iLife ’09 Unfriendly to PowerPC Macs
By Ed Oswald | Wednesday, February 4, 2009 at 7:25 am
Well, you have to admit its not overly surprising this is occurring considering the switch to Intel processors in Macs occurred over two years ago: several media outlets have aptly noted that iLife ’09 has begun to lock out PowerPC users.
This trend started with last year’s version of iLife, which limited use of iMovie to G5 processors only which rendered it useless for any Mac PowerPC portable. That limitation continues in iLife ’09, but GarageBand has also now begun to limit functionality.
GarageBand’s standard application appears to still work. However, if you want to make use of its Learn to Play functionality, you must access it with an Intel-based Mac.
Apple has also been rumored — although it has not confirmed — to be doing away with PowerPC support in Mac OS X 10.6 “Snow Leopard.” It makes sense: limiting the OS’s capability to support legacy hardware is a trap that Windows has fallen into, and Mac OS should avoid.
For those of you holding out: upgrade. Now is a better time than ever to pick up a new Mac. The added functionality, including the capability to run Windows when you need to (and I bet some of us Macheads thoroughly enjoy running Windows IN a window) is more than enough for me.
In the end however, supporting its legacy hardware this long was a good move for Apple and gave its users ample time to prepare for what would have been an inevitable switch.
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February 9th, 2009 at 8:57 am[…] iLife ‘09 Unfriendly to PowerPC Macs (technologizer.com) […]
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February 16th, 2009 at 12:44 pm[…] iLife ’09 Unfriendly to PowerPC Macs (technologizer.com) […]
February 4th, 2009 at 5:43 pm
I’ve seen it coming, so I already upgraded my desktop computer to Intel MacPro, I guess now it’s time to save for a new MacBook Pro. I wish I’d still be working.
February 4th, 2009 at 6:25 pm
They should cut PPC support with the release of Mac OS 11. $130 for a copy of Mac OS X or $600 for a new low-end Mac, you tell me what’s more affordable.
February 5th, 2009 at 11:28 am
“They made the switch to intel over two years ago!”? So this is what we’ve come to? “That computer is two years old! Throw it out and get a new one!”
No, thank you. A 2x2GHz G5 is still plenty of processor to do anything you want. Add to that up to 8 Gigs of ram and a 512mb graphics card and you tell me i need a new computer…. Even more infuriating is the fact that the company that made their OS run ONLY on their computers is effectivly dropping support for a fantastic computer only a few years after releasing them.
And both of the other comments are pure crap: “They should cut PPC support with the release of Mac OS 11. $130 for a copy of Mac OS X or $600 for a new low-end Mac, you tell me what’s more affordable.” Uh, wot?
February 5th, 2009 at 11:33 am
Follow-up: This was available up until Aug ’06:
CPU: PowerPC 970MP
CPU Speed: 2.0/2.3/2×2.5 GHz (dual-core)
FPU: integrated
Bus Speed: 1.0/1.15/1.25 GHz
Data Path Width: 64 bit
Address Width: 64 bit
RAM Type: PC4200 DDR
Minimum RAM Speed: 533 MHz
RAM slots: 8
Maximum RAM: 16.0 GB
Level 1 Cache: 32 kB data, 64 kB instruction
Level 2 Cache: 1 MB (per core) on-chip, 1:1
Expansion Slots: 2x 4-lane, 2x 8-lane PCI Express
Yeah… Not shabby…
February 5th, 2009 at 4:57 pm
How is that crap? I own an eMac with a 1GHz G4 and 1GB of RAM. I would be mad but understanding if they dumped PPC support with OS 11 because by the time OS 11 rolls around the OS would probably require more modern hardware to use. I do admit though that I didn’t think about people who use last-gen PPC Macs. Maybe they will dump support for those machines by OS 12. I don’t want them to stop supporting hardware on a point release though.