10.6 Intel yes, PPC no... & keyboard thread

[R0GUE]

Official: Mac OS X Snow Leopard doesn't support PowerPC Macs

According to Apple Insider, documentation included with copies of Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard distributed during Apple's developer conference this week confirms that the next-generation operating system does not presently support Macs with PowerPC processors.

LogicielMac.com has published a screen capture of the PDF-based requirements document included on the Snow Leopard disc that provides a rundown of the system's requirements.

The documentation states that in order to install Snow Leopard, developers must have a Mac computer with "an Intel processor" and at least 512MB of RAM, though additional memory is recommended for development purposes.

The findings confirm an AppleInsider report from last September, which cited people familiar with the ongoing development as saying that Mac OS X 10.6 would in all likelihood exclude support for PowerPC processors.

According to the Snow Leopard documentation, the system will also require an Apple-supplied video card, 9GB of hard disk space, and either an internal, external or shared DVD drive.

[naquaada]

Super :-P
Poor PPC users, I say.

[xx66stangxx]

good thing I just bought my Macbook :-p. Now will my Amd be able to run 10.6 Snow Leopard?..../joke

[naquaada]

First: it has to be out: Second: It will run on AMD, sooner or later. We got everything to work on AMD yet. If Intel doesn't plan various processor instructions like SSE5 or something like this.

This instruction set war is a real problem: Intel now has as newest command sets SSSE3, AMD in the Phenom CPUs SSE4 or SSE4a. Interesting is the story of AMD64 and SSE3: AMD invented the 64bit instruction set AMD64 (on Intel EM64T). Intel wanted to use it, so AMD got as exchange the SSE3 instruction set. These instruction set battles should be regulated externally. If a software uses an instruction set which the other processor manufacturer has not it won't work on this processor, and so it would be a market distortion. It's a bit as using umlauts depending on a language: on an English keyboard you can't type äöü ÄÖÜ directly. You have to 'emulate' these keys using the character table or a ASCII-input.

Another question is if new instruction were used. A software producer must think over to use SSE4 because the most processors which are actually used now in a lot of computers don't have them. Programming a game using an instruction set (f.e. in a game) which have maybe only 3% of the computer users this would be not very intelligent if you want to make money with the software. Apple don't has to care about not some instruction set problems, like missing SSE3. We needed an SSE3 emulator for this on some computers. But if they now plan to use newer instruction sets are using newer instruction sets (I heared something that Aperture should be using SSE4) they won't work on the earlier Macbooks. By the way, Aperture is working on AMD, unpatched, so it seems they didn't use new instruction sets.

[R0GUE]

[cite] naquaada:[/cite]It's a bit as using umlauts depending on a language: on an English keyboard you can't type äöü ÄÖÜ directly. You have to 'emulate' these keys using the character table or a ASCII-input.

Strange, I use a UK Keyboard layout and I only need to press the option (alt) key to get umlauts and accents. äüöôåéáàñ

[naquaada]

On the Mac, but not on Windows. The Mac has more characters on the keyboard, like the Amiga. They are sorted by the importance of the characters in the country the keyboard layout is made for. This is also for the alternate keys:

1 - no alternate key: small characters, often used addidtional chars
2 - Shift: capital letters, numbers, additional chars

Mac and Amiga:

3: Amiga: Alt, Mac/Mac keyboard: Alt, Mac/Win keyboard: Windows key: more additional chars
4: Amiga: Shift+Alt, Mac/Mac keyboard: Shift+Alt, Mac/Win keyboard: Shift+Windows: less used additional chars

Examples:

In the US and maybe UK the @ was used before emailing, so it's Shift+2. In Germany it wasn't needed at all, so it's AltGr+Q (right alt key) on Windows - you need a big hand span for this. On a Mac keyboard it's Alt+L.
In the UK the Pound sign £ is often used - it's on Shift+3. On a german Mac layout it's Alt+Shift+3 ! So in Windows you don't have it on the keyboard at all, you have to use the character table. The same is with the special signs of danish and swedish keyboards - œæøå ŒÆØÅ, they are directly on the keyboard, I have to use Windows and Shift-Windows on my Mac with a Windows keyboard.
Also the swapping of the Y and the Z is important, in the German langugage the Y nearly never appears, so it's in a place where you are not often while typing. Very different to the QWERTZ/QWERTY keyboards is the french layout; its AZERTY. But there are way more differences than that.
The newest additional key is the € - on Windows it's AltGr+E and on the Mac Alt+E. The crazy thing is, it is nearly never be used - for the Euro normally should be used the international currency abbreviation EUR.

[Voyn1x]

@ naquaada,

You should try doing some research, you don't seem to know much about this subject!

[naquaada]

What do you know better?

[Puttabong]

naquaada, OT: I use the € quite often!
However, I personally couldn't work with a Windows Keyboard attached to a Mac. :-D

[Voyn1x]

It was just a bit of friendly sarcasm! You sound very clued up about this

Note to self, must remember sarcasm doesn't translate well over the internet...