Early Mac on Intel notes

As resident BNUG Mac Guy, I feel obligated to share what I've learned so far after installing a few Intel Core Duo iMacs over the last month (some customers have MacBook Pros on order, but those just started shipping this week):

First of all, if you're a "creative" Mac customer, and you're used to G5-class performance, sit on the sidelines for now, unless you really need a new system. For the next year or two, a dual or quad PowerMac G5 will kick major booty over the Intel systems, mainly because it'll be a minimum of 8 more months (and possibly as many as 14) before Adobe ships a Universal version of Creative Suite. Fast though the Core Duo is, it's not fast enough to make up all that ground in emulation. Not now, and not for a while.

But if you currently rely on a G4-based Mac (or PowerBook), take the plunge without hesitation. But make sure to outfit your Intel Mac with at least 512MB more RAM than you would in the comparable PowerPC-based Mac - Rosetta (Apple's emulation technology) runs remarkably well, but adds a memory burden of around 30% to each PPC application that it runs in emulation. Given sufficient RAM, most PPC programs will run at approximately the speed of a 1.25 GHz G4 Mac - or better than almost any PowerMac G4 that was made and better than most of the PowerBooks as well (the max G4 speed on a PowerBook is 1.67 GHz). Current owners of old Macs won't see much improvement, but as programs ship in Universal format and make good use of the dual cores there will be noticeable boosts.

As for limitations, well, it's pretty simple. Rosetta can run virtually any PowerPC application. The exceptions being that mixed mode will not work (for instance, an Intel-native web browser can't use a PowerPC-built plugin - or for that matter PowerPC native Photoshop can't use a plugin to move filters over to the Intel side). I think that limitation may have to do with the different endian formats between the two processor families. Besides that, the Intel Macs can't run kernel extensions and device drivers written in PowerPC code - this causes less of a problem than you might expect as much software in Macland runs in application space only. Most standard printer drivers are already provided (Apple uses the Gimp-Print engine in Mac OS X), but some printers may not enjoy full functionality until they provide Universal drivers. In most cases, device developers are writing their code in Cocoa using Apple's Xcode IDE, and in those cases conversion is usually very simple. Software developers relying on the now-discontinued Metrowerks IDE or using extensive Carbon code may have more difficulties and will have to move their projects from CodeWarrior to Xcode first.

One other note of interest in here: Classic (the compatibility layer for running Mac OS 9 and earlier apps) is dead forever on Intel. There are third-party emulators that can run older apps, but Intel machines are officially X-only.

The basic conclusion: this first generation of Intel Macs appears to work much better than many of us (myself included) expected. Apple's gotten pretty good at processor family transitions over the years (this is the third), and has made this fairly smooth for users, in fact I'd dare say that the transition from a PowerPC Mac to an Intel Mac will generally be no more complex than a Mac OS X version upgrade in terms of problems, and it'll certainly be easier than the transition from 9 to X was for most users who hadn't yet learned to embrace their inner UNIX. Over the next few months, I expect to see the remaining lower-end systems (mini and iBook, as well as the 12" and 17" PowerBook models) transition, and the PowerMac will probably be in the second half of the year (I'm not going to hazard a guess on when Xserve will be switched other than to say it'll probably be last - but I may well be wrong). Other than the PowerMac, expect PowerPC Macs to be dropped within a month or so of an Intel counterpart's hitting the market. I think PowerMac G5 systems will continue to be made and sold through early next year, though - Apple can't afford to risk that model's market for now and it's also the area in which the PowerPC is most competitive, performance-wise.

As for me, I'll probably treat myself to a MacBook Pro sometime after I can get a Verizon EVDO card in the new ExpressCard format.