Apple and Intel
Everybody has been a buzz about the news that Apple is switching to Intel CPUs. After watching the keynote presentation for myself and reading Jason Kottke’s synopsis addressing earlier unanswered questions, I have firmly decided that this move is a Good Thing.
What distinguishes a PC from a Mac is more a matter of its BIOS and hardware component architecture than its CPU. Since the x86 Mac will remain a closed architecture under control by Apple, I do not expect to lose the Mac Experience in the transition.
As a computer user, I don’t care about the what’s inside the box, I just want it to work. I take for granted now the flawless sleep and wake cycles through which I put my laptop, but I still encounter Wintel laptop users who are amazed that I close my notebook with such confidence that everything will be as it was when I open it again. As a developer and power user, I still don’t care about what’s running under the hood, so long as it runs what I want fast and doesn’t “get in the way”. Finally, as a laptop user, I need all that reliability and power to run for 3-4 hours on a battery. I have no reason to believe that these needs will not continue to be met by Apple — no matter what CPU is crunching the numbers.
