More on Macs on x86

The earlier entry prognosticates Apple's plan for the Mac. This one is more on the "Why x86?"

After doing further research, it seems that Apple doesn't have a choice.

A "disruptive technology" has emerged, and it's from a company called Transitive Corporation. This Wired article does a pretty good job describing what Transitive does; essentially the company has developed something it calls "hardware virtualization", which in effect performs the same functions as an emulator, although they're trying to move away from calling it the latter as it has accumulated some amount of non-flattering connotations and baggage from years of not-quite-there lackluster speeds.

The difference, obviously, is that Transitive claims to have obtained the Holy Grail, which is to unfetter the hardware/software dependency, at very little cost in terms of performance.

Assuming that the technology works as advertised, this would mean that it was only a question of time before the x86 market gets ahold of OS X, the very thing that makes a modern Mac unique.

When was the last time a Mac user actually cared about what goes on inside the machine? The main differentiation has always been the software, the user interface, the way everything just works.

So I guess Apple is doing this to pre-empt the move that is going to happen anyway. Might as well get the support of the developer and user community before being forcibly dragged down an unintended path dictated to it by another entity.