The Computer World

My how things change. Apple has announced that it is abandoning the PowerPC processor in favor of Intel's x86 architecture. This would was seemingly years in the making. I remember back when I was in school - I don't remember which year it was - there was a big commotion when a page was discovered on Apple's server that detailed a port of Mac OSX to the x86 platform. At the time I was unsure what this would mean. My hope was that Apple would release a version of OSX for Intel-based machines that would compete with MS Windows. However, now that the transition of Apple's line of hardware is actually happening, I understand now why a version of OSX that could be installed on any x86-based computer would not be in Apple's best interest. Steve Jobs has said - and I agree - that the strength of Apple is directly related to the fact that they control both the hardware and the software, thus guaranteeing the user's experience. So, will Macs with Intel processors be better than their PowerPC predecessors? Probably so, if only for the fact that Apple will be able to offer consumers more choices. Will they be cheaper? Probably not. By controlling both the hardware and the software, Apple has the ability to charge a premium because an Apple Mac is "exclusive."

I'm getting tired of hearing about Firefox. A browser review on CNET.com rated Firefox the best browser and listed its "cool factor" as one of the reasons for the ranking. Cool factor!?!? Is this how we are evaluating software these days? And how did Firefox acquire this cool factor? I've always been dismissive of Firefox. Back in the days when I didn't know about Opera yet, I was a staunch Opera user. Why? Because Netscape was a joke. They spun off the Mozilla Foundation and donated their source code so that the open source community could improve the browser. And you know what? Mozilla was a joke. It was never released on time, was notoriously buggy, and generally sucked. Trust me, I know. Being an early adopter of just about everything, I tried Mozilla in the early days. It was definitely not cool then. So what do they do? They "strip" it down, slap a new name on it, add tabs (which Opera has had for a long time), and suddenly its cool? I just don't get it. As far as I'm concerned its still Mozilla crap. Download Opera. Use it. If you want the ad to go away, there are a lot of ways to get it for free. Check out Opera's website. Or just click here. Google's great.