From: Mr. David M. Ensteness (denstene_at_mac.com)
Date: Thu Jun 09 2005 - 18:49:13 PDT
Mac OS X is essentially OpenSTEP 5.x which was originally developed
on M68040s AND Intel x86 chips. It's parent OS was NeXTSTEP which was
developed on the M68030 and later ported to the Intel x86 chip. The
primary contributors to NeXTSTEP were NetBSD and FreeBSD, parts of
these two were placed on top the Mach Kernel developed by Avi T. to
form the foundation for NeXTSTEP. NetBSD and FreeBSD have run on
everything from M68000 Series processors to Alphas to x86, to X-64,
to PowerPC, to a ton of other stuff.
I am a Mac user and so I have a deep emotional response to the
thought of dropping PowerPC which is FAR superior processor to the
x86. However, if I was a NeXT or *NIX user I doubt this would bother
me much. And in reality, its all gonna be just fine for us. IBM's
core business isn't PowerPC, I wish it was but its not. Intel in my
mind has generally made garbage, but they are dedicated and as
strange as it sounds - the CEO really seemed genuinely happy to
finally be able to work with Macintosh, something Intel as a company
has wanted to do at many points.
For the Mac users out there who need a rallying cry - consider this,
Windows PC advocates and MS won't be able to make any claims of your
hardware isn't as good as ours etc ... because hardware will become
neutral. The fight for the desktop has *always* been a software fight.
So ... rallying cry? Anyone play chess - business is a war of
positioning, take a look at what this does market wide.
David
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