developer/programming
08/26/2005, 9:15am, EDT
Friday, August 26th
Intel transition to be easiest in Apple history
First indications from Mac developers point to a quick and smooth transition to the Intel platform. In fact, this transition could be "the easiest of all those yet experienced by Apple developers," according to a report by RedNova. "The most difficult part about it is switching to Xcode, which is something that we'd be doing anyway," said Chuck Rogers of MacSpeech. For those who have already made that transition, the Intel switch promises to be painless. Because Apple has prepared well for the move to Intel, developers are expecting relatively few problems. "They had the OS up and running for so long," said Rich Siegel of Bare Bones, "and because the fundamental architecture of the OS is different -- everything is abstracted -- it's much easier to adapt your code for a new CPU architecture because the OS really protects you from all that."
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It SHOULD be easy. As long as both processors are supported it should be easier than switching from Windows to Mac. It's Mac to Mac!
Well, unless your software requires Altivec. Or you're still running some Classic software because the company is out of business or no longer supports the mac. Or the peripheral maker decides not to make a driver for Intel.
But besides that....
Existing PPC Macs won't stop running when the Intel-based Macs appear.
Apple will still be making PPC Macs for a while longer.
Even used Macs will still run, and can be had on the used market.
And most "altivec-enabled" software falls back on non-altivec code if it isn't running on a G4/G5 Mac. It's called degrading performance gracefully.
Irritating and annoying, some, painful, for a few, occasionally.
But keep on worrying; the sky may yet fall.