How can I have Mac OS X (ver. 10.2) run on Intel Pentium based
hardware? BSD can run on a Pentium.
Darwin, the base of OSX is in the process of being ported completely
to the X86. However, OSX also includes a large chunk of Apple code, I
believe partly from NeXT, and just brand-new stuff that makes up the
Cocoa interface.
That said, it would be smart of apple, when they were programming
Cocoa, to make an effort to make the code portable. If they did this,
and it is reasonable to believe they have, it is entirely possible
they have at least a partly working OSX for X86. I personally believe
this is why they used Darwin as a base, knowing that it could be
ported to both platforms in the future.
Even if they did this, it would probably be a contingency plan in a
fiscal emergency, and would never see the light of day unless they
ended up so short on funds that they had to discontinue their hardware
line. Otherwise, it wouldn't be worth the effort, since the current
Mac software wouldn't be compatible anyway (due to different CPU and
arch.), and RISC emulation on X86 is seriously harder than vice-versa.
I wouldn't hold my breath for it, but I don't think its completely
ridiculous to think it exists somewhere.
I read from unconfirmed sources that Apple are possibly looking to run
OS-X on non Motorola processors as they are falling behind in the
megahertz war and power stakes. Current Macs make up for this
deficiency with dual processors, a stop gap solution which surely
cannot run forever.
regards
lot-ga
The BSD core, Darwin, has already been ported to x86 as a bootable CD.
As MrBuzz rightly points out, Apple wouldn't go the whole way unless
they could secure a hardware lockin too.
http://www.opensource.apple.com/projects/darwin/6.0/release.html
--seizer-ga
Can it be done? Yes. Apple would have to port OS X to run on x86
processor architecture. Will Apple do it? Probably not. BSD can run
on x86 probably because they've already ported the code to run on x86
architecture.
Here's a good article (
http://www.artificialcheese.com/story/2002/8/31/161044/348 ) that
might give insight into some of the reasons why Apple would probably
never port it to x86 unless they had a way to control the hardware so
that it would only run on their custom x86 cpu and not a Intel or AMD.
Hope this helps,
mrbuzz-ga
 Walking/Running Puppy - Advise needed
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Mac OS X running on an Intel Pentium based hardware?