[X4U] New Software for PPC

[Jim Robertson]

On 1/12/06 3:20 PM, "Scott McCulloch" <mylists at ascottmcculloch.com> wrote:

> Yes, Universal Binaries will install on G5s, and I suspect G4s and
> G3s running OS X (I just installed iWork '06 and iLife '06, and am
> running DayLite 3.0Beta, all of which are Universal Binaries and work
> fine on my Dual 2GHz G5).
> 
> You don't need to worry until software developers start making
> MacIntel ONLY software - which I suspect is at least a couple of
> years away.
> 
> Scott

I wouldn't be quite so sanguine. Apple's high-end apps are notorious for
requiring the latest/greatest hardware to run at all (just look at the
requirements for installing Aperture. I couldn't run the installer on my
dual G5 PowerMac until I purchased a new video card).

Developers wishing to leverage the ultimate performance from new hardware;
e.g., PCI Express, or whatever comes in the next year or two in graphics
processors, etc., may similarly not bother to write PPC versions.

On the other hand, cross-platform developers may be less interested in
wringing the last little bit (or last whole lot) of performance out of
platform-specific hardware. For example, I'll wager Adobe didn't introduce
their "Light Room" as a Mac-only beta because of some new-found love for the
Mac platform. I suspect their goal was just the opposite: they don't want
people abandoning Windows because of Aperture. Note that unlike Aperture,
Adobe's LightRoom doesn't use any hardware acceleration features of OS X's
"CoreImage", which is what makes Aperture so hardware-demanding on the Mac.
If Adobe can keep Windows-user photographers from jumping to the Mac by
reassuring their Windows users they'll soon have their own equivalent
product, later on they'll be able to continue their obvious gradual move
away from the Macintosh. (Why do you think the begging and pleading for an
OS X version of FrameMaker falls on deaf ears?)

I've been a Mac user since day 1 in 1984. Apple has had many great ideas,
and the courage to implement the latest and greatest ideas from others in
many generations of Macs, but they've NEVER been able to translate that into
capture and RETENTION of marketshare before. For the moment, iTunes and the
iPOD are the obvious exceptions to that, but Apple has a long history of
arrogance when negotiating with competitors, and time after time that's led
eventually to the folks who run the world from Redmond coming out on top.

Look at something as basic as Quicken. Apple went so far as to put Intuit's
CEO on its Board of Directors, in exchange for which it gets a VERY poor
cousin of the Windows program "updated' annually (read the user reviews of
Quicken for the Mac on Amazon), and an openly Mac-hostile Intuit licensing
policy for Banks that ENCOURAGES them not to support Mac online banking
within Quicken.

Jim Robertson
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