Own a PPC Mac? Retrospect 8.1 loves you…
As developer support for the platform continues to erode steadily away, at least one vendor has stepped up to bring back PowerPC compatibility for its flagship product. Granted, they’re in this to make money — no sin there — but you’d think more people would be capable of doing the same math.
Bloomberg reports that EMC has announced the availability of Retrospect 8.1, perhaps the longest running and most trusted backup software application on the Mac. The big new feature in this release is something old — PowerPC support.
“Adding support for PowerPC Macs was a critical step towards providing small and mid-sized businesses the best backup and recovery product for their needs,” said Peter Wharton, vice president of marketing, EMC Consumer and Small Business Products Division. “Many existing Retrospect sites, as well as small businesses that have either outgrown Time Machine or that wish to centralize their backups, might only have a PowerPC-based Mac to utilize as a Retrospect backup server. EMC Retrospect 8.1 now seamlessly addresses that need.”
That said, this is a fairly obvious move—what a great use for an old Mac Pro tower—but one that shows a real sensitivity for one of great built-in advantages of the Mac, an average lifespan of five years. Given that Apple shipped its last PPC Macs about three years ago, there’s a huge installed base out there that they can take advantage of.
A bit faster, too
Moreover, whereas Retrospect 8.1 running on an Intel Mac can expect to see a 10 to 35 percent increase in performance, EMC has also taken the time to optimize this backup solution for PPC Macs, delivering performance increases in the 10 to 15 percent range.
Retrospect 8.1 is available for Mac, Windows direct from EMC form $129 as a standalone purchase or Retrospect Express as a bundled item with professional backup solutions.
Related Posts:
