Mourning the Power PC

Ars Technica has an interesting and thoughtful piece on Apple's move to Intel. It also has a speculative FAQ on some questions you may have on the "switch". A must-read for Mac users and tech geeks.

So, why didn't it happen? I can think of two reasons, both of which probably contributed to the end result. First, it seems like IBM promised Apple something that it failed to deliver: a 3GHz G5 one year after the 2GHz G5 was announced. Steve Jobs stood on a public stage and declared it a fait acompli, presumably because IBM told him that it would happen. (Granted, this may be a big presumption, knowing Jobs...)

Two years later, a 3GHz G5 has not appeared. Steve Jobs looks foolish, and is undoubtedly pissed. This is the same guy who, back in the G4 days, famously (allegedly) told a senior Motorola executive, "I can't wait until we don't need you anymore." This happened in the middle a meeting about future CPUs that Apple still needed from Motorola!