Tim Collier wrote:
I just want to make a comment on this. I think the switch over to Intel is a really good thing and only good things will follow. I think we all pretty much agree on that now.
Excuse me?!?! I certainly don't agree that it's a good thing. I see it as no less than the eventual death of the Macintosh as a hardware platform. I know that Apple has stated that they plan to only allow the Mac OS to run on Apple-built machines, but we all know how easy it is to hack software. It won't be long after the MacIntel version of OS X goes on the market before someone hacks it to run on generic PC hardware, assuming Apple only goes with a software-based checking system. The only sure way I see to ensure that the OS is only ran on Apple machines would be to have Intel build a special instruction set into the processors intended for MacIntel machines. Then have the OS check for that instruction set at start-up, and only boot the machine if the instruction set is found. Of course you would have to have the processor be permanently attached to a "card" like current Macs have, to prvent someone from just swapping a chip from an Apple machine into a generic PC. Of course Apple has yet to explain just how they plan to prevent the Mac OS from running on anything else, but lets face it, unless they come up with a positive way of "locking" the OS to Apple hardware, it's all over but the crying. Once the genie has been let out of the bottle, it's gonna be impossible to put it back, and as we all know nothing is "hack-proof". To me, the Mac has always been about the combination of both unique hardware and the Mac OS. Once the Mac becomes just another PC in an Apple-designed case, it's not really a Mac anymore.
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