Snow Leopard Drops Power PC Support….. Some Fanbois Freak
Apple Announced Mac OS X 10.6 which is more commonly known as Snow Leopard yesterday at the World Wide Developers Conference. Something that got the attention of some Apple fanbois was the system requirements:
- Mac computer with an Intel processor
- 1GB of memory
- 5GB of free disk space
- DVD drive for installation
That’s right, you require a Mac with an Intel processor to use it. That means that people with G4 and G5 Power PC Macs can’t run Snow Leopard, which ticks them off. In fact, one left a comment on this blog yesterday:
Re: Snow Leopard. No PPC support = don’t care. If I can’t run the latest OS on my not-even-three-year-old G5, then Apple has an irate customer who won’t soon forget the slight.
I’m sure he repersents a number of users who feel that way. For those people, I have one thing to say:
Get over it.
Why do I feel that way? Simple:
- This day was coming for a long time and you’ve had fair warning. After all God Steve Jobs announced the transition to Intel processors at about this time in 2005. So four years is enough time to jump onto the Intel bandwagon.
- Apple did this sort of thing before back in the 1994 – 1996 time frame when they made the move from 68K processors to Power PC processors. That wasn’t welcomed at the time, but fanbois recognized that it allowed the Mac to expand into areas such as video editing which would eventually drive the growth that we see now.
- When 10.5 came out, it dropped Power PC G3 support. I don’t recall hearing the whining that I’m hearing now.
- The move to an Intel only OS makes the Mac better for all Mac users. That’s because according to Wikipedia Intel Macs can “…run four classes of software at near native speeds: Mac OS X binaries, Java/.NET applications, Unix applications, and Win32/x86 applications. No other hardware vendor can offer more than three of these.” With Snow Leopard, that’s about to get better.
- Without the Power PC support, Snow Leopard will be faster and more stable. That’s not a bad thing if you’re an Apple fanboi. Windows users could only wish to have an OS upgrade that is actually faster and more stable.
- Apple will still support older Mac OS’es. After all, updates for Tiger (which is about three years old) are still coming out and updates for Leopard (about a year old) are a non issue.
The bottom line is this. Does it suck that Power PC users can’t use the latest and greatest OS from Apple without going to The Temple Of Steve Jobs Apple Store to get a new computer? I guess it does. But I would argue that the Power PC processor has had its day and it’s time to move on. So from where I sit, you have two choices:
- Don’t upgrade to Snow Leopard and use what you’ve got.
- Take a trip to The Temple Of Steve Jobs Apple Store and upgrade to an Intel based Mac.
Whatever you Power PC users decide to do, you should recognize that change is coming. And while you may not like it, it is for the best.
June 9, 2009 at 1:40 pm
Pointing out that you’re stating the obvious when you’re doing it doesn’t make stating the obvious any more compelling. Really, this entry says a lot of nothing – at length. “Change is coming.” Oh? “Upgrade, or don’t.” Oh?
You’re only slamming dollar-conscious Mac users, or people who buy from the large used market. Not impressive targets for a tirade.
Fanboys don’t have three-year-old gear as their main computer. Consumers interested in long lasting hardware, however, have traditionally turned to Apple products. So it’s not surprising that that there are still an huge number of PPC machines running out there. Their owners might be called ‘cheap’, or ‘poor’, or ‘savvy’ – but probably not ‘fanboys’.
Now, the above group includes people who own late 2006-model G5s, a not-very-old tower that, now, can’t run the current OS. That’s a bit of a change from Apple tradition, in that (for example) G3s from over a decade ago can run Panther/Tiger – an OS that was inconceivable at the time the hardware was shipped.
To some of your points:
* So at the time of first announcement people should’ve run out and bought Intel hardware? I guess you mean at first offering, 3½ years ago. I don’t know anyone (a) that foolish, or (b) in that income bracket. But if you say we should’ve bought the latest hardware, who am I to disagree? You seem to understand fanboyism better than I.
* The G3 had been discontinued for eight years at the time of Leopard’s release. G5s were made only 2½ years ago. Hence the “whining” this time. How is that distinction lost on you? And by what factor do G4s and G5s outnumber the G3? It must be immense.
Basically, Leopard on the PPC is in the same desperate need for optimization that Intel users are getting with 10.6. It’s probably more needed in the PPC case. I don’t blame G5 owners (who are still under warranty & getting Applecare!) for being annoyed that the latest OS excludes them.
June 9, 2009 at 2:59 pm
Sorry, can’t agree there. Look at the trouble Microsoft is in because they refuse to abandon legacy code. Windows is big and bloated because of it. At least Apple has the guts to say that they need to dump PPC code and focus development efforts on Intel as that’s where they get their chips from now and it will make the product better. That’s not targeting “dollar-conscious mac users.” It’s simply calling it for what it is. A break from a technology that Apple decided to do away with four years ago for the good of the platform as a whole.
No. What I mean is that Apple announced the Intel transition and made it very clear that the days of the PPC were numbered. Therefore everybody had fair warning that this was going to happen. Which means people had (as I write this) FOUR YEARS to plan their transition to the Intel platform. It’s not Apple’s fault that the end is near and you can’t use the latest and greatest from “The Steve.” Again, they gave you fair warning that this was going to happen.
Actually the distinction hasn’t been lost on me. There’s a simple reason why the support lasted as long as it did… The education market. I was contractor with Apple at the time and there were a ton of G3 iBooks and iMacs out there that Apple had in schools that they (via their education sales force) had to transition to eMacs, G4 iBooks and 12″ G4 Powerbooks. Once that was done, they killed support for the G3 in 10.5. I couldn’t find numbers on G3’s vs G4’s vs G5’s, but seeing as I was going into schools and swapping G3’s at a huge rate, the number of G3’s must not have been small.
A couple of things on that point.
– Seeing as the last G5 was released in October 2005 and killed in August 2006, anyone with Applecare should be out of warranty sometime this year or early next year. From a product management standpoint, I can see why it makes sense for Apple to do away with PPC support at this juncture.
– Apple doesn’t make PPC machines anymore and hasn’t for years. There really isn’t a reason to support them going forward in new OS releases. Instead it makes sense to provide security updates for 10.5 and 10.4 for the users who for whatever reason can’t upgrade. But even then that will eventually disappear.
– With Snow Leopard coming real soon to an Apple Store near you, it’s a safe bet that developers are going to start doing Intel only apps and begin scaling back development on universal binary apps. That transition will grow and eventually you won’t be able to get apps that run on PPC. What then?
To close, one of the reasons that Apple isn’t Microsoft and never will be is that they are willing to do unpopular things to better the platform as a whole. That sort of decision making may make Apple very unpopular in some circles, but at least at the end of this Apple users will have a lean, mean OS that will give Apple the ability to do the things that will continue to garner market share from the Windows platform. Microsoft isn’t willing to do that, and look what you get from them. Bloatware. Plus, they’ve supported PPC users for a very long time from where I stand. But all things have their end, and it’s time for PPC support to end. Having been around the 68K to PPC transition and the OS9 to OS X transition, I can say that the both of those were worth it. In the end, this will be too.
June 13, 2009 at 12:39 pm
In February 2005 I spent $2,900 for a PowerMac G5 and 20″ Cinema Display. It had the PowerPC chip. Now my 4 year old Mac hardware has been engineered out of the equation by Snow Leopard. Needless to say I’m angry and feel betrayed by all of this.
For you to say “get over it” to people like me is most insulting and shows how little empathy or regard you have for other Mac user’s feelings and their financial loss in this instance. In fact you come off as rather arrogant when you say smugly “get over it”.
Hardware should not become obsolete in 3-5 years, this is inexcusable and is indicative of profiteering via planned obsolescence (force the enduser into buying whole new hardware/software or be left behind), or at the very least lack of consideration for their customer base.
You project your infatuation with Apple Computer onto others and this is a mistake. Unlike you, we can see when we are being ripped off–especially when Apple hardware and software already costs 2-3 times what a PC costs. I do not eat, sleep and breathe Apple Computer products like you. I don’t want to buy an entirely new system every 2 years to the tune of thousands of dollars in hardware and software upgrades. I speak for the majority of people out here in the “real world” of hard knocks and little money to spare. Not all of us live at home with mommy and daddy in our 40s, 50s and beyond–hence having loads of money lying around to piss off on the next iPod, iPHone, or iPotty.
To make Snow Leopard not support Apple hardware that is only 3 years old is from a business and customer loyalty perspective a disastrous move my Apple that will alienate thousands of former customers from investing in expensive Apple equipment ever again.
It would behoove Apple to compensate abandoned PowerPC endusers by shipping them a free copy of Leopard so they can get a few more years out of their now obsolete systems before tossing these very expensive–and short lived–Apple products.
June 13, 2009 at 1:58 pm
Apple compensate you for dropping PPC support for a four year old computer? Not gonna happen. I hate to break it to you, but three years is what you should bank on for the lifespan of a computer. Anything more is a bonus. I’d say you got great value from that computer. And you still can… More on that in a second.
I should also mention that I happen to live in the real world and not with mommy and daddy. I may be under 40, but just under 40. I have a 2 year old MacBook Pro that I am planning on replacing in the next year when Apple gets their act together and put out a matte screen for the 15″ model. Why? Because I have other responsibilities such as car payments and a mortgage. Oh yeah I’ve got a two year old iPod Nano and I use a Blackberry Curve and not an iPhone. All of that makes yours truly pretty lame by fanboi standards.
What I do have is a perspective from both the customer side of the fence and the manufacturer side of the fence. So I can see why Apple would kill PPC support now. Any G5’s that are still in service are going to drop out of warranty or AppleCare within the next 9 months to 1 year. Therefore, this is the perfect time to complete the Intel transition from their perspective.
Apple announced the Intel transition FOUR YEARS AGO. PPC owners have had fair waring, and while you can’t use the latest and greatest OS that has been blessed by the most holy CEO of Apple Steve Jobs on your PPC, you will still get support from Apple in the form of security patches and the like (just take a look Tiger if you want an example) if you don’t want to dump what you’ve got. If you want to use the latest and greatest, buy a new computer. It’s truly that simple. There are many PPC owners who realize that and are making their plans accordingly. They’ve gotten over it. You should too.
June 13, 2009 at 2:13 pm
Ha! I called Apple today and they’re sending me a copy of Leopard at no charge. So they agreed with me and tried to make a conciliatory gesture.
As for you–you were entirely wrong in your remarks: “Apple compensate you for dropping PPC support for a four year old computer? Not gonna happen.”
I disagree with everything you say, your advice is poor and misguided. I also call into question your so-called self proclaimed wisdom on Apple products.
I’m not going to make another post here, it’s not worth my time.
June 13, 2009 at 3:26 pm
Great. You got a free copy of Leopard. Bravo! But that still doesn’t deal with the fact that you can’t won’t be running any future Mac OS’es (starting with Snow Leopard) on that G5 of yours. Not to mention that future apps are likely to be Intel only. So from where I stand, you’re still in the same situation that you were in prior to posting here. You’re still the proud owner of a computer that is basically approaching the end of its lifespan. The only difference is you have a newer OS. I guess that sending it to you saves Apple from having to write it off as excess inventory.
As for my advice being “poor and misguided,” my customers, some of whom have been with me for over 20 years don’t think so. That’s all that matters to me. I don’t expect everybody to agree with what I write in this blog. So you’ll excuse me if I don’t lose sleep over you not coming back to this blog.
Happy trails.
June 14, 2009 at 10:19 am
Hey Zamboni and X! Get a grip on reality, take a chill pill and calm down! Apple gave you PPC owners since 2005 to migrate to Intel. You guys didn’t and now you’re like whiny little babies because zero hour is approaching and you’re stuck. That’s not Apple’s fault. That’s YOUR fault! Like IT Nerd said in his piece, GET OVER IT! Time for a new computer with a processor that runs Snow Leopard.
July 1, 2009 at 12:25 am
Greetings,
I own a Quad-core G5 Mac Pro. I knew this day was coming back in late 2005-2006. Unfortunately, my work timetable didn’t allow me to wait until the Intel desktops were available. Fortunately, my G4 Power Book was stolen allowing me to replace it the MacBook Pro I’m typing on now.
I would have liked Apple to incorporate PPC code into their OSes for 2 more years. I understand why they won’t and grudgingly agree with them. Tiger is great and runs well (as it should) on aG5 but Leopard offered some nice features but really doesn’t run as well on a PPC. I can imagine the difficulties writing an OS to support two processor families that are so different. A Quad Core G5 machine might not have the benchmarks of a similar Intel machine, but it’s still pretty darn fast. It would greatly benefit from some of the enhancements made in streamlining the 64-bit code.
Some feel Apple may owe me and other customers of their not inexpensive PPC – I don’t agree. I do feel that it would good be customer service to send those customers off with as stable and efficient an OS possible for that platform. Leopard really isn’t it.
Maybe they could release SLC (Snow Leopard Cub).
Final Cut, Photoshop and Lightroom will all run on my machine as is. When that starts to change I’ll pony up for a (fill in blank – number of cores) Intel machine. I’d be glad to do it now but can’t. Time to start cut back on the lattes and Jamba’s and put that money in the “Future Technology Bottle”.
Regards
July 16, 2009 at 1:17 am
As a filmmaker and engineer, I have stuck by Apple since the G3 days simply because a PC cannot withstand weeks at a time being left on and working high end applications on it. Final Cut Pro sold me on the Apple, as did Logic, since neither Avid nor Pro Tools offers any real good support on the system, no matter what operating system or chipset. I have 2 G5s, one the 1.8 Dual and the 2.5 Dual. Make no mistake, I have had 5 PCs running photography and animation software in the time I purchased my G5 in 2004, and all the PCs have died. The problem, Intel chips! The chips overheat something fierce and will burn out with excessive use. For Apple to abandon what makes an Apple to go to a dual boot windows was the beginning of the end. If I want Windows, I’ll throw a couple hundred on a refurbished cpu and get a PC. For them to go Intel was a sign that they were going to cater to the non prosumer crowed and try and pursuade little timmy into talking his mom into getting this costly beast of a machine. After they announced no more PPC everybody that I knew professionally who got the Intel based Macs had serious problems and/or deaths of their machine with excessive use. The intel chips died or burnt up. Apple’s response, you can buy an intel fan and another processor from us or amazon. Again, a problem.
I have decided, I am done with Apple. May they die in a fiery hell as they continue to alienate the professional community that backed their now sorry asses.
But don’t worry. I’ll have snow leopard. On my PC. Check the hackintosh forums. I have just the craptastic shitfest intel 64bit processor to run it.
The future of the Mac…emulation on a PC. How sad.
September 3, 2009 at 9:29 am
I agree with the “Get over it” comment, even though I have a 12″ Powerbook from 2003 that I’d like to upgrade. The computer is six years old, I don’t expect Apple to hold back on innovation (and continuing to deliver impressive sales numbers) just to satisfy people who bought their computer while George Bush II was still in office.
September 10, 2009 at 12:12 pm
I definitely understand Apple’s stance from a development point of view. I am a web programmer and thus know just how painful it is to still be supporting Internet Explorer 6 half a decade after it became obsolete, just to keep the 13% of people who still refuse to upgrade happy. In essence, that 13% market is holding everybody back, because IE 6’s limitations are so pronounced that new technologies that could really benefit the rest of us never get to be implemented.
Apple has always been more about moving forward than pleasing everybody. This move is simply keeping in line with what they’ve always done, no surprise.
Of course to those of us who still have a relatively new PPC, it still feels rather cold.
September 19, 2009 at 4:40 am
This is a really funny situation for me. I happen to work in studios quite often. Working in film post production, I bounce from sound studios to editing studios, and all are run using mainly apple computers. I agree with IT up to a point- Apple announced what they were going to do, gave a lot of time and the smart thing to do is to plan a transition.
But, in the case of a post house it is not so simple. Often you have entire systems that need to work flawlessly together (audio interface, dsp cards, video capturing cards, many different types of software, the list goes on…) and you can’t just go buy a new computer. Replacing you computers could end up cost the same as it did to start the studio.
So, this is a move that rocked the relationship between apple and professional media producers. I could be wrong, but isn’t that relationship a big reason why apple is where it is today? I’ve spoken to some studio heads and they are starting (for the first time in a very long time) to look away from apple for their next big move.
So far I’ve seen every professional facility I’ve been to pissed about this. They of course have many perfectly functioning suites that are now financial and technical time bombs- and the reason they chose apple in the first place was to avoid this stupidity.
So- I guess the consumers just need to buy new computers and studios need to go buy new studios…and hope they don’t have any troubles with the ole ppc and hope that companies like digidesign can move their asses and write new software before the next os comes out. And we all hope dearly that this happened only because of the chip change and their desire to streamline a better, stronger product for the future. Because if this is a new trend then apple will take the back seat (like the trunk) in studio land.
October 4, 2009 at 9:49 am
“I have a 2 year old MacBook Pro that I am planning on replacing in the next year when Apple gets their act together and put out a matte screen for the 15″ model. Why? Because I have other responsibilities such as car payments and a mortgage.” What point were you trying to make here?…you have to buy a mac because you have car payments?
October 21, 2009 at 10:08 pm
Hmmm, Linux seems to run extremely well on just about every processor made in the last 10 years, PPC included..
Its not a matter of can’t , it’s a matter of WE WONT COMPILE IT FOR PPC