When the initial rumors that 10.6 would be released at the WWDC, which is tomorrow, they came full of speculation that 10.6 would not support the PowerPC chip set. This made sense since Jobs has been pulling away from that ever since the deal was made with Intel …
Now, though, Gizmodo (and others) are reporting that they have a source, who claimed to get ahold of the 10.6 seed, who indicated that work has been done on PowerPC drivers which indicates to them that support for the architecture is unlikely to be dropped this time around.
While this rumor may inspire a bit of hope to those who have late-model PowerPC Macs, it should be noted that it runs contrary to running consensus that OS 10.6 “Snow Leopard” would only support Intel chips, and the current direction that Apple has been moving for some time.
Apple is expected to introduce 10.6 at WWDC, along with a shiny new red iPhone….
It appears that the next version of Mac OS X is code-named “Snow Leopard,” and will indeed be Intel-only.
Following the rumors from TUAW’s original scoop about Mac OS X 10.6 being readied for shipment as soon as Macworld 2009 and being Intel-only.
Ars Technica is saying that it has been confirmed to them that TUAW’s details are true. Snow Leopard is currently on track to come out during next January’s MacWorld, and it will not contain major OS changes.
The release is heavily focused on performance and nailing down speed and stability. With Apple’s current (and future) focus on smaller, thinner, and more mobile devices, this move makes perfect sense.
Things like the MacBook Air, iPhone, iPod touch, and other mysterious devices that have yet to be announced need better performance for better battery life, and that’s definitely something Apple wants to excel at in the years to come.
Something else that may happen is that Apple may eventually wrap everything in Cocoa, meaning that things that are currently only Carbon accessible will not be usable.
[ TUAW ] is reporting that they’ve gotten some insider information that Apple will unveil OS 10.6 next Monday at the WWDC keynote. There is no reason to believe that this will be the leap that leopard took, but it will leave PPC behind in a sad, but long time in coming farewell.
According to the report, Apple’s upcoming OS will focus solely on “stability and security”, and it will be the first Apple OS that is not PowerPC compatible. The new OS is supposedly slated for a Jan 2009 release, and some rumors are calling it “Lynx” based on trademarks going back as far as 2003, so while Apple may be dropping PPC, they seem to be sticking to the cat naming thing.
Apple has also trademarked “Cougar”, but given the recent popularity of calling older, sexually agressive women cougars, one would hope they would stay from that name…
Personally, I would go with [ Liger ], except it seems that Jobs wants to wait for 10.8 for that one…
Many will likely mourn the passing of Power PCs, but given that many smaller developers are ignoring the intel-based platform, this will likely be the kick in the pants needed to get them moving in the proper directions.
Will you miss the PowerPC, or have you already moved on?