August 17 , 2005 -- Last month, one of the great innovators of our time rekindled our imagination as only he can do. At Apple's WorldWide Developers Conference in San Francisco, Steve Jobs previewed a version of the OS X 'Tiger' operating system running native on an Intel-based Mac to over 3600 developers in attendance. Two weeks earlier, magazines and newspapers reported that Intel and Apple might join forces. Most of us rationalized the report as an Apple positioning statement prior to negotiations with IBM, or just the routine grinding of the rumor mill. We laughed at Steve's showmanship and went on about our business. Now that the truth is made public, we are left with many questions. How should we feel? Some are unperturbed by the switch; if the builder of my speedboat decides to use a faster engine, what do I care -- as long as it makes the boat faster and the manufacturer promises support? However, in discussions with customers and industry pundits, I've learned that some folk feel unsettled, and others feel hoodwinked. For years, we have seen Mr. Jobs on stage providing foil after foil of benchmark data illustrating the superiority of the PowerPC processor over Intel products. Are we to believe that Intel suddenly leap-frogged IBM and AMD to become Apple's preferred performance platform? Clearly, the demo at the WWDC was the end result of years of parallel development; engineers have been working on this for a very long time. And all this time Steve Jobs was telling us the PowerPC-based platform was "the fastest computer on the planet". Will this comprise the credibility of our iGuru? Anyone who knows the computer industry will tell you that benchmarks hang from the same family tree as statistics Personally, I'm not bothered by marketing babble; I consider the move courageous. Yes; there is the documented history of benchmark data, but anyone who knows the computer industry will tell you that benchmarks hang from the same family tree as statistics and, as we learned from Mark Twain, there are "lies, damn lies, and statistics." I think it bold and totally unexpected that Apple would take a clinical look at the technology roadmaps of the Big Three [chip makers] and choose Intel. Regardless of the backlash, the move is in the best interest of Apple customers. What should we do now? We are told it will be 2006 before we see the Intel CPU in MiniMacs and PowerBooks (because of thermal issues with the PowerPC, these SKUs will see Intel technology first), and 2007 before the technology will reside in our workstations and servers. Surely, the company realizes that many potential buyers will now wait until Intel is Inside to purchase a new machine, thereby driving short-term sales through the floor. Apparently, they are willing to lose short-term sales revenue to satisfy the best interests of their customer base (another reason I think the move 'courageous'). I've seen the Intel-based development platform; if you think the dual G5 was the fastest workstation on Earth, you're in for a wonderful surprise. I am willing to wait until I can buy MacIntel. If you think the dual G5 was the fastest workstation on Earth, you're in for a wonderful surprise. Apple's justification for making the announcement now is that it will take time for the developers to port their code to the new platform. (To "port" code is to move a program from one type of computer to another. One needs to rewrite sections that are machine dependent, and then recompile the program on the new computer.) Some applications will take more time to port than others; new software developed using Xcode should be ready soon, as they will require only a single port. However, more mature applications were developed using tools that would require the software to (a) be tested on Rosetta, a PowerPC-to-Intel emulator or (b) ported first to Xcode and then again for the MacIntel machine. If you contact your software manufacture, they will be able to tell you when their product will be ready for the latest and greatest from Apple. That's right: MacIntel will prove to be one of the greatest things to ever happen to Apple customers. How cool is that?