Blog Post

Jun 04 2008

Mac OS X 10.6

It seems like Apple will be showing more than the iPhone next week, if today’s rumors are true. Mac OS X 10.6 is supposed to show up during the WWDC keynote, and not surprisingly, it’s slated to be Intel-only. If you’re still trundling along on an older PowerPC Mac, perhaps now’s the time to splurge.

See, the only way for PowerPC users to run 10.6 would be to get an Intel Mac, putting an end to the PowerPC era/transition. I know it’s sad, but we can always look to the future. Here’s what I make of 10.6; it’s partially fact and partially speculation.

For Users

You may have heard the term ‘Universal Binary’. Simply put, these are applications that run on both Intel and PowerPC Macs. Great for compatibility, though the downside is the larger file sizes; the app requires both the Intel bits and PowerPC bits within the same folder.

Of course, you as a user are not aware of all this black magic under the hood, but by loosing one architecture (namely PowerPC), file sizes should go down across the board. You as a user benefits, because you’ll have more space for your photos, videos and music.

For Developers

For developers, using one architecture will mean less time testing and supporting users. Hell, if Apple’s Compatibility Labs in Cupertino already house more than 400 Macintosh configurations, can you imagine how complicated it would be to support all your users?

I don’t see any additions to the Core libraries (Core Audio, Core Animation, etc.), but I believe Apple would also launch a new version of XCode with 10.6, to support the development and optimization of Intel-only apps. Of course, just my $0.02.

Rosetta

One thing that remains is whether Rosetta support will still be available in 10.6. Rosetta enables Intel Macs to run PowerPC applications. I guess if you’re Apple and looking to keep your developers happy, you’d drop Rosetta to encourage users to upgrade their software to Universal or Intel versions.

Of course, this is mostly speculation (though some of it is fact). I can only wonder what Apple has in store when next week comes.

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