to an Application: Virtual PC.

Finally, some commentary; Don't get too ramped up about this. people act like Apple is walking away from some huge tradition.

Here's the Timeline for those of you unfamiliar(all dates approximate):

Apple 1984 - 1989 = Motorola Chips

Apple started with Motorola, for reasons which you can find if you go look.

Apple 1989 - 1998 = Motorola/IBM Chips

People gasped when this happened. Anyone remember? IBM was the "great satan". Remember? Anyone? Remember that "1984" Commercial? that big scary face was IBM...not Microsoft. In 1984 Microsoft was a small upstart, and Apple was the big fish. I still have T-Shirts declaiming what a big thing it was that Apple was using the "Dark Side" chips. These chips of course, were the PowerPC chips.

Apple 1998 - 2003 = IBM chips

In another startling move, Apple dumps Motorola due to them not being able to produce G4's of high enough speed and other issues. Again, people were kind of shocked. Now Apple is solely on IBM chips.

Apple Today, 2005

Same reasons, different vendor. IBM follows Motorola down the rat-hole.

Viewing the above, it becomes clear that Apple has been shopping quite a bit, particularly if the horse doesn't perform.

What would I like to see? I'd like to see Apple keep the ability to keep using PowerPC chips. They have advantages (64-bit), and it will keep Intel on it's toes. Additionally, since Apple can run on Intel, does that mean AMD is in the running? Interesting thought...How about all those inexpensive graphics cards? Faster system buses?

Make no mistake, there are serious potential upsides to this. And this is hardly the "hell freezing over" some might have you believe, considering it's happened before.

The question is, what happens to hardware sales for the next 12 months? I have to assume Apple has a plan for this. So now we just have to wait and see....

*I=Intel version

8:57:06 PM     Discuss: []


WWDC 2005: Notes

Just Idle commentary as I see stuff from WWDC:

Great 10.5 "Leper" *ahem* I mean "Leopold" No, that's not right.."Leopard" WTF is going on with the people naming stuff at Apple? First "Bonjour" now this. Ocelot, dammit! Ocelot!!!!

Apple going Intel: So it turns out to be true. Well, still plenty of unanswered questions. More later. Busy day....

1:29:34 PM     Discuss: []


Blojsom (OSX) v. Radio

So, apparently the version of Blojsom that Apple ships with Mac OS X Server is...shall we say...limited.

It seems that Apple disabled a number of the plug-ins, and there's no obvious way to upgrade it to the newer versions on Blojsom.

I have to say that Blojsom seems like a much better 'blog software for what I'm doing than Radio Userland. I'd like to move to it, but I'm going to have to figure out how to get it up to the newer version on Mac OS X Server.

12:36:26 PM     Discuss: []