Why did Songbird stop supporting PowerPC users, does it dislike the Mac?

Prove it. ( Delete or Edit for 15 minutes )

There's more of us than you think.... ( Delete or Edit for 15 minutes )

OpenOffice 3 IS ppc, too. don't talk bull... ( Delete or Edit for 15 minutes )

Many of Apple's own programs have stopped supporting PPC, and as its a totally different architecture, I'd rather not see Pioneers of the Inevitable wasting time on a port (it would take a lot of resources). I doubt its just a simple recompile. Even so, many plugins wont work on PPC anyway in the long run.

Why support an architecture that barely anyone owned in the first place, when the epic resources required to affect a small number of people can be spent instead on features that benefit a significantly higher amount of users.

And no.. Mac's don't last longer then PC's (thats just rubbish you get told). I know because I used to sell them and fix them. If anything, they last less because of many design issues in them. The only difference is that Mac users generally are more easily upsold to more ram on sale.

Why pour 10% of resources into a system which probably less then 1% of people ever owned, and I doubt even less people use these days. ( Delete or Edit for 15 minutes )

I have a reply to Andrew Luecke's comment, but GetSatisfaction truncated it when I tried to post it, even as a full reply. I created a page on my web server at this address: http://rprogrammer.net/static/curios/... ( Delete or Edit for 15 minutes )

If you want a PPC port, you are free to port it. There is nothing stopping you, especially as you are a coder.

However, even if POTI did put in the resources to port it and wrote "this port is unsupported and unofficial all over it", people would still expect it to be supported. And if things don't work properly, they will start whinging that Songbird is treating its customers like crap. Look at the way Linux users treated mozilla during the BETA period. If the PPC users are getting angry already because Songbird isn't supporting the platform they know is dying, I'd hate to see their wraith of fury when nobody on the Songbird team even has access to a PPC computer anymore.

And no, Mac's are definitely no more reliable. I know from experience! Basic components such as Harddisks are often very difficult to access (especially on PPC models), service parts are expensive, and no, the components Apple uses aren't built to a "higher standard". Replacing a harddisk on a PC is a plug and play job (even on laptops its one screw). On Apple's, you had to pull the entire laptop to pieces. Inverters for the displays often broke, and since the displays were part of the iMacs, you could either cough up an epic amount of money to fix it, or throw out the iMac's. Many components are mostly the same as those used on average PC's (not talking about cheap chinese rubbish but rather Dell's and such). In the case of many liquid cooled G5's, many started leaking too. Even worse, many are dusttraps and are basically designed in such a matter that things get really dusty quickly (pretty much all the imacs).

Sorry, a salesperson lied to you and told you they are more reliable. It doesn't make it true.

Why does it make you angry that POTI haven't clearly stated on their frontpage why PPC isn't supported? Hasn't Apple told you that PPC computers are close to total extinction? Use common sense. Anyway, that's my opinion. But I think Pioneers Of The inevitable made the correct choice ( Delete or Edit for 15 minutes )

Extinction? Get over yourself, there's still lot's of us out here. POTI made the wrong choice and now with the credit crunch who can afford to upgrade anyhow? ( Delete or Edit for 15 minutes )

a) No need to get agro. That makes 2 PPC users here who have gotten very aggressive because a PPC build doesn't exist.

b) There is no reason a bunch of you can't group together, start a petition or port Songbird to PPC. In fact, I am quite sure it would be a lot more productive then telling people who don't agree with you to "get over themselves". Apparently it should be easy to fill a petition easily.

c) However, I think most users would agree that they would rather see POTI spend their resources on features. Even if they don't officially support a PPC build, as stated, it would still likely take up a lot of resources.

d) Yes extinction, that's what happens to platforms which are no longer supported. Its what happens to populations of items which wont be increasing any time soon. Unless IBM get their act together with PPC (doubtful), the platform is going to be more silent then ever. And no, PS3 are unlikely to ever be a significant market for POTI (pretty sure its PPC)

The reason why I think POTI made the right choice is that whilst I understand where you guys are coming from, the reality is that PPC was never a popular platform, it certainly isn't a growing platform, and why pour even 5% of resources into a port (which could be developed by the community anyway, if they were eager enough), when its doubtful if 1 out of 20 users would be using a PPC. Even if 5% of potential users were, that number will drop rapidly because no Apple PPC computer will be covered by warranty starting from this year. Furthermore, whilst some could argue that the G5's are certainly still usable (because they are), rumour has it Snow leopard wont support PPC anymore. As it could no longer run the latest software, people wont throw such computers out but let their kids play. But should we target the "hand-me-down" audience, or the primary audience?

You don't need to agree with my opinion, you can shout at POTI, but I suggest something productive such as a petition instead. Surely if you had a petition with ten thousand people, POTI may listen. Or, develop it yourself. It is open source, so its not as though POTI have restricted you in some way from porting the code.

These are my personal opinions. There are pro's and con's on both sides (as mentioned like increasing the market-share), but as mentioned, that can be done by the community. ( Delete or Edit for 15 minutes )