Update from yesterday, re OS X on legacy Pentiums

I took the liberty of hyperbole concerning an Intel-ported version of OS X potentially running on a legacy Winblows Pentium pee-cee, and shouldn't Bill of Borg be crying in his beer right now.

Well...I spoke too soon. I should have known that logic wouldn't extend beyond Steve's immediate self interest. It won't be as easy as all that - if ever. I quote from a poster to the Thinksecret mailing list:

"There is not going to be an Intel version of OS X that you could install on a currently-existing Windows laptop. Period. Not going to happen. Ever. And anyone who tells you "it'll be hacked and work fine" knows very little about
computer architecture, and even less about how usable "hacked" Mac OS X is likely to be (got a slightly different FireWire chip to the one that Apple uses? Boom - no booting for j00, haxx0r!).

The only reason to buy a Windows machine today rather than a PowerPC Mac is the same as it's always been - if there's a specific application and/or hardware combination that Apple doesn't provide. For example, I wanted a
tablet. Apple doesn't make them. Hence, I'm typing this on a very pretty little (and very good) little Acer. Had Apple made a tablet, I'd have bought that instead in an instan[t]."

-  Ian Betteridge


So Apple will protect its widget sales by insisting people buy "MacIntels". Blah. It doesn't mean that OS X builds for legacy PCs still isn't a great idea! And never underestimate the power of hackers. PearPC has been running the current Panther builds (albeit slowly) in emulation mode on Pentiums for some time now.

Apple is undergoing a resurgence in popularity - sales of the OS are going thru the roof. Given M$FT's vulnerability right now, it would be the perfect time to pitch the concept of "switching" desktop OS'es to corporate America - if they don't have to buy new hardware, it would be a much easier sell - and the Mac OS market share would be back in double digits. I'll be arguing more on this later. Comments?