What is a Combo Intel?

C

Curiosity

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I was checking out the Apple update download page and came across 4 updates for Mac OS X 10.4.7. They were for Combo Intel, Intel, Combo PPC, and PPC. What is meant by Combo Intel and Combo PPC, and why are the update files so much larger for the combo CPUs?

Would the MacBook Pro be a Combo Intel or just an Intel?
 
"Combo" doesn't refer to the type of computer, it refers to the type of updater.

The Combo updaters will update any version of 10.4 to 10.4.7; the the regular updaters will only work on 10.4.6. That's why the Combo updater is so much bigger.
 
Just a little more possibly useful info on this. The regular (or incremental) updates are sometimes called "delta" updates.

There is a strongly held opinion amongst many Mac users that it is better to use the combo updates for best stability, since they ensure ALL the files that have been changed from 10.4.0 up to the current version are up to date. I tend to run a combo update for every second update for this reason. In theory, it should make no difference. In reality, there are lots of reasons why a series of delta updates might not update all the files as expected, such as third-party add-ons locking the files or scripts not running as expected.
 
(... plus I've quite often heard of problems with systems updated through delta updaters which were afterwards _solved_ by using the combo updater to simply update _again_ to the same version.)
 
Curiosity said:
Thanks, and good points. I see one of you is using MPlayer. Does that work on an Intel Mac?
Click to expand...
Yes, it runs and is native. The link in my sig will lead you to the universal version ("universal" means it runs natively on both PPC and Intel Macs).
 
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