thinkbible
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With the introduction of the new Intel Macs, will we have a Mac version of SwordSearcher soon?
Intel Macs and SwordSearcher
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thinkbible said:
It doesn't look like there will be a Mac version of SwordSearcher any time soon. The switch to Intel chips doesn't really change much in regards to a Mac port of SwordSearcher.
SwordSearcher is designed with Delphi, which is strictly a Windows development tool. So, any Mac version of SwordSearcher has to be programmed from the ground up.
A Mac version of SwordSearcher was actually worked on for a while. The experience was a learning one, and it's unlikely that we will be revisiting it in the near future.
There are a lot of plans for the next major update of SwordSearcher, so any work on other platforms will have to be reconsidered only after that is complete.
Intel-powered Macs arrive : David Frith
JANUARY 31, 2006
APPLE Computer Australia has begun selling the first Macintosh models that use Intel chips, rather than the IBM-Motorola PowerPC processors that have powered Macs for years.
Two iMac all-in-one consumer models, powered by the latest Intel duo-core processors, are available from Apple resellers or the online Apple Store.
All-new Intel-based MacBook Pro portables are to be available Australia in February.
Two questions being widely debated by Mac and Windows computer users are:
Will you be able to run the Microsoft Windows operating system and the present Mac OS X (Tiger), on an Intel Mac?
Since the Intel chips are the same on both platforms, what's the chance of being able to unleash the Tiger on a Windows PC?
You can't run Windows satisfactorily on an Intel Mac right now, but there seems every chance you will be able to do so by the end of this year, maybe sooner.
Apple Computer senior vice-president Phil Schiller said last year the company had no plans to sell or support Windows on an Intel-based Mac.
"That doesn't preclude someone from running it on a Mac," he said. "They probably will. We won't do anything to preclude that."
No sooner had the new Macs hit the market than a number of people were trying to boot up Windows on an Intel Mac.
So far, everyone seems to have failed because the new Macs use Extensible Firmware Interface to control the booting-up process.
EFI was designed by Intel to replace the ageing Basic Input/Output System on future PCs. Most versions of Windows, including XP, just won't work with EFI, so they won't run on the Mac.
It's the same story with beta versions of Vista, Microsoft's new version of Windows, due to hit the market later this year. They don't support EFI.
Microsoft has promised, however, to add EFI support to the final version of Vista, so there's every chance that by the end of the year Vista will run easily and smoothly on the new Macs.
That could be a huge boon for many professional users, especially in the graphics, publishing and engineering industries, in which it's common to have a mix of platforms to get the best of both worlds.
At the other end of the market, games players would relish the thought of being able to run the many Windows-only games on Macintosh.
Faced with this, Apple might well reconsider its decision not to market Macs with Windows pre-installed as well as Mac OS X.
Since it does not licence OS X to any other companies, it would be the only company able to offer computers that run both systems, and probably Linux, too.
If the price was right they would find a ready market.
Microsoft, incidentally, already markets Virtual PC, a program that allows Windows to run on PowerPC Macs, by using software to emulate the Windows environment.
It's slow, but solves a problem for some Mac users who need to occasionally run a Windows application.
Virtual PC won't work on the new Intel Macs because it is not compatible with Rosetta, the software Apple has designed to allow most older applications designed for PowerPC Macs to run on the new machines.
Microsoft Macintosh business unit head Roz Ho says it is working with Apple on ways to bring Virtual PC to the new platform.
So, one way or another, it seems it will be possible soon to have both Windows and Mac OS X running smoothly on the new Macs.
Running Mac OS X on a Windows PC is another matter entirely, however.
"We will not allow Mac OS X to run on anything other than an Apple Mac," Apple's Phil Schiller says.
That hasn't stopped some from trying to run the Macintosh operating system running on a Windows machine.
Some websites have been showing videos of what is purported to be an IBM/Lenovo ThinkPad running Mac OS X, with some apparent limitations.
You can expect Apple's formidable legal teams to crack down very heavily on any attempt to commercialise such practices, even by small backyard operators.
dfrith@gmail.com
The Australian
Click here for the reference page
JANUARY 31, 2006
APPLE Computer Australia has begun selling the first Macintosh models that use Intel chips, rather than the IBM-Motorola PowerPC processors that have powered Macs for years.
Two iMac all-in-one consumer models, powered by the latest Intel duo-core processors, are available from Apple resellers or the online Apple Store.
All-new Intel-based MacBook Pro portables are to be available Australia in February.
Two questions being widely debated by Mac and Windows computer users are:
Will you be able to run the Microsoft Windows operating system and the present Mac OS X (Tiger), on an Intel Mac?
Since the Intel chips are the same on both platforms, what's the chance of being able to unleash the Tiger on a Windows PC?
You can't run Windows satisfactorily on an Intel Mac right now, but there seems every chance you will be able to do so by the end of this year, maybe sooner.
Apple Computer senior vice-president Phil Schiller said last year the company had no plans to sell or support Windows on an Intel-based Mac.
"That doesn't preclude someone from running it on a Mac," he said. "They probably will. We won't do anything to preclude that."
No sooner had the new Macs hit the market than a number of people were trying to boot up Windows on an Intel Mac.
So far, everyone seems to have failed because the new Macs use Extensible Firmware Interface to control the booting-up process.
EFI was designed by Intel to replace the ageing Basic Input/Output System on future PCs. Most versions of Windows, including XP, just won't work with EFI, so they won't run on the Mac.
It's the same story with beta versions of Vista, Microsoft's new version of Windows, due to hit the market later this year. They don't support EFI.
Microsoft has promised, however, to add EFI support to the final version of Vista, so there's every chance that by the end of the year Vista will run easily and smoothly on the new Macs.
That could be a huge boon for many professional users, especially in the graphics, publishing and engineering industries, in which it's common to have a mix of platforms to get the best of both worlds.
At the other end of the market, games players would relish the thought of being able to run the many Windows-only games on Macintosh.
Faced with this, Apple might well reconsider its decision not to market Macs with Windows pre-installed as well as Mac OS X.
Since it does not licence OS X to any other companies, it would be the only company able to offer computers that run both systems, and probably Linux, too.
If the price was right they would find a ready market.
Microsoft, incidentally, already markets Virtual PC, a program that allows Windows to run on PowerPC Macs, by using software to emulate the Windows environment.
It's slow, but solves a problem for some Mac users who need to occasionally run a Windows application.
Virtual PC won't work on the new Intel Macs because it is not compatible with Rosetta, the software Apple has designed to allow most older applications designed for PowerPC Macs to run on the new machines.
Microsoft Macintosh business unit head Roz Ho says it is working with Apple on ways to bring Virtual PC to the new platform.
So, one way or another, it seems it will be possible soon to have both Windows and Mac OS X running smoothly on the new Macs.
Running Mac OS X on a Windows PC is another matter entirely, however.
"We will not allow Mac OS X to run on anything other than an Apple Mac," Apple's Phil Schiller says.
That hasn't stopped some from trying to run the Macintosh operating system running on a Windows machine.
Some websites have been showing videos of what is purported to be an IBM/Lenovo ThinkPad running Mac OS X, with some apparent limitations.
You can expect Apple's formidable legal teams to crack down very heavily on any attempt to commercialise such practices, even by small backyard operators.
dfrith@gmail.com
The Australian
Click here for the reference page