Leopard Server hardware requirements?

[Markus Hitter]

Am 02.10.2007 um 22:40 schrieb John C. Welch:

> On 10/02/2007 15:10 PM, "Markus Hitter" <mah at jump-ing.de> wrote:
>
>> Up to Tiger, any version of Mac OS X runs on hardware as old as a
>> PowerMac 7600. The only reason you can't just pop in the Installer
>> DVD is, Apple has put consciously a few barriers into place to
>> prohibit running Tiger on non-FireWire hardware.
>
> Not without hacking the boot process, and it was not supported in  
> any way,
> shape or form. As well, the only configuration it ran not really  
> slow in was
> pretty much CLI only, [...]

I did it, the hard part is to flip a single byte in the kernel.  
Graphics works just fine.

> Linux is your friend for that.

Odd understanding ... if this is true, there's no reason to install  
Mac OS X on any computer.


>> So, the idea, Apple would clean out just a single line of code as
>> soon as some type of hardware is no longer supported is ... without
>> evidence. In fact, they will add code here and there to make sure the
>> software requirements match the advertised ones. More chances for
>> bugs instead of less.
>
> Really? Care to tell me how supporting ADB until the end of time will
> increase reliability?

I was not talking about supporting old devices, I was talking about  
not artifically restricting what's already there. That said I'm  
pretty sure most of the ADB stuff will remain in Leopard. The driver  
file will eventually go away but nobody will even consider to rework  
any other part of the OS to get rid of ADB handling entirely.

Same for the FireWire requirement. If my iBook wouldn't sport such a  
port I'd hardly notice - except when (re)installing the OS.

> If that logic is correct, than
> *every* argument for rewriting older Carbon code in Cocoa is so much
> fantasy, and indeed, newer ways of writing code should be avoided,  
> as they
> would be less reliable, since they have more features which create  
> more
> chances for bugs.

Sure there's a reason to use more modern techniques. Nevertheless  
there's no reason to kick older hardware just for the sake of having  
them kicked. Setting a limit of 867 MHz instead of 800 MHz is just  
silly from the technical point of view. Setting any speed limit is  
silly as good software works reliable at any speed.


> Right, it's all randomly chosen by marketing. There's no technical  
> issue
> whatsoever. Why, an old ATI RAGE 128 will run Leopard just as well  
> as an
> X1600, and anyone thinking different is *obviously* falling for  
> marketing
> lies.
>
> That may be a good argument for home use, but it falls apart  
> anywhere else.

I prefer to do decisions of this type on my own, even in my enterprise.


Cheers,
Markus

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Dipl. Ing. Markus Hitter
http://www.jump-ing.de/