If you haven't heard of PearPC, let me provide you with a simple and quick introduction.  The PearPC effort was begun about a year ago, to provide an open source PowerPC platform emulation option.  Think of it as the PowerPC/Mac equivalent to Microsoft Virtual PC, Bochs, VMWare, and all those other products which provide you with a "simulated" computer running inside your main computer.  The difference between PearPC and all those other products is that it essentially emulates a PowerPC G3 CPU and related hardware.  With PearPC, a Linux or Windows PC user could - right now - run Apple's flagship operating system, Mac OS X.  I've actually managed to get OS X 10.3 loaded and running on PearPC, so I know for a fact that it works.  (OK, it's not without its problems, but it works.)

The fact that PearPC would allow me to run OS X on Wintel hardware, albeit much more slowly than on Apple's own overpriced wares, was the most interesting part of this product to me... and, I suspect, many others.  I looked forward to the very highly skilled PearPC developers coming up with newer versions that ran more Macintosh software, more quickly, and more completely.  But with Apple's recent announcement that it's going to switch to from the PowerPC line to Intel architecture, I'm wondering if I really care anymore.  In a few more months I'll be able to run "real" OS X on Intel hardware at native speeds.  Will the PearPC developers still see the same need to continue their project, given that Apple has abandoned the G3/G4/G5 processors?

Even if Apple does lock down OS X such that it will only run on their hardware, how unrealistic is it of me to expect that someone will do a "Bochs-like" or QEMU-like package that emulates the missing Apple hardware on "standard" Intel PCs, allowing OS X to run more or less at native speeds in a "slightly-emulated" environment?  I guess it will depend on just how much of the hardware specs get  leaked to developers before the Intel-based Macs make it to market.

Given that some talented programmers have already come up with a number of Macintosh emulators for the older proprietary hardware (minus the ROMs), that Intel-based emulation has long been available, and that Apple is probably rushing the new Intel-based Macs to market in the next year or so (meaning they may end up having fewer protections than Apple would prefer), I'd say the odds that there will be a "Bochs-like" Macintosh emulator on the scene by 2007 are pretty good.

The Mac fanatics among you are probably wondering why I care about an emulator when I could just go out and buy a Mac.  There are several simple answers to that.  First, and probably most important, is that I already have 3 computers that I use regularly.  They all run Windows XP.  I have no desire to add a fourth, especially if it's another of Apple's overpriced boxes. I especially don't want to do that if all it can run is OS X, since I don't especially like OS X that much or want to use it that often.  But having a slower, emulated Mac running inside my Windows XP or Linux box is another matter.  Those times when I want to run something on the Mac (e.g., the Safari browser to see how this site renders in it), I can.  The rest of the time, I've got my Windows box to work with.

Even if Windows XP would run natively on an Intel-based Mac, I don't know that I'd want to do that, either.  Odds are it would behave strangely because Apple would likely include some hardware in there that Windows drivers don't know how to deal with.  That would make Windows rather unstable for daily use, I suspect.  My Windows XP systems go weeks between reboots now, at least as long as the OS X Macs at my workplace do.  I like that stability.

Regardless, the Mac emulation market is about to have yet another shake-up.  It had one when Apple went from the 68000 series to the PowerPC.  No one seemed to properly get the PowerPC 60x series emulated and get a product to market.  PearPC had just about gotten the PowerPC G3 series nailed down when Apple decided to go to Intel.  I guess the question from this point on is whether the new Intel platform will be enough like existing Intel platforms that a Bochs, VMWare, or QEMU can reproduce it.