Mac OS X v10.6 is Intel-only, and that makes sense

Despite the screenshots we saw yesterday showing Universal applications running under the purported Mac OS X 10.6, LogicielMac today surfaced a screenshot of the 10.6 developer build’s accompanying PDF, which shows support for Intel only.

Keeping in mind that this is just a developer build and it is still far from finished, the Intel-only stipulation does make sense. No new consumer features are being added in, so people with 10.5 won’t be missing out on any new iChat effects (God forbid!) and it really makes no sense to continue optimization on a platform that has been dead for years. I think of 10.6 as an Intel-optimized 10.5, with new underlying technologies that wouldn’t have had any application on the single and at most dual-processor PowerPC machines. This will pave the way for Mac OS Touch, which, while having a new naming scheme, will have the same underlying components from OS X. Carbon, however, will be gone, as the UI will be based on Cocoa Touch.

For those who doubt me, just check this article…the night before the internet erupted about Snow Leopard.

Mac OS X 10.6 will be the last iteration of OS X if Apple has a good plan. Its crowning feature will likely be resolution independence, but, other than that, there won’t be many new features, just improvements.

Which reminds me…why didn’t they talk about resolution independence in OS X 10.6? Do they really have it up their sleeve to get it done by Leopard? Sound off in the comments.