Comments on: Will Mac OS X 10.6 “Snow Leopard” really support PowerPC?!

By: name

name — Fri, 08 May 2009 21:26:30 +0000

Pssh. Don’t say that Linux is difficult to port to other architectures until you get a clue. Linux supports more architectures than all other operating systems combined.

for example: x86, MIPS, x64, SPARC, DEC Alpha, Itanium, PowerPC, ARM, m68k, PA-RISC, s390, SuperH, M32R and more

By: MacDanne (Danne Ström)

MacDanne (Danne Ström) — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 10:36:08 +0000

@dalaixerces btw… I’m Mizhou, that you quoted on http://macosrumors.com/2009/03/01/will-snow-leopard-support-ppc/

By: Conrad

Conrad — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 02:05:45 +0000

@IBM Inside:

The minimum system requirements for Windows 7 are 1 GHz 32-bit or 64-bit processor,
1 GB of system memory, 16 GB of available disk space, Support for DirectX 9 graphics with 128 MB memory (in order to enable Aero theme), and DVD-R/W Drive. BTW, what software are you running on the G4/G5?

@Everybody:

I’m a Mac OS 10 developer and I have been using my PowerMac G5 Quad 2.5 GHz with great success for the last ~2.5 years. However, it’s time for me to upgrade this machine so that I can be able to do iPhone SDK development. Also, I have noticed that many applications are being released as Intel only these days.

I can understand the concerns as a consumer but a company like Apple must continue to move forward.

By: IBM Inside

IBM Inside — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 20:45:05 +0000

I am saddened by the prospect of leaving my iBook G4 in the dust with 10.4.11 rather than getting the (for me in education, free) 10.6 upgrade. The reason I do not use 10.5 is the lack of Classic support, and I now do not use the same programs. I would at least want 10.6 to run on a 1200MHz G4. Or, I could install 7 on my (rarely used) 5-yr-old Thinkpad T41 with (just) a 1600MHz Pentium M. My iBook is, in real world applications, over twice as fast as my PC, although my PC has 1280MB RAM, compared to my iBook’s 512MB. I really think that Apple, my fav computer company (my first computer was a MacIIsi) is making a bad choice by ditching us loyal PPC fans. This would not have happened if a G5 Powerbook went out… for my next computer, I will just get a used G5. PPC is simply better for my uses, and a lot of my software will only run reasonably well on a mid to high speed G4 PPC processor. Well, at least I know that linux is always going to be there… but I personally sort of hate linux. Rant over.

By: Rafael

Rafael — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 16:46:34 +0000

I have bought macs since the first imac was released. I moved from an original imac, to a blue and white G3, then a quicksilver dual G4, a powerbook G4, and now a G5… and I have had all these machines, except the imac run to at least 10.4.11. If Apple doesn’t allow 10.6 to run on my high end G5 I am just going to spend my money on building my own intel mac. There are so many resources online on how to do this and it will cost me half of what Apple expects me to pay. Also just to note, PC’s are actually getting a much better deal nowadays. They are no longer obsolete after 2-3 yrs. Their latest OS Windows 7 promises to run on machines more than 5 and 6 yrs old and will be able to install with only 512mb of ram and a 1Ghz processor. Makes me almost want to make the switch. Apple should be ashamed of what they’re doing and leaving out so many customers.

By: Joe

Joe — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 01:03:29 +0000

While it’s not totally unreasonable for Apple to eliminate PPC support in Snow Leopard, they should probably give some consideration to owners of machines that can make use of the features. They are focusing on multi-core CPU’s. The dual core and quad core G5′s have them. They are focusing on 64 bit computing. The G5′s are 64 bit machines. I also don’t see why OpenCL wouldn’t be possible on the later G5′s. The nVidia 6600 in the newest G5′s may be slow by todays standards, but there are faster cards available. Maybe raising the bar from 867mhz G4 in Leopard to Dual/Quad core G5 instead of to Intel only wouldn’t be too much of a stretch.

By: john

john — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 15:57:20 +0000

doctorsid:

I guess that Bushthink is alive and well. I hope you are keeping up with the Wall Street “updates.”Just a 76 old semi-retired who also is not flush with the bucks. Started with machine language and line editors. Perfectly happy with Bean nowadays and other non-bloated applications for Power Macs. Rule of thumb: always get the Rolls Royces of “over the hill” technology.

By: KillerBeas

KillerBeas — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 15:48:21 +0000

First thing. I have a job, and a good one, and I’m never thrilled about throwing another 2k-3k every 2-3 years to buy another system. It’s nice to know that we have a few people here with unlimited wealth. Realize most people have to pay the heat, electric and other everyday bills.

Next, PPC G5′s are 64 Bit processors. Intel was playing catch up.

I’m very unhappy about the prospect of Apple discontinuing support for PPC processors. Apple never fully took advantage of the G5′s , as they promised, and now they’re done of them.

I love Mac’s, I have since the first Mac’s came out, but Apple’s ability to discard customers after 2 years shows that they’re just heading down the same route as the rest of the PC. 2 -3 year obsolescence. You’re lucky if your system even runs for 3 years.

Sad.
Beas

By: KG6YGS

KG6YGS — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 18:20:17 +0000

If Apple keeps PPC support in 10.6, it is most likely to drop support for low-end G4 processors; if you look at each release of OS X, it seems that support for older processors is somewhat incremental–does the machine have built-in Firewire support, is the processor have a minimum speed, and so on. Despite what some people may believe, the high end G4s and G5s are darn good machines–the speed differences in many cases are trivial.

By: RadarPR

RadarPR — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 12:30:29 +0000

Well if this is the final step for PowerPC computers (Just if it is…) I have to say that the PowerPC had demostrated to be a great platform through out the years.

I have been an Apple entusiast for the past 17 years. Ever since I grab me an LC III and didn’t look back.

At home I have been owner of PowerComputing (PC) PowerBase 180, and PC Power Tower 250. Later a Performa 6300CD, an iMacDV SE, an iBook G3 (Dual USB), and finally a Mac G5 Dual.
And from 68030 Motorola Processors to State-of-the-art PowerPC G5.

No matter what happens on the future with Snow Leopard, my home computers will keep working and bringing the same performance, maybe on the future I’ll switch to Intel-based Macs. But ’til then I still have about 10 GB of RAM and about a Terabyte of HDD that could optimize my machine until then.

I just ask to Apple to keep making good products and don’t let that the market keep them from innovating as always.

By: Ned Sc

Ned Sc — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 06:54:48 +0000

Mizhou has every right to be mad here. It’s a sad day when fellow mac users are defending Apple in cutting support for computers that are only -three years old-. Caller and doctorsid seem to forget things like student loans, house payments, car repair bills, and other things that come up in life. The fact that he has a loan and doesn’t wish to take out a second one is a sign that he’s being financially responsible.

People wanting 10.6 to support PPCs aren’t cry babies or whiners; they’re people who are asking for reasonable support for their computers.

By: doctorsid

doctorsid — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 17:08:15 +0000

Mizhou… Go Cry Me A River….

I have a G5 and no money to buy a Mac Pro..Snow you know what… That just means I cant run Snow Leopard on it. You are probably one of the idiots that gets mad when you bounce a check and you close your bank account thinking you are getting even. Maybe you should switch to Linux, Mac users dont need cry babies like you in our midst

By: caller

caller — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 12:21:00 +0000

@Mizhou: some thoughts
1. please stop using mac os x, we don’t need whiners like you
2. get a job so you can afford buying a new computer
3. if you can’t do 2. learn to live within your means

*sheesh*

By: Hawkeye

Hawkeye — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 08:57:18 +0000

Snow Leopard is not likely to support PPCs because there isn’t much point in supporting the platform. Snow Leopard is all about optimizations, and most of those are related to parallel computing. Only a handful of PPC Mac’s were dual CPU, and most of the GPUs in PPC Mac’s are too old to be supported by OpenCL. Even if Snow Leopard were to support these PPC Mac’s, the speed boost would be a yawner (very minimal). Even some of the older dual-core Intel Mac’s won’t see a large jump in performance. You’ll have to have a 64-bit (Core 2) to begin to realize the value of Snow Leopard’s optimizations. Realistically, this OS is a forward looking OS, designed with the multi-core 64-bit CPUs and NVIDA chips in the not-yet-released Macs.

For these reasons, Apple has nothing to gain by supporting the PPC. It simply isn’t worth the cost of support.

@Mizhou: You’re blowing smoke. You’re not going to stop using Mac’s just because Snow Leopard won’t run on your G5. And if it did, you’d be disappointed it wasn’t much faster than 10.5 on your Mac, and angry that you blew $129 for not much of anything.

By: admin

admin — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 18:10:14 +0000

No. That is one bright spot in all this uncertainty, that we have been able to confirm with sources: one of the key reasons for the lack of many above-the-hood “feature” changes is to retain complete backwards-compatibility for 10.5.x users to be able to run apps developed on/for Snow Leopard.

Of course those apps won’t be able to fully benefit from the new core improvements, but in the case of OpenCL for example,virtually no PowerPC Macs other that PCI Express based PowerMac G5s (PPC 970MP dual-core CPUs) support, or are even capable of being upgraded to support OpenCL.

Just as the Intel code base was maintained internally all along (remember, NeXTStep/OpenStep ran on Intel before Apple ported it to PowerPC in 1997), the PPC code tree is still being kept more or less current with Snow Leopard. This gives us hope…but as we’ve said, a lot of factors are in play here.

We’ll be following related developments very closely and as always, greatly appreciate all the tips & info we receive from
readers like you!