Unfortunately, the short answer is "No"
The long answer is "Maybe, but it will be very difficult and wouldn't
be worth doing"
As other posters have commented, there's the Open Source foundation of
Mac OS X, called Darwin, that's available for free download from
Apple. Darwin runs on a select range of PC hardware. There are all
sorts of rumors about Apple releasing an Intel version of Mac OS X,
but I don't see it happening anytime soon.
Apple are an integrated hardware and software vendor, a huge part of
the Macintosh experience is "It all just works". Hardware and Software
work together seamlessly, without the end user having to worry about
drivers and incompatibilities.
Apple, should they ever release a version of Mac OS X that runs on
Intel hardware, would not wish to support the vast array of PC
hardware that's out there, and would be doing themselves out of a
revenue stream should they not make the hardware that their software
runs on.
A few years back, Apple experimented with licensing PowerPC hardware
development to third parties (such as Motorola and Power Computing)
however these clone makers then relased cheaper hardware than apple
(that was arguably not as good) and Apple very soon ended the "Clone
Wars".
Were aple to release Mac OS X for Intel hardware, it would most likely
require a special Apple branded "box" to run on, and would make it
difficult to run on off-the-shelf PC hardware. The modifications they
could make to a "standard" PC could range from a totally different
BIOS setup (Macs today use OpenFirmware, a forth interpreter as their
"BIOS" however it's a whole lot more powerful and flexible - it's also
very similar to OpenBoot that Sun SPARC machines use) to having an
Apple PCI card that the OS requires to run on or even having a totally
different system architecture and utilising only an Intel CPU.
All of these scenarios have some advantages and disadvantages, however
Apple have a substantial investment in PowerPC based hardware, so any
rumours we are hearing at the moment of Apple moving to a different
CPU probably relate to moving off Motorola's slow PowerPC range and
taking up one of IBM's POWER4 variants.
Apple keep an Intel version of Darwin under development, as they want
to ensure that their OS is written cleanly and is easy to port to
other platforms, should they need to. They are keeping their options
open, and keeping Motorola (the manufacturer of G3 and G4 processor
chips) on their toes.
In spite of Apple's marketing campaign fighting the "Megahertz Myth",
current G4 CPUs are slower than the top-of-the-line Pentium chips used
in today's PCs (and this is, I guess, the reason for the question).
This is also why Apple state that they are keeping their options open
and looking at alternative CPUs.
Apple hardware is also more expensive than a no-name backyard brand
PC, however the analogy can be made between, say, a Ford and an Audi
or BMW. They both get you from point A to point B, however some do it
in more style and comfort. You do get more with Apple hardware -
things like 64-bit PCI slots, FireWire and USB as standard, cases that
are easy to open and work on, an OS that works without having to track
down third-party drivers, high-quality components and connectors,
useful productivity software (Apple's iLife - iTunes, iPhoto, iDVD
etc) and great technical support all included in the purchase price.
I am a professional, Apple Certified, Macintosh technician, and I work
on both Macs and PCs. I will happily use either platform, and am a
strong believer in "The right tool for the right job". I would like to
see OS X on a PC, but I don't think it's going to happen.
There's also the question of an emulator, suffice to say that any
performance advantage a Pentium has over a G4, when trying to emulate
one, it would be slower and unreliable, due to the significant
architectural differences between the two chips.
*phew* that was a bit long, but explains the reasoning why you won't
be seeing Mac OS X on a pentium any time soon. |
