Mac OS X 10.6 "Snow Leopard" confirmed to be Intel-only

I really would like to see apple continue support for PPC computers. Owning a G4 tower that acts as my RAID array, that my Macbook Pro connects to for storage, it is vital to me that i keep this computer running, because i cant afford to get a newer computer at the moment. I dealt with the G4 G5 processor change over not too long ago now i had to endure the intel switch, Apple owes it to us users who utilize multiple platforms to continue support.

Well, aren't they optimizing for multi core CPU's? so that might be the reason for dropping PPC. maybe Apple is just "dropping for now" so they can fully optimize code for intel, then put PPC code for support with PPC CPUs with 2 cores or dual cpu. i don't much about PPC but i've seen some dual cpu's.

Why the fuss?

It's not a must to upgrade, so for those that want to hang onto their PPC computers, they can just skip SL and those that want to jump on SL can just go out and get an intel mac.

It's not like SL will replace old Leopard.

It should be noted that using the developer preview requirements documents to "confirm" aspects of the final retail version of Snow Leopard is bad journalizm [sic]

Man, I would be really upset if I was one of those many people to buy the last of the G5 Powermacs. You know, the ones that costs $2000 or more, and now it's not going to be any good. Oh wait, yeah. I am one of those people.

9GB!? I'm pretty sure Leopard and Tiger are around 4, didn't it say that it was being reduced?

It's been over 2 years since the Intel chips were phased into Apple's line, which might not seem like a long time, but I think it's a welcomed move all in all. The only PPC users I can see complaining are the ones who purchased within a year of the Intel models - otherwise, I think it's great to drop that Universal crap and lighten up apps, OS, etc.

"Snow Leopard dramatically reduces the footprint of Mac OS X, making it even more efficient for users, and giving them back valuable hard drive space for their music and photos."(from http://www.apple.com/macosx/snowleopard/)

"system requirements include: [...] At least 9GB of disk space available, or 12GB of disk space if you install the developer tools."
Aren't these the same requirements as OS X 10.5? 10.4's requirements were 3GB/4GB. Either I'm just misinterpreting the use of the word "footprint" or "dramatically reduces" really means "increases 3-fold".

let the ppc hit the floor

It's a pretty bold move to both drop PPC support and focus an entire major release on re-architecting. I suppose they figure they've got the time between Vista and 7 to come out with a very strong performance upgrade, since MS is just trying to play catch-up to Leopard at this point. What I'm certainly not getting is, _if_ it is destined to be a paid upgrade, how they expect home users (ie, their largest base) to cough up $130 for benefits that are most likely intangible to them. I'm placing my bets on it being a paid upgrade since they're spending so much time on it (18mo, just like every other major release) and I doubt shareholders would put up with them going two release cycles without a revenue boost (MS's 7 years nonwithstanding).

I just don't see how they're going to sell stuff like Grand Central and OpenCL to home users... they aren't even all that useful to the millions of Mac's out there with integrated graphics. I'm not saying I disagree with the point of the release -- it's a smart move given the direction Intel's taking Nehalem -- I just don't know how they plan to sell it.