So, it appears Apple are moving to x86 (specifically Intel) processors. This saddens me slightly - the PowerPC chip which is currently used in Macs is a good design. Shame IBM couldn't get it to run at the speeds they promised. There are some people who are saying that this move will be detrimental to Linux, which is why I'm posting this.
It's complete rubbish.
People buy Macs for the Mac experience, and that experience is OSX.
Right now no one buys a desktop Mac, brand spanking new, then puts Linux on it. There's no point. You can get your hardware cheaper, and faster, from Dell; and slap a copy of <insert favourite Linux distro here> on it for a lot less hard earned, so Linux users don't buy Macs at the moment anyway. No loss there.
Dvorak's (oh so predictable) opinion that development for Linux will drop off as people flock to OSX is bunk as well. Steve Jobs has stated that OSX will only run on Apple hardware, so there's going to be a limited number of OSX-x86's around in the first place. That's beside the point, though. Hackers code for Linux because of what Linux is: free [speech|beer], powerful, and portable. OSX is only one of those things (or maybe none, depending on who you ask). The underlying machine architecture is of no importance.
Nope.
Nothing will change. People who want Macs will buy Macs and run OSX. People who want Windows will buy cheap Dells and beige boxen, and run Windows. And people who want Linux will buy whatever the hell they like, and run Linux.
It's complete rubbish.
People buy Macs for the Mac experience, and that experience is OSX.
Right now no one buys a desktop Mac, brand spanking new, then puts Linux on it. There's no point. You can get your hardware cheaper, and faster, from Dell; and slap a copy of <insert favourite Linux distro here> on it for a lot less hard earned, so Linux users don't buy Macs at the moment anyway. No loss there.
Dvorak's (oh so predictable) opinion that development for Linux will drop off as people flock to OSX is bunk as well. Steve Jobs has stated that OSX will only run on Apple hardware, so there's going to be a limited number of OSX-x86's around in the first place. That's beside the point, though. Hackers code for Linux because of what Linux is: free [speech|beer], powerful, and portable. OSX is only one of those things (or maybe none, depending on who you ask). The underlying machine architecture is of no importance.
Nope.
Nothing will change. People who want Macs will buy Macs and run OSX. People who want Windows will buy cheap Dells and beige boxen, and run Windows. And people who want Linux will buy whatever the hell they like, and run Linux.
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