From: David Orriss Jr (dave_at_davenet.net)
Date: Sun Sep 01 2002 - 12:39:44 PDT
On Saturday, August 31, 2002 8:15 PM,
Jim Witte <jswitte_at_bloomington.in.us> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> Anybody else notice the story on Slashdot about Apple maintaing an
> active x86 build of OSX
> (http://apple.slashdot.org/apple/02/08/31/195208.shtml?tid=179). The
> oringinal story link in eWeek is here
> (http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,3959,496270,00.asp). I'm not sure
> how I feel about this - I would sure like to be able to run OSX on my
> PC laptop (well, maybe not - I've only got a crappy Compaq 1270). The
> article states, "Nevertheless, Marklar [project code name] has
> apparently gained strategic relevance in recent months, as Apple's
> relationship with Motorola has grown strained [..] been dissatisfied
> with the slow rate of Motorola's PowerPC development" If they *did*
> switch to x86, what would they do about all their whizbang Altivec
> optimization - just drop it? Does the x86 world have a
> similar-performance vector processing unit?
>
> Jim
Speaking as an x86 user, I honestly don't see this as a good thing. This
would cut off what few tools still work on the mac (and OSX in Classic mode)
for the Newton... Granted, it would open up a lot of x86 products to Mac
users - but if you wanted that you'd just be running Linux PPC or
Softwindows on your OSX boxes, right?
While I *do* see them using it as a strategic "trump card" and I see the
possibility that they leaked it to make Motorola nervous, I think that they
(and the Apple community at large) would be happer with Apple working out
the issues with Motorola (or finding a G4 pin compatible replacement).
-- David Orriss Jr. dave_at_davenet.net http://www.davenet.net http://www.codeskanks.com Please email me if you want my ICQ/AIM/IM ID's. -- Read the List FAQ/Etiquette: http://www.newtontalk.net/faq.html Read the Newton FAQ: http://www.chuma.org/newton/faq/ This is the NewtonTalk mailing list - http://www.newtontalk.net/
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