An opinion article at APCMag: "The focus of Snow Leopard is on core upgrades, not shiny new features. A bedrock focused update that delivers a streamlined, enhanced OS X. Stability. Efficiency. A "new generation of core technologies." All this is about raising the floor on the entire system. Multi-core optimization, support for 16TB RAM (yes, Terabytes), and a language to allow developers to tap the power of the graphics processor are just a few of the key upgrades. But you can't lift the floor and let people walk around where the floor used to be all at the same time. Not without leaving holes for a potential rising damp problem further down the track."
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Member since:2005-07-08
Actually, if you have an intel Mac rather than a PPC Mac, Snow Leopard will run *faster* on it and use less space. So one wouldn't have to get new hardware in that case.
That having been said, it would be nice if they did have some sort of Snow Leopard for PPC. (Though the only difference really would be that it wouldn't have the larger binaries - the speed improvements are all for taking advantage of multicore processors and modern GPUs, a good idea IMHO.) Definitely nobody's making you buy Snow Leopard, there's no real new features, so there's no "Apple tax" this time around.
Member since:2006-01-23
That having been said, it would be nice if they did have some sort of Snow Leopard for PPC. (Though the only difference really would be that it wouldn't have the larger binaries - the speed improvements are all for taking advantage of multicore processors and modern GPUs, a good idea IMHO.) Definitely nobody's making you buy Snow Leopard, there's no real new features, so there's no "Apple tax" this time around.
Until Leopard, every major release of Mac OS X ran faster than its predecessor, for me at least.
I really believe that they should continue to support the PowerPC G5 processors simply because they're a good fit. It's not as though anyone (other than fanatics) were expecting PowerPC G4 support to continue past Leopard.
Of course, it seems obvious since Tiger that Apple have struggled with getting an operating system to run efficiently on two different hardware platforms. They'd be wise in their development efforts to drop PowerPC for optimisations or split the work toward the end into two teams.
Member since:2007-04-23
Member since:2008-07-06
Member since:2005-07-06
Your old hardware will continue to run just as well with the OS you now have on it. Nothing from new versions of Mac OS X causes your current version you have it to run any differently.
The only thing that may have changed is "your perception" of how well your computer runs. This is only because you now see newer computers that run faster and can take advantage of new versions of OS X.
Again, your current computer does not run any differently than it has for as long as you have that same version of the OS running on it. The only pressure for you to upgrade comes from inside yourself and your feelings of "needing" to have the latest OS.
Apple tax? It isn't like the IRS where you HAVE to pay it. Don't want it? Don't buy it. Apple still support security updates for OS X 10.4 which still runs just fine on my 800mhz G4 Powerbook (which I'm writing this with) and my 800mhz G4 iMac 15" "lamp". Neither of those suddenly have problems. Sure my Nov '06 white 24" Intel Core2Duo computer is taking advantage of Leopard features and will be able to take advantage of Snow Leopard features and I'm pretty sure that I will be upgrading to the latter when it comes out.
In case you don't know, Apple is a hardware company. The profit they make on software barely makes a bump in net profits. They only create and support software so that people will buy their hardware. And when new hardware comes out, you want it to run the best it possibly can, right? So you do want them to continue to make improvements in OS X, right? When you do buy that new Apple computer you will be able to take advantage of the version of OS X that came with it and can happily run it for it for over 10 years without upgrading the OS. That's a lot better than I've ever done with any of my cars.
Member since:2005-07-23
That no support for old hardware doesn't matter is a common idea and message from mac fanatics, however developers for the mac platform are very eager to take advantage of whatever new the latest OS version offer, and Apple try to get them to support it aswell. So usually the latest version of this and that application doesn't run on older OS X versions, which indeed are an issue for people who are stuck with the old OS versions.
Next.
Member since:2005-07-06
Who said that Snow Leopard and Leopard are incompatible? Except OpenCL / multi core stuff, wich is targetted at high perfomance applications, I don't see any indication that Snow Leopard adds new APIs. That means that common desktop applications should run well under PPC Leopard.
Member since:
2006-07-25
people used to complain about the microsoft tax - every few years you were expected to buy new versions of windows or word to be able to stay compatible.
Well it seems to me that apple must have co-opted their tax department and turboed it. Microsoft seem positively generous now in the way they support old hardware.
I don't mind apple moving on, but I've installed linux so that I don't have to put up with the paying the apple tax every couple of years.