Comments on: Apple’s Intel Incompatibilities

By: Stony

Stony — Sun, 19 Feb 2006 09:15:06 +0000

Problems with ProTools software, the company states that thier software WILL NOT work on the intel chiped Macs. I wonder what other apps rosettsa can’t handle???

By: Joe

Joe — Tue, 17 Jan 2006 00:39:37 +0000

Delaying the purchase also makes a nice excuse for me to delay spending the money I would need to save up anyway

By: Amber

Amber — Mon, 16 Jan 2006 22:26:52 +0000

This is very similar to what happened with the switch from Motorola 680×0 processors to PowerPC processors in the mid-90s. Built-in OS extensions (then System 7 and OS such as CFM-68 allowed programs written for 68k Macs to run on PowerPC Macs. I never noticed a speed issue in any of the apps I used. If there was one, it was negligible.

Like Rusty said, the bigger apps is where you might notice some lag - Photoshop, Quark, etc. And that’s exactly what happened ~12 years ago. Many graphic design companies waited to switch to PowerPCs until after the apps had been ported to native. Similarly, many graphic design companies waited longer than a lot of people/places to switch to OS X - in fact, some still haven’t. There are speed issues that come with Carbon software (which will run natively on either OS 9 or OS X) in contrast to Cocoa software (OS X native only).

These things are common in the industry and typically not a big deal. Just part of business as usual.

By: Rusty

Rusty — Mon, 16 Jan 2006 20:11:22 +0000

Joe,
An entire platform switch is a major deal (this is only the third switch during the company’s entire existence), with some expected speed bumps along the way. Hopefully I can explain this without it being confusing.

Rosetta is a technology that allows programs compiled for PowerPC Macs to run seamlessly on Intel-based Macs (it’s very much like an emulator). The upside is you can run most existing programs on an Intel-based Mac, with the cost being speed. It’s meant as an interim solution until software authors have had a chance to compile their programs for the new Intel platform. Starting in the next couple of months, Mac applications will be released as “universal binaries” (i.e. - compiled for both types of Macs) which will let either a Power PC Mac or an Intel Mac run them.

So, even if there’s no universal binary for Firefox yet, an Intel Mac can still run the Power PC version, it will just be a little slower.

The only programs that won’t make the jump easily are those like Virtual PC that are deeply intertwined with the hardware. Adobe also may be slow to release a universal binary of Photoshop and its other apps.

If you’re doing heavy-duty multimedia authoring, it’d be a good idea to wait a while to buy a new Mac. But if you’re mostly just surfing the web, writing papers, and using iLife, making the jump now should be fine as long as you don’t need to use Virtual PC.

By: Amber

Amber — Mon, 16 Jan 2006 19:58:35 +0000

Joe - after reading the two Apple pages to which you linked, I wonder what you’re worried about..? Thanks to Rosetta there won’t be compatibility issues to worry about - existing programs will run on the Intel architecture.

Explain your worry, please..?

By: Amber

Amber — Mon, 16 Jan 2006 19:53:24 +0000

Well, I don’t know a whole hell of a lot about the Rosetta thing, but I did write about the PowerPC-to-Intel switch back in June. At that time, I thought everybody was getting antsy in the pantsy prematurely. I still think so.