Q&A: Dan Gillmor on Apple's new G5s, Panther

Computerworld - In the wake of last week's big Worldwide Developer's Conference (WWDC) by Apple Computer Inc., Dan Gillmor, a technology columnist at the San Jose Mercury News, took a look at the importance of Apple's announcements. From new Power Macintoshes to a preview of its next-generation operating system, Gillmor sees good things for Macintosh fans.
His comments came in an e-mail interview with Computerworld's online news editor, Ken Mingis:

After taking a beating in the megahertz wars with the Intel platform, Apple finally released a computer with the new IBM PowerPC G5 chip, which it claims is faster than anything else on the market. What's your take on that? Is it faster? Does it matter? There's no doubt that these are fast machines. The "real-world" tests they showed on stage indicated it is faster, even though Intel and AMD are still way ahead on clock speed. There's some dispute about whether the benchmark tests were appropriate, but even there Apple was showing parity in key respects. The superfast bus, where Apple has been grossly deficient, is also obviously a great improvement.

There's been a debate since Monday's announcement that Apple might have skewed the speed test so its G5 would perform better than the Pentium 4. Any thoughts on that? I'm not sufficiently expert on this. But one of Apple's people made a strong defense on Slashdot the other day.

What does the new partnership with IBM mean for Apple's ties with Motorola? Are G4s now yesterday's news? It would seem that Apple finally tired of Motorola's inability or unwillingness to keep up. Moto has a lot of other issues to deal with, so it's not surprising to see it fall behind. IBM, meanwhile, needs to make use of that huge new chip fabrication plant in New York state, and it's one of the few companies with enough oomph to compete at the top leagues in microprocessors. Win-win for Apple and IBM.

The WWDC is traditionally geared toward developers and software. What's your take on the upcoming Mac OS X that Apple previewed this week? Lots and lots of cool stuff, from all appearances. I haven't played with the software yet, so I'm going on screenware. Everyone was dazzled by Expose [thumbnails of open windows], and I was pleased to see the new Finder capabilities, among other things. Will I pay my $129 plus tax? Sure.

Does Panther, as it's known, place Apple ahead of Microsoft, which isn't expected to have its next Windows operating system out until '05? Clearly on