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.