From owner-freebsd-ppc@FreeBSD.ORG Mon Jun 6 19:35:28 2005 Return-Path: X-Original-To: freebsd-ppc@freebsd.org Delivered-To: freebsd-ppc@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id D8AF016A41C for ; Mon, 6 Jun 2005 19:35:28 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from regnauld@moof.catpipe.net) Received: from moof.catpipe.net (moof.catpipe.net [195.249.214.130]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 6F0F243D48 for ; Mon, 6 Jun 2005 19:35:28 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from regnauld@moof.catpipe.net) Received: from localhost (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by localhost.catpipe.net (Postfix) with ESMTP id B52071B3F7; Mon, 6 Jun 2005 21:35:25 +0200 (CEST) Received: from moof.catpipe.net ([127.0.0.1]) by localhost (moof.catpipe.net [127.0.0.1]) (amavisd-new, port 10024) with ESMTP id 07637-09; Mon, 6 Jun 2005 21:35:20 +0200 (CEST) Received: by moof.catpipe.net (Postfix, from userid 1001) id 58C951B3F1; Mon, 6 Jun 2005 21:35:20 +0200 (CEST) Date: Mon, 6 Jun 2005 21:35:20 +0200 From: Phil Regnauld To: Michael Dexter Message-ID: <20050606193520.GC7233@moof.catpipe.net> References: <20050604155921.2F8AD7306E@freebsd-current.sentex.ca> <867jh9st82.fsf@xps.des.no> <20050605001359.GA30548@arved.at> <86d5r1r6lh.fsf@xps.des.no> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: X-Operating-System: FreeBSD 4.8-STABLE i386 Organization: catpipe Systems ApS User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.6i X-Virus-Scanned: amavisd-new at catpipe.net Cc: freebsd-ppc@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Apple x86 Ramifications? X-BeenThere: freebsd-ppc@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Porting FreeBSD to the PowerPC List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Mon, 06 Jun 2005 19:35:29 -0000 Michael Dexter (dexter) writes: > > Peter & Co., > > Any thoughts on Apple's announcement that they will slowly transition > to Intel processors and thus phase out PowerPC? Does IBM's "Power" > (power.org) initiative yield a viable target in light of many of us > hardware donors being unable to afford any to donate? IMHO the PPC Mac is a doomed platform now. IBM has probably no wish of continuing to make efforts for Apple when a) they got flamed by Apple (rare thing) for not delivering and b) they got Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo as customers. 10.4.1 w/P4 development machines will soon be available (two weeks). I'd bet they're "vanilla" Intel boxes, though I wouldn't be surprised if the future boxes will be OpenFirmware based with a HW lockin (or simply: a lack of support for any hardware/chipset other than what Apple will provide). Shouldn't be too hard to get FreeBSD to run on that (but at that point: why bother ?) Of course there are definitely plenty of PPC Macs out there, the price of which are going to be falling, but I see them no more useful than Alpha at this point (and then, Alpha at least made it possible to port FreeBSD to 64 bit). I think the question is: why should there be a PPC port in the future ? Certainly not for Apple machines, maybe for IBM (RS) boxes ? More than anything it proves (with Microsoft and the Xbox 360), that CPU architecture is less important nowadays. Let's see if the OS X developers and the market follows. NOTE: if this sounded like a recommendation NOT to donate to the FreeBSD project, ignore me -- Peter, David and Dag Erling are certainly better placed than me to say anything :)