Steve Jobs - the ultimate switxer


Some part of me feels vaguely betrayed.




While the rest of the world is heading PowerPC or Cell, Apple's Steve Jobs is heading back to the 70s with Intel's chips.

Obviously Steve is frustrated that the mobile G5 just hasn't eventuated, and he sees the defunct Intel MP3 chips as well as its mobile Pentium M series as very attractive.

And moving OS X to Intel is not as hard as it would have been to shift Copeland, so it's a no-brainer. The apps guys will have their heartaches, but nothing they can't cope with.

What is going to be interesting is to see how Microsoft responds. This is a direct threat to Redmond's hegemony.

What we have now is a slamdown OS war, the likes of which many of our senior IT guys have never seen. But anyone who was around during the DOS and early GUI days will be waiting to see how it pans out.

The difference this time is not the apps -- it's the security of the platforms that counts.

And how will the Apple faithful respond? Many will be outraged, but they are so in the minority now it scarcely matters.

Still, having made the switch, part of my feels a little betrayed. I am being repatriated to an empire I just fled like a technological asylum seeker.

Beyond the technical arguments, I wonder about the really BIG issue -- will future MacIntel Apples have the ubiquitous "Intel Inside" badge?

I sure hope not.

It's a Mac, whatever is inside -- and if I wanted to be reminded there was a x86 chip in there I would buy a Dell.

Posted: Tue - June 7, 2005 at 10:41 PM          

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