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What does the Apple/Intel thing mean? It may not mean an awful lot.

The first question that springs to mind is, will Macs be cheaper? Maybe, in the long run. And Mac users will probably get faster processors sooner now than they would have from IBM. But probably not as fast or as soon as we would have if Steve had climbed into bed with AMD instead of Intel.

In the portable arena, the changes will be more dramatic; the G4 & G5 have been notoriously difficult to produce in minimal wattage systems.

What it doesn't mean, especially in the medium term, is that you'll be able to buy a shrink-wrapped copy of OS X to run on your inexpensive no-name PC clone. Apple will probably continue to control the hardware as much as possible, selling its own Macs, and making sure that you have as hard a time as possible running OS X on that no-name clone.

Otherwise, does Apple become just another OS in the arena, another software maker? Doubtless, at least in the shorter term, OS X will be running on Apple hardware exclusively, though one shudders to think of the hoops Apple will be jumping through to keep you from running OS X on that Vaio.

On the other hand, you can bet Apple's phones are going to ringing off the hook with calls from hardware manufacturers who want to put a Tiger in their PC tanks.

Another big question: will you be able to run Windows in a more native mode on your Mac? Maybe. The current crop of emulators remain novelty items only, useful for those who are testing, or who have to run some old legacy apps. I doubt, though, you'll have a much better experience than, say, Linux users have running Wine, without buying some software (like, say, an OS) from Microsoft.

The Power Platform was, it should be noted, a platform chosen, designed, and implemented in the years Jobs was in the NeXT wilderness, away from Apple. NeXT, originally a 68000 chip OS, like the Macintosh, did move its software over to x86.

So Jobs, and his management team, has some  experience doing this, and have had OS X running on Intel for years. So you might look at this as one more step in the transformation of Apple into a total Jobs company, after his returm from NeXT in 1997. First the clones were gone, then Newton and Copeland and Rhapsody and then the remaking of the product line in a more sensible fashion. Now it's time to finish the transformation with the decision to go Intel.

A couple of other random thoughts: 1. Going after switchers? Is this going to drive more customers to Apple just because Macs now sport "Intel Inside"? (Well, maybe if Macs were cheaper, it will.)  2. Goodbye Classic. Though the number of users who have been relying on it has to be diminishing rapidly, this should finish it off.

In the meantime, my advice is, don't worry. Don't change any buying plans you have now: that Mac Mini is still just as good (or otherwise) as it was yesterday. Instead, fire up iTunes on whatever box you're on, go download the new John Prine album, copy "Taking a Walk" to your iPod, and hit the trail.

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