From Europe, by way of down under, it seems that the next revision of the MacOS will be the first that will not run on PowerPC  processors.

from itwire.com

Are PowerPC-based Macs nearing their use-by date? HardMac (the English-language version of French Mac site MacBidouille) has published what is says is a screen capture from the developer preview of Snow Leopard.

One of the requirements listed in the image is “An Intel processor”.

We knew it had to come, but not this soon.

Previous rumours have suggested Snow Leopard will require a Core 2 Duo processor, ruling out some early Intel-based Macs. If we can take HardMac’s claim at face value, the idea that Core Solo and Core Duo models aren’t excluded from Snow Leopard should please owners of Macs equipped with those processors.

While it is still possible that PowerPC code will be included (completed?) by the time Mac OS X 10.6 ships in “about a year”, this seems less likely.

It seems odd that if Power code was in development it would be left out of the description above.

I still feel that dropping new operating system support for hardware that’s barely three years old would be a mistake on Apple’s part.

Why? Larger businesses may work on a three-year hardware cycle, but one of the Macintosh’s attractions has always been that it has a longer useful life than Windows-based systems, and small business is notorious for squeezing the last drop out of its assets.

Besides, Jobs is usually right, but no one is infallible – as I’ve stated before, Power6 was a killer chip, and it would have been nice if Jobs had waited for it – the word was that volume was needed and we all know Intel has lots of that.

No doubt Apple wants to sell more hardware, but that shouldn’t be at the expense of its reputation for building reliable hardware with a long working life – especially when the reliability seems to have slipped recently with issues such as the capacitor problem that also plagued other companies in the industry.

Still, I can see why the company is keen to complete the switch to its current architecture as it would reduce development and QA costs – which would also flow through to third-party developers if they were to take a similarly aggressive line.

Certainly, those who have switched platforms in the last couple of years won’t be affected, and I’m OK as I upgraded from an iMac G5 last year. But I suspect a vocal crowd of long-term Mac loyalists will feel that a 2009 debut of an Intel-only Mac OS X 10.6 is (if you’ll excuse the imagery) asking them to bend over.

Besides that, there is a load of software for Power architecture, and once the door is shut on Power support, updates and new development stops on the whole enchilada.

That must be balanced against the number of other users who will happily use the arrival of Snow Leopard as an excuse to buy a new computer. But  with food, petrol/gas and other prices soaring, there may be fewer people than Apple is bargaining for with the spare cash and inclination to do that.

If you’re still using a G4 or G5 Mac, where do you stand on this issue?

And if you’re already in the Intel club, how soon after Snow Leopard’s release do you expect to put it on your computer?

So how do you Power Mac addicts feel? I know I was going to grab a Dual G5 soon, and now that might be sooner – once this gets confirmed the prices of those machines will drop sharply, and availability should go way up, too.

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