Apple's amazing OSX & Intel Migrations

It is fun to think back through all of the Apple processor and operating system migrations.  They all went through some similar phases.  The announcement, the delivery, and then the waiting for the critical applications.

As has happened in many things these days, the time lines get shorter and shorter.  Of even more interest is how some things don't even matter a lot anymore.

When Apple moved to the PowerPC and to OS X, getting a native version of Microsoft Office was a huge deal.  Today, Macs are selling very well, and Microsoft still hasn't delivered a native version of Office for the Intel Macs.

Maybe they have enough on their plates worrying about the tepid reaction to Vista. More likely is that there are some very good alternatives out there. Some are even free.  In the Office world, both NeoOffice and Google Apps are examples that I am sure reduce the demand of Microsoft's Office suite.

I use them both and find that I hardly ever need anything more. 

I do have the most current version of Office which I got at a great price from a friend who works at Microsoft.  The interesting thing is that I find non-native performance on the Intel Macs to be perfectly acceptable.  I haven't even thought about how it is working, but I can't see the need for more speed from a native version.  Someone at Apple did a very good job in making this work so well.

I bought my Epson 4000 printer which I use to churn out a few prints from an Apple VAR.  He was horrified to learn that I am still happy with the old non=native version of Photoshop.  I have never been a heavy Photoshop user, but there are a few things I use it for daily but they are not intensive uses.

Actually now that iPhoto is a little different, I use Photoshop for some additional things on the systems where I have migrated to iLife o8.

Another neat thing about the evolved Mac software world is that there are still choices.  I have NIsus Writer Express which I use for my book which I hope to finish before computers go to voice input.

Nisus has recently come out with a paid upgrade to Nisus Writer Pro.  I haven't seen a need for the newer version.

I bought the recent iWork suite and found Pages useful for printing note cards, but not something I would use to replace my basic word processor which sometimes even ends up being TexEdit.

On mail applications, I have for a long time run Apple's Mail and Powermail.  The latest release of Apple Mail has been so reliable that I haven't bothered with PowerMail very much recently though I find it a very good mail package.  I do use webmail interfaces a fair amount when I am switching around from computer to computer.

When it comes to web tools, I am still happy with the Dreamweaver version that I bought in December 2004.  It manages to do everything I need except to run on three computers instead of just two.  I do my homepage with Dreamweaver.

It helps that both Rapidweaver and Shutterbug continue to mature. I can remember a speed bump when one of them went native, but it was mostly an improved launch speed that I noticed. My main Southern Outer Banks site is done with Rapidweaver and all of my slide shows are done with Shutterbug.

iWeb is one of those Apple products that shows a lot of potential but which has almost as many problems as potential.  It works well to a point on a single system.  I am doing my Carteret County blog with it because of the integration with iPhoto. When I travel to our other home, I just don't post.  It's too much trouble to use two computers with iWeb, and I haven't upgraded to iLife 08 on my laptop yet.

Probably one of the keys to my happiness with Apple's recent migration has been Firefox.

Having Firefox as my browser has allowed me to have trouble free presences at Typepad, Blogger, Word Press, and ActiveRain in addition to other places.  Safari has had problems with all of them.

With Firefox, I continue to depend more on Flickr and Picasa Web Albums for my photo sites than I do .Mac which seems to be very slow these days with pictures.

We have mostly G5 Macs except for my MacBook.  Firefox has continued to be upgraded on both platforms.

Apple has also continued to do a very good job on updates for the G5 and G4 Macs. iCal in conjunction with Google's calendar have continued to work, but my calendar needs are not nearly what they used to be.

All things considered, Apple's Intel migration has to be one of the smoothest in history. 

OS X was a little bumpy when it first came out on the PPC, but most of us who just gave up on OS9 did fine.  When OS X came out for Intel, there were not even any hiccups.

I have used the Parallels software that I bought for my Intel Mac twice I think. It continues to be easier just to use the Dell that I have in my office or one of the systems at work.  They all continue to hum along with XP.

I wonder which factors caused the Intel migration to be the smoothest one,  changing computer needs, better applications, more web driven applications, better emulation, or just a maturing of the whole market?  Maybe it was just the years it was in development at Apple.

It is probably a combination of everything, but migrating to Intel and staying on the PPC platform are so transparent that people hardly think about it.

My guess is that going to Vista was a little harder for the Windows folks.

Comments

[Neil Anderson]

Seems as though Vista was a tough transition. Not enough drivers ready for previous peripherals.