Like a line from the Styx song, it turns out that the Mac OS for the last few years has been, in Steve Job’s words, “leading a double life.” Now it is time for that other life to come out and try to fulfill its destiny, as we have discovered that Apple Computers plans to start building computers based on an Intel chipset.
Yes, I did say “an” intel chipset. It’s not yet clear if the chips that Intel will be fabbing are based on the powerPC plans, the Intel X86 chipset that Intel is famous for, or some hybrid. What we do have so far leans towards Apple using an x86 chipset, but customized or built such that the MacOS will likely not run on standard PC’s.
It should be noted that all of the technical difficulties that people like Daring Fireball have listed out in explaining why this was so unlikely still hold true. This will not be an easy transition. Thanks to the work in maintaining running x86 copies over the years and some emulation software, it looks like it will, at least, work.
How well… time will decide.