State your opinion: MacOSX on x86

**z4ph0d** · April 4th, 2002, 01:41 AM

What do YOU think about making MacOSX for x86 computers? Good? Bad? Lame? Wonderful? Share yer opinion!

**simX** · April 4th, 2002, 01:48 AM

Oh, for the love of everything Mac!!

We've had this discussion SO many times on this forum.

For the LAST time, OS X on anything other than a PowerPC processor will NEVER EVER HAPPEN IN A MILLION YEARS! Motorola won't go out of business for a LONG time, and if they do, then Apple or IBM will buy the PPC assets and continue the processor line.

Without even getting into the benefits or disadvantages, I can say this for sure: it won't happen. So stop dreaming!

**nkuvu** · April 4th, 2002, 01:55 AM

Uh, yeah. What simX said.

And add a vote for "bad".

**symphonix** · April 4th, 2002, 05:15 AM

The Motorola chips are far more advanced than those used in x86 PCs. Hell, I have PC friends who are actually proud of the fact they have six fans on their PCs, and two fans to cool the processor on their laptop.
The G3 and G4 chipsets run without need of cooling. They don't overheat and crash, like PC chips. And a Mac never humms like a dishwasher when you're listening to music, like a PC does.
Then, of course, there is the fact that the x86 chips are the only ones that haven't adopted RISC technology. That x86 chips are produced by a number of vendors desperate to under-cut each other's prices while squeezing a little more out of their technology than is reliable. Or, that x86 chips are built on layers of legacy technology and have to accept commands written for 8, 16 and 32 bit software.
One of the things that makes the Mac special is its superior technology, and not even the most insanely greeder marketeers will ever take that away from us.

**ulrik** · April 4th, 2002, 05:56 AM

not again...please....it hurts.....

**ksuther** · April 4th, 2002, 06:15 AM

Not in a million years, like simX said

There are many projects to port the Darwin core to x86, and they have almost done it, but Apple still retains the code for the interface and all the fun stuff, so it would be quite useless to the end user. My friend seems to be of a different opinion, but he's wrong :-p

Even if they did get the interface to x86, the thing would be slug. Like it running on a 604e slug. It would have no optimizations at all. No AltiVec makes thing slow down quite a bit... Even if you're using a G3 you notice this hit.

My vote is bad

**benpoole** · April 4th, 2002, 06:20 AM

AHEM!

April 1st!

(ditto for that rumour re a $299 iMac running with a 68040 chip)

**ulrik** · April 4th, 2002, 06:32 AM

Originally posted by symphonix
T They don't overheat and crash, like PC chips. And a Mac never humms like a dishwasher when you're listening to music, like a PC does.

I have to disagree on this one. PowerMacs are LOUD, VERY LOUD!

A friend of mine has a Dual Althon XP 1800 (lucky one got the SMP ready XPs before they where "closed" for SMP support) with good fans (he has exactly four fans in his PC: 2x CPU, 1x Power supply, 1x Graphic board, that's just one more than my Quicksilver) and he equipped the casing of his PC with special sheets which absorb noise. Costed him around 20 dollars and his PC is as silent as the new iMac...I really envy him when I have to hear my really loud Quicksilver...

(not to mention my Linux box, a Compaq Celeron 1300...which has exactly 0 fans!!!)