Snow Leopard won’t run on PowerPC Macs
The introduction of Snow Leopard, the newest Apple Mac operating system which will be released in September, also spells the end of the road for new OS software on pre-Intel Macs.
Hidden inside all of the World Wide Developer Conference hoopla around the introduction of the new version of Apple OS X, known as Snow Leopard, is the endgame of a break with the past. When the new operating system is released in September, PowerPC users will not be able to take advantage of the new features, because Snow Leopard will not run on non-Intel Macs.
Depending on where you measure from (the Intel chip announcement or the sale of the last PowerPC) Apple has continued to support the old hardware for three or four years, which is a very long time in a business that moves as fast as personal computer technology. There are probably not many Power-PC-based Apple computers still in use in the wild, according to a CNET story; most Apple users like to be near the cutting edge and have upgraded to Intel-based machines.
Even those that are left behind are not really left behind. PowerPC users can obviously continue to run the older Leopard OS X and the software that was made for it. But logically, the lack of the availability of new operating systems for the PowerPC Macs is an early warning death knell, at the very least. Application software will now all be written for the new Intel-only OS, so upgrading anything will likely be difficult for the users of older machines. Eventually, there will be too many logical reasons not to move away from the PowerPC Macs.
And the gain is huge for the users of Intel Macs. Ending the support for the PowerPC Macs is what makes it possible to produce a Snow Leopard that has a much smaller footprint, installs faster, and runs faster. By ending support for the PowerPC, Apple has been able to remove a lot of code from their operating system, making it both leaner and quicker. It may be painful for a few, but the change will bring much happiness to the vast majority of Mac users.
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June 27th, 2009
This makes me really angry because we had no warning that powerpc’s would not run Mac OS X Snow Leopard. And what about all of the people that have put a lot of money into their apples and then find out oh Snow Leopard Won’t work on my pc because it’s not made after 2006. Leopard will proberly be the most used software because people won’t want to pay money for a new mac. Then apple will probably stop support for leopard os and then you will have to buy a new Mac.