So Long PowerPC
Posted by: Arik Hesseldahl on September 24, 2007
It had to happen sometime, and it looks like the end of support for PowerPC chips in older pre-Intel Macs may be upon us soon-ish. Apple Insider that intermittently accurate (yet often-not) arbiter of the rumored goings on in Cupertino suggests as follows: That Leopard, due out any day now, will be the last iteration of the Mac OS to support the Freescale/Motorola/IBM PowerPC chips, and that the first post-Leopard OS, aka Mac OS X version 10.6, (due out in say, 2009 or 2010 give or take) would require an Intel-based machine. As it is, Leopard will require at minimum a PowerPC G4 running at 867 MHz or higher, which would allow it to run on my 2005-vintage 1.67 GHz PowerBook G4, but not my 2001-vintage PowerMac G4 (which is overdue for retirement anyhow).
