Rumor Confirmed

Macs coming with Intel in 2K6

7 June, 2005 Well, Steve did it. He pulled the trigger on the G5, putting a bullet right through the core. The G5, a dynamo when it came out two years ago, is now losing its glow. At 2 GHz then, Jobs promised 3 GHz in a year. Two years later, the G5 languishes at 2.7 GHz. That, in and of itself, is not the killer. The killer is that there is no G5 PowerBook because of high heat and power consumption. The Cheese-Grater G5 also makes a nice furnace. Just look at the extraordinary steps Apple has had to take to cool the processor, including liquid-cooling!

Steve made the point clear at his keynote yesterday. The PowerPC gives 15 "units" of performance per watt, while Intel gives 70. That's the only technical point he made during the whole presentation, so you know that was high on his list of reasons. The Megahertz Myth is still true. But Intel has increased their Megahertz enough to erase the deficit while still keeping the heat and power consumption in reasonable ranges.

My prediction that Apple will still manufacture their own boxes was accurate. (Albeit a no-brainer) But Phil Schiller was quoted as saying that there are no plans to prevent Windoze users from installing it on a Mac box. So now, Microsoft will be making Windoze drivers for Mac hardware! (Pause for gut-splitting laughter)

This move will wind up being a good one for Apple. Sales of their units are going to be down, the question now is, how much? I still plan to purchase a new PowerBook in the next few weeks. All software between now and 2008 or beyond will support both PowerPC and Intel platforms. There is no real reason not to upgrade if your plans were to do so now.

The other reason that I'm buying now is that we don't know how smooth the transition will be. The transition from 68K to PowerPC was pretty rough. Lots of freezes and crashes on those new 601 PPC units. I doubt it will be as bad now, but who knows? My 3 1/2 year old PowerBook G4/667 has had only FOUR kernel panics since I've owned it. That's through four operating systems! (OS 9, Cheetah, , Puma, Jaguar, and Panther) Tiger should be no worse.

My New Win/Mac/Linux Box

Steve Jobs' announcement yesterday gave me a brand new vision.

A triple-booting computer box.

Huh? Triple booting?

Right now, I have an iMac G4/800 desklamp, a Compaq AMD/Windoze box, and a home-built Linux computer. Needless to say, this takes up a lot of space in my miniscule office. Three monitors, three boxes, three keyboards, three mice, Six outlets.

With Apple going to Intel, the solution is now clear. Put three hard disks in the next Apple box and triple boot the system. The Apple/Intel boxes will no doubt run Windoze and Linux distributions. There will definitely be a boot manager from a third party if not for apple. So when I turn the machine on, a menu will give me three choices. Mac OS X, Windoze XP, or Linux! Now this is high technology!

Dell, Gateway, and HP should be shaking in their shoes right now. Mac OS X is becoming the OS of choice for those who want security and ease of use. But Windoze has a huge installed base. Now, users, business users to be specific, can have the best of both worlds. Buy a Mac/Intel box and have it dual-boot. Use Mac when desired, Windoze when necessary.

Apple-Tel?

4 June, 2005 The big rumor that has just broken is that Steve Jobs will announce that Apple will move their computers to Intel chips starting in 2006. The announcement is allegedly to take place at the WorldWide Developers Conference next Monday. My friend, colleague, and mentor called this in January of 2002.

To tell the truth, I'm not sure that it's true, but it is definitely a plausible story. I can imagine how frustrated Steve is with IBM/Motorola's lack of progress on the G5 chip. Steve promised 3 GHz in June of 2003, but has yet to see it happen. All this happens while Intel and AMD boost the speeds and efficiencies of their chips on a near-monthly basis. The last straw has to be the lack of a PowerBook G5 that has been in the works for well over a year now, but is giving engineers fits because of it's heavy power draw and heat generation.

It's a poorly kept secret that Apple has had their OS running on Intel boxes since 1992. OS X was developed for both Intel and PowerPC simultaneously after Jobs returned in 1998. Its codename is "Marklar" named after an alien on South Park. At first, this was done as a preventive measure against a potential Microsoft challenge, but in recent years has turned into a real possibility with the problems with PowerPC development.

If, indeed Apple turns to Intel, I believe there will be some details that people are not considering.

• Apple will still manufacture their own units. This means that users will absolutely not be able to buy a Dell, HP, or any other manufacturer's machine and load OS X on it. The one thing that has always made Apple machines unique is their ROM chips. This will continue to be true with an Intel architecture. The one thing that makes Macs so easy to use is that their hardware is standardized and has fewer variations than WinTel.
• Apple will NOT use the current Pentium 4 chip. They will use the Pentium M that is currently used in Intel notebook computers. Intel is currently shifting their major research to improving this chip since they have essentially peaked the Pentium 4 at about 3.6 GHz. The M chip, that tops out a little over 2 GHz is more powerful, even at that lower frequency. (Imagine that? The Megahertz Myth is TRUE!) These chips run faster on lower power and can have wireless technology built into their chipsets.
• This is not a final decision. It's been announced that the Intel chips will go first into the low-end systems, such as the Mini and the iBook. What is happening here is a stalling tactic to give IBM a chance to get their act together and develop the high-end Power5 and Cell processors for the high-end Macs. It is entirely foreseeable that Apple could have a mixed set of systems in their lineup. Intel for the low-end and IBM for the high end. If IBM doesn't deliver by 2007, Apple will go Intel all the way and leave IBM in their own dust.
• This is a very difficult decision. It's not a simple decision of what chip to drop into the board on a Mac. Application software (Office, Quicken, etc.) will have to be completely rewritten to run on an IntelMac. This means that some companies will decide to forego the Mac platform, which is something that Apple definitely doesn't want or need. There are a large number of Mac users out there who are not only anti-Microsoft, they are anti-Intel as well. How are they going to react? Apple will also be under a huge amount of pressure to allow Dell, HP, and other regular Intel users to adopt OS X. Can Apple convince them to pay more for an Apple-branded box?

Stay tuned, folks. All this could be a work of fiction if Steve doesn't confirm the rumors.

The PowerBook Will Live On

17 May, 2005 00:50 I've been messing around with Linux this spring. I made a mad deal on a P4/3ghz cheap computer box, borrowed a monitor, and installed six different distros of Linux before settling on Ubuntu. Ubuntu works well, is easy to use and they have a neat philosophy. The software will always be free, and they will update every six months.

Well, as I was lurking around the site, I noticed Ubuntu downloads for Power PC. Hmmm... I have an aging PowerBook G4/Ti/15 that is getting ready to be put out to pasture in the next few weeks. I hate to give it up and put it away or sell it, but a new PowerBook will perform so much better. Now I have an alternative. Tonight, I downloaded and burned a "live" Ubuntu CD to check it out on the PowerBook. A "live" CD is one that is inserted into the computer, then the computer is restarted from that CD. No data is written to the computer's hard disk, and it's handy to see if the distro works and how well it works.

The worst thing about the live CD of Ubuntu on the PowerBook was that the screen resolution was set to 640 x 480, but everything else worked fine.

The plan now is to recycle the PowerBook and turn it into an Ubuntu Linux notebook that I will travel with. Now let's head over to the Apple Store to see what's on sale...