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Even shareware developers will get the Transistion Kit - Version: 1.0, 6/9/2005 11:40PM PST
GPSNavX (GPSNavX)
Prior to the Apple release of OS X for Intel, GPSNavX™ will be offered in the new Univeral Binary format allowing it to run natively on both PowerPC and Intel Mac's. GPSNavX™ was designed to be processor independent from the get-go. Unlike other Mac GPS navigation applications that are a throw-back to the System 7 "Classic" days,GPSNavX™ was developed specifically for OS X regardless of what processor is used in your Mac. We look forward to supporting both PPC and Intel OS X.
www.gpsnavx.com
For amcgee - Version: 1.0, 6/7/2005 02:32PM PST
(1 of 3 users found this comment useful)
picodom (Random Applications)
I didn't read all of your post, but most of it. You must have not heard all the news, but noone will be left behind. Those smaller time shareware developers can wait until Intel Boxes are on the market, because the Rosetta emulator is doing the work for them before they make their apps universal binaries. I mean, Rosetta ran MS Word and Adobe PS on and Intel box and PS seemed a bit slow but I mean come on, for the smaller time apps your talking about Rosettal will do the trick until they can get their hands on a new Intel comp.
The Death of Mac Shareware? - Version: 1.0, 6/7/2005 12:22PM PST
(2 of 4 users found this comment useful)
amcgee
"Fasten your seat belts. It's going to be a bumpy night."
---Betty Davis in All About Eve
And so, it begins. While I recognize that in the long-term, the move to Intel processors was a brilliant decision, and will be incredibly beneficial for Apple, OS X, and the Mac community, in the short-term, there is going to be some serious pain. In particular, I'm sad for those who are often thought of the least.
Lost amidst all the punditry and pontification has been the fact that the people who make the OS X platform the most vital and exciting, the small and independent developers, whose useful apps you see pop up everyday on VersionTracker, and whose efforts help remedy many of the problems you see on MacFixIt, are going to be temporarily left behind during this transition. Many of them will not be able to afford the transition kit, nor will they be able to time their computer upgrades to coincide with the release of the new machines. There is going to be a gap, which could become permanent, during which many of the folks who bring us some absolutely incredible freeware, donationware, and shareware programs, will be unable to convert them to the new platform, or write new programs for it. You can see the future simply by looking at the transition from Panther to Tiger. The issue has often been not if something would be updated to be compatible, but rather, when. Many of our favorite utilities are still lagging behind, with no updates on the horizon. This problem has usually hit the lone code warrior the hardest. Not everyone with programming talent is a high-paid coder who can just pop off money for developer connection subcriptions, G5 towers, and $1,000 transition kits. Oh sure, most will eventually make the transition with the rest of us, but that will take time, and some of the them are going to fall, and will have to be left on the side of the road.
My only hope is that this traumatic situation will cause the Mac and Open Source communities to band together, and come up with innovative ways to assist developers without immediate access to the new dev platform. If we can assume that theoretically, it will now be easier for Windows to run on a Mac, and OS X to run on a PC (with tweaking and hacking, of course), there is the possibility that a lower-cost form of transition kit could be produced, an open source version, one that will not require immediate access to the upcoming machines or the expensive apple version. Yeah, I'm just dreaming off the top of my head, but you understand the point of what I'm saying.
The issue is that end-users are dependent on developers, and in the Mac community, some of the best developers are individuals, so those who say that end-users won't really notice the transition are way off-base. Emulation of the old platform via Rosetta will not really solve the problem. You can't run backup software in emulation, for example, so it's self-evident that emulation only deals with standard apps. And of course, I don't even need to mention that emulation was, is, and will always be slower than a native environment. That is so self-evident, that to deny it is to be in denial of the laws of physics.
So, my friends, get ready, because here it comes. The next 10 years are going to be VERY exciting, as OS X is about to go head-to-head with Windows and Linux, and one day, we could look up and Apple will have become the new Microsoft. I believe that is what Steve Jobs saw in his dreams. He's been trying to avoid the confrontation from day one, but finally, he gave in to the visions and is ready for the fight. You can laugh now, but I can see it. UNIX and it's children are about to come in through the backdoor and take over the world, and future generations will wonder why we ever took that Windows detour in the first place.
---Betty Davis in All About Eve
And so, it begins. While I recognize that in the long-term, the move to Intel processors was a brilliant decision, and will be incredibly beneficial for Apple, OS X, and the Mac community, in the short-term, there is going to be some serious pain. In particular, I'm sad for those who are often thought of the least.
Lost amidst all the punditry and pontification has been the fact that the people who make the OS X platform the most vital and exciting, the small and independent developers, whose useful apps you see pop up everyday on VersionTracker, and whose efforts help remedy many of the problems you see on MacFixIt, are going to be temporarily left behind during this transition. Many of them will not be able to afford the transition kit, nor will they be able to time their computer upgrades to coincide with the release of the new machines. There is going to be a gap, which could become permanent, during which many of the folks who bring us some absolutely incredible freeware, donationware, and shareware programs, will be unable to convert them to the new platform, or write new programs for it. You can see the future simply by looking at the transition from Panther to Tiger. The issue has often been not if something would be updated to be compatible, but rather, when. Many of our favorite utilities are still lagging behind, with no updates on the horizon. This problem has usually hit the lone code warrior the hardest. Not everyone with programming talent is a high-paid coder who can just pop off money for developer connection subcriptions, G5 towers, and $1,000 transition kits. Oh sure, most will eventually make the transition with the rest of us, but that will take time, and some of the them are going to fall, and will have to be left on the side of the road.
My only hope is that this traumatic situation will cause the Mac and Open Source communities to band together, and come up with innovative ways to assist developers without immediate access to the new dev platform. If we can assume that theoretically, it will now be easier for Windows to run on a Mac, and OS X to run on a PC (with tweaking and hacking, of course), there is the possibility that a lower-cost form of transition kit could be produced, an open source version, one that will not require immediate access to the upcoming machines or the expensive apple version. Yeah, I'm just dreaming off the top of my head, but you understand the point of what I'm saying.
The issue is that end-users are dependent on developers, and in the Mac community, some of the best developers are individuals, so those who say that end-users won't really notice the transition are way off-base. Emulation of the old platform via Rosetta will not really solve the problem. You can't run backup software in emulation, for example, so it's self-evident that emulation only deals with standard apps. And of course, I don't even need to mention that emulation was, is, and will always be slower than a native environment. That is so self-evident, that to deny it is to be in denial of the laws of physics.
So, my friends, get ready, because here it comes. The next 10 years are going to be VERY exciting, as OS X is about to go head-to-head with Windows and Linux, and one day, we could look up and Apple will have become the new Microsoft. I believe that is what Steve Jobs saw in his dreams. He's been trying to avoid the confrontation from day one, but finally, he gave in to the visions and is ready for the fight. You can laugh now, but I can see it. UNIX and it's children are about to come in through the backdoor and take over the world, and future generations will wonder why we ever took that Windows detour in the first place.
