The Curse Of Power Mac OS
In late 2008, I wrote an article about the future of PowerPC Macs, The Future of PowerPC Macs and Software as Snow Leopard Approaches. Well, all the rumours have been put to bed: Apple have announced the next version of Mac OS X, and it isn’t looking good for PowerPC users.
Cause: PowerChute Personal Edition software provides safe system shutdown in the event of an extended power outage and provides potential data corruptions. To lift the curse once and for all and return the kingdom to its former glory, you must embark on a great quest and defeat the dragons! Gather companions, trade coins for goods at the blacksmith’s workshop, and claim rightful victory against these ferocious beasts! Full Mac OS X Game Free Features. Exciting storyline will keep you guessing!
Scheduled for release in September, Apple are offering OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard at a knock down price of only $29 for existing OS X 10.5 Leopard users. At this point, I was excited. I was sure all the rumours of Snow Leopard being Intel-only were rubbish.
Intel Only for Snow Leopard
However, read the small print. It is only for Intel users after all.
Since the release of Intel Macs, it has been a waiting game to see how long before PowerPC Macs were classed as extinct. Even before the mention of Snow Leopard, more and more software was being released as Intel-only.
When a new OS comes out, you expect new versions of software to be for that OS only – that is the forced progression of computing – but when the same OS runs on two architectures, it makes it a little more difficult.
The last G5 Power Mac clocked in at 2.5 GHz with 4 cores – still a very respectable machine, and certainly full of life – but it won’t be able to run Snow Leopard, Adobe Creative Suite 5, or other Intel-only software, yet a 1.5 GHz Core Solo Mac mini will.
With recent announcements, it just seems another nail in the PowerPC coffin. Okay, it was inevitable, but how long before owning a PowerPC – even a fast one – will mean not running the latest OS or latest version of software?
15 Years of PowerPC Mac OS Support
The PowerPC platform was introduced in 1992, although the first PowerPC Mac didn’t ship until March 1994. The last PowerPC Mac in production was the above-mentioned Power Mac G5, sold until August 2006. This makes some of the last PowerPC Macs just over three years old, making them “old hat” in a very short time.
September will see the launch of Snow Leopard. Every new Mac sold will come with Snow Leopard, and any existing Intel user with a spare few quid will be upgrading. By Christmas, the Mac world will be awash with Snow Leopard and probably will have have seen the first update (version 10.6.1).
PowerPC users will slowly become a smaller and smaller minority. More and more software will be come Intel-only, as well as Snow Leopard only, leaving Intel Leopard users out in the cold too – but at least they have a cheap upgrade option.
By October 2010, Snow Leopard will be well into it stride, rumours of Mac OS X 10.7 will be flooding the Mac community, Apple will have a new bunch of peripherals and fancy gadgets that only work on Snow Leopard – and the PowerPC platform, along with Leopard, will just about be forgotten.
It’s Inevitable
Unfortunately, there is nothing we can do about it. It’s part of computer evolution. While the hardware in your machine may still be good enough to do what you need, the latest software and latest trends require a newer OS. A newer OS won’t run on your PowerPC hardware (even though most of the time it would be physically possible); therefore you have to buy a new (or newer) computer to keep up with the latest standards.
And this evolution just keeps going.
I’m a PowerPC user. My 867 MHz Titanium PowerBook G4 meets the minimum requirements for Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard, but as soon as Snow Leopard is released, my PowerBook will start the downward slope of being out-of-date.
Of course it will still do everything I need it to do at present, but it is a downward slope.
Follow Simon Royal on Twitter or send him an Email.
Like what you have read? Send Simon a donation via Tip Jar.
keywords: #osx #snowleopard #powerpc #demise #end#techspectrum #simonroyal
short link: http://goo.gl/WQb13e
searchword: endofpowerpc
Power BI is a powerful BI tool, but it sadly doesn't support Mac devices.
A couple of years ago, I was working for a company where 90% of our staff had a MacBook and loved it, but there was no way for our Data Team to work with Power BI to build out reporting. Then we turned into another tool named Holistics, a cloud-based one.
In this post, I will share my experiences implementing Power BI on Mac OS, which I hope is helpful to you if you are looking for a solution.
Disclaimer: I fell in love with Holistics at the previous company, and am now working for Holistics!
Since Power BI can't run on a Mac, here are our recommendations to run Power BI on Macintosh Devices.
- Install and run Power BI on a Virtual Machine, then remote in to that Virtual Machine.
- Install and run Power BI on a PC, then use a remote viewer to control that PC.
- Use an alternative BI solution.
- Install Windows on Mac using Boot Camp
To give you a little context about Microsoft's plan on supporting Power BI on Mac devices, they are not considering developing Power BI desktop for Mac devices anytime soon.
You can also visit this link to keep track of their upcoming plans.
You can set-up a Windows Virtual Machine on Azure, Google Cloud or AWS.
- Azure: https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/services/virtual-machines/ (starting from $61/month)
- AWS: https://aws.amazon.com/getting-started/tutorials/launch-windows-vm/
Then you install and run Power BI on that Virtual Machine.
Finally, install Microsoft Remote Desktop for Mac on each device to give your team access to that VM.
There are a couple of disadvantages to this approach, however:
The Curse Of Power Mac Os X
- It's difficult to control permission access and version history.
- You can only have one person working on a machine at a time, since Power BI for desktop is not a collaborative tool.
It's a little bit the same with the first method, however, this time, you use a physical machine.
You set-up a Windows PC, install and run Power BI on that PC.
Install TeamViewer, AnyDesk, or MS Remote Desktop to give people access to that PC and use Power BI from their Macs.
Cons: same with the first method, and you have to maintain a physical PC.
Power BI is powerful — it helps your team consolidate data and build dashboards and reports with a powerful data modeling layer. It's not easy to find a great tool in the market to replace Power BI, but here are two alternative solutions I recommend which is 100% cloud-based, can replicate its functionalities, and in some cases do even more.
1. Holistics
Holistics is a powerful full-stack data platform that allows companies to set up an end-to-end, reusable, and scalable data analytics stack with minimal engineering resources.
Power Mac Branches
It not only gives data analysts a powerful SQL-based data modeling approach, but it also helps them build a data warehouse and automate reporting. Holistics is also designed to empowers non-technical users to get insights with a strong self-service analytics offering.
Holistics vs Power BI: https://www.holistics.io/compare/holistics-vs-powerbi/
2. Looker + StitchData
Looker is a business intelligence and big data analytics platform that helps you explore, analyze and share real-time business analytics easily.
Looker is also a powerful server-based Data Modeling BI tool, however, they don't support Data Transforms and Data Imports, so you will need another tool for that called StitchData. Together, you get all the power of Power BI with none of the Windows lock-in.
The Curse Of Power Mac Os 11
Boot Camp is a utility that helps you install Microsoft Windows 10 on your Mac, then switch between macOS and Windows when restarting your Mac.
You can learn more about how to use it here
History Of Mac Os
I like Power BI's product, but it is difficult to keep using Power BI given that the tool is built exclusively for the Windows Desktop. Instead of allowing your data team to work collaboratively, your data pipeline will depend on Windows. This is difficult and restrictive if your organization works primarily on Mac.
The upshot here is that if you do not use a Microsoft-stack at your organization, a 100% cloud-based solution would be a better fit for your needs.