Apple news: Digestion, analysis, conclusion

Confused reactions:
I think that the negative reactions observed everywhere on many blogs are primarily due to what I would call the "Mac Geekmania". Many of "us" highly believe in the existence of the so called "Wintel conspiration" which is about Microsoft and Intel taking over the world by controlling chips, information and so on. That belief led or I would say misled many of us in disapproving the "Intel Inside" switch made by Apple due to the facts that we LOVE Apple with passion and hate anything Microsoft / Intel the same. Also, for many mac-geekmaniac, using Apple or Linux (apart from the generous OS features of course) and staying away from anything Windows was our way of defining ourselves as the only people who could see the "evil Wintel had developed into" and the rest of the world was blinded.
Basically, most of the confused reactions came from passion rather than objectively looking at what was being suggested and what the future holds.

Analysis:
One of the main reasons why many Apple developers at first would not be happy about the changes is the fact that it will take a while for all currently available applications to be developed for the new chip. In terms of economic expenses in software development, this would mean a lot in the sense that many software engineering houses (games, business applications, scientific applications - think NASA -, etc...) spent a large amount of time, porting applications they have written for the most popular platform (Wintel) to Mac G5 family of processors and platforms. With the new changes starting next year, this could mean that "us" using the old platform will not have the advantage of running new applications (this would be very frustrating for firms who have spent large amounts of cash aquiring Macs as well as individuals who basically will be forced of buying new machines).

From another point of view however (once firms have realigned themselves behind the new Apple decisions), this could generate lots of business and thinking objectively, could kick MS Windows out of the Wintel deal. If Microsoft is running on 90% or so of the desktop machines in the world, this is because users haven't had a proper alternative (not talking Linux here) to Windows. Therefore, most go with what is available. But with OS X (truly the best operating system I've used so far - and I am not campaining for Apple -) with its BSD 4.0 kernel base, its Unix features, its revolutionary interface and its ease of use as well as interoperability with other platforms becomes available for everyone to run, I think Microsoft has a huge problem. Even more is the fact that Microsoft is currently *VERY* late in producing Windows Longhorn. According to Steve Jobs, the full working version of "Leopard", the upcoming OS X ((which will be Intel compatible) will be available just before Microsoft releases Longhorn. What this means exactly? I am not sure, but most current OS X - G5 developers will have already ported their software by that time and Microsoft will be in "Deep shit". Hence old applications that would not be ported will still be able to run on the new chips via "Rosetta".

In terms of Business for Apple dealers and Mac software developers (meaning "US"), this means lots of opportunities to push our products very far and to a GREATER AMOUNT of audience / users: it means business! And this is one thing we have always been complaining about, even making plans for *force* organizations / individuals to SWITCH. Now Steve Jobs is making the job easy for us, no-one would need to actually be forced into switching: they will have an alternative and sincerely, with what goes on under the hood of Windows and at the top of it, I can already forsee the winner of this race.

Conclusion:
As it's always been, people in general are always scared and feel uncertain about changes (mostly the drastic ones) and new technology. But with a deep insight and objective analysis as well as integration into the population of that new technology / change, users get the chance to see what's new in terms of advantages as well as the amount of problems solved compared to the old "way of doing things" and start adopting what is being offered.

I therefore think that despite every single confused nerve of our mac-geekmaniac brain, the future looks bright and no, Apple has not sold out to the Wintel conspiracy.