I'll tell you! — Just as things seem quiet on a Friday night, I ditch out to T.G.I. Friday's, and when I come back… the main server for Mobile17 is down, and Apple is reportedly switching from PowerPC to Intel chips! … Wait a second, there's no way that's actually happening, is there?
While it is possible that Intel is merely taking over production on a new variant of PowerPC chip or something compatible, it seems like Apple's probably actually switching to plain x86 chips shared by most PCs. — CNET has already reported this, but can it be true?
… With Apple's WWDC keynote just days away, we'll soon most likely learn for sure.
However, Mac OS X has always been built atop BSD (adapted to Darwin), which is also built separately to run on x86. — Theoretically, they could even offer Mac OS X this way for other PCs like Microsoft does with Windows, but they're primarily a hardware company (even aside from the iPods), so I doubt that they'd “shoot themselves in the foot” on that. Plus, Dell and other personal computer manufacturers have rigorous contracts with Microsoft that apparently prevent them from offering even standard Linux variants on consumer and business desktops for sale. 🙁
Either way, we're too far from April Fools' Day for jokes, so this might actually be happening. — Mac fans are horrified right now about what might possibly be around the corner. But, it's time to calm down, take a step back, and try to see this from Apple's point-of-view. Stay tuned, and let's see what they say.