[Ti] OS X on a PC? [forward from a different list]

[David Remahl]

Of course it is a hoax. It simply isn't possible to get PowerPC code to 
run without emulation on an x86 architecture. Apple didn't leave 
"something in the code" that would allow it. They would have to have 
left an x86 version of the binaries for every little tool and 
application, and they didn't.

_However_....

There is strong evidence that Apple does have OS X running on Intel. 
Strong evidence. If you want to see some of it, download Safari and go:

% strings - Safari.app/Contents/MacOS/Safari | grep -A 10 -B 10 Intel
c0 at 4:8 at 12@16:20
v0 at 4:8 at 12c16^c20
{_NSSize=ff}0 at 8:12 at 16{_NSSize=ff}20
/System/Library/CoreServices/ServerVersion.plist
/System/Library/CoreServices/SystemVersion.plist
Unk.
ProductVersion
ProductBuildVersion
%@:%@
PowerPC
Intel
%@ %@ (%@) %d MB
Single
Dual
BugReport
EmptyIdentifier
ExtraStuffIdentifier
Fewer Options
More Options
BugReportSheetIsExpanded
None

Notice the string "Intel" in the middle. This comes from the Safari 
binary, and provides some support to the fact that OS X is running on 
Intel somewhere - probably together with Safari - at Apple. I have 
verified that when sending a bug report Safari checks with the Mach 
kernel to see what architecture it is runnig on, so this is not simply 
a compile time flag!

Note that this _could_ also be a leftover from OpenStep. Perhaps they 
reused some debugging code which was designed to handle different 
processor families? But Mach didn't run on PPC, did it?

In addition, there is an Open Firmware.app file (or something - my 
memory deceives me) which is compiled as a fat binary, with both PPC 
and Mach-O executable code in it. Probably a slip up.

If anyone else has any tangible evidence, please bring it forward. But 
lets not take the existence of a petition as proof that some unknown 
person managed to get a normal version of OS X with Aqua running 
seamlessly on his x86 computer, because that is simply not possible.

/ Regards, David

On Sunday, January 26, 2003, at 02:17 AM, cbirds wrote:

>> It is an obvious hoax. Either by AAWPC at aol.com or by his friend. Lets
>> not get bogged down in this thread.
>
> This is not a hoax. There is something in the code that would allow 
> this,
> and I wondered why Apple left it there...someone was bound to crack it.
> Had you ever seen this website?
>
> http://www.osxonintel.com
>
> It had nearly 50,000 signatures on a petition for porting X to Intel 
> but
> it seems to have disappeared now.