Thanks for the reply Dirk. On Mar 7, 4:08 pm, Dirk Stoop <[email protected]> wrote: > Hi everyone, > > Thought I'd chime in to shed a little light on why we dropped PPC > support. > > First of all, to kiddailey and anyone else still using Versions on a > PPC machine, I'm sorry that this affects you. Seeing support for your > machine dropped in a minor update of an app is also unusual, which > makes this an even more unpleasant surprise. > > Below is some background on our decision. > > Leading up to Versions 1.1, we had to make quite a few decisions on > how to move the app forward. One of the biggest decisions we made was > to drop Mac OS X 10.4 support. As anyone who's coded for both 10.4 and > 10.5 knows, dropping 10.4 really makes quite a difference in > development productivity. We were comfortable making this change for > Versions 1.1 because only 1 to 1.5% of all active Versions users were > still using Mac OS X 10.4. > > Additionally, less than 1% of Versions' active users were still on PPC > Macs. The final nail in the coffin (data-wise) for PPC support was > that about half of the remaining PPC users were also on 10.4. So > beyond dropping 10.4, also dropping PPC would affect less than 0.5% of > all Versions users. > > The below graphs visualize the data that informed our decision: > > Mac OS X releases:http://yfrog.com/h6svvcp > Architectures:http://yfrog.com/gz41tkp > > (both graphs display a 7-day moving average to eliminate some noise — > for those interested, both Intel and more modern OS versions are > slightly, just a tiny bit, more popular in the weekends. This final > graph shows Intel/PPC day by day without any > averaging:http://yfrog.com/h67oo4p) > > To be fair, supporting PPC takes way less effort than supporting Mac > OS X 10.4 does, but it still takes effort. Most importantly, we need > to test on every architecture and OS combination that we support for > every release. With an app as big as Versions, you'd be surprised how > often you still run into PPC-only issues during pre-release testing. > Keeping a functional PPC machine around (and replacing it when it > stops being functional) is also getting harder and harder. If it took > zero effort to keep supporting PPC, we would keep supporting it. > > But given our experience, we think we can deliver more positive value > to more people by dropping PPC support. It sucks that this means a > handful of Versions users will get no more functionality updates, but > to make an omelette you've got to break some eggs. > > I understand that none of this makes dropping PPC any more popular > with people with PPC Macs, but I hope this at least shows we didn't > make a rash or random decision. > > Cheers, > - Dirk > > the Versions team > > PS: @kiddailey: Thanks for the nice words about Versions, that means a > lot. :) > > On Feb 28, 7:46 am, kiddailey <[email protected]> wrote: > > > > > Well said, TheDo. And you're right, I could work around this using > > the Terminal, but I've come to love the GUI (and having grown up on > > DOS and swearing as a kid that I'd *never* use a GUI, that says a > > lot :) and Versions specifically. > > > For what it's worth, the other well-made OS X SVN client that I was > > evaluating Versions against still supports PPC (though 10.5 is > > required). Depending on Sofa's response, I guess that's my > > alternative -- at least, until they drop PPC support too :/ > > > On Feb 28, 1:23 am, TheDO Webmaster <[email protected]> > > wrote: > > > > I agree with you. Subversion works equally well on all of these machines, > > > why can't Versions? I think that's where the distinction needs to be made. > > > Versions is not Subversion. It's a pretty wrapper around it. To continue > > > using older machines, I think we need to accept this and learn the use the > > > tools of our trade without the fancy interfaces sometimes. A little > > > Terminal > > > knowledge can let you continue to use these machines with equal power. > > > > /TheDO/ > > > > On Sun, Feb 27, 2011 at 10:17 PM, kiddailey <[email protected]> wrote: > > > > I have the hardware. Eight machines to be exact. Three of which are > > > > a variety of Intel Macs and two of which are PPC Macs. They are all > > > > running a variation of OS X versions. The other three others are > > > > Windows XP, Vista and 7. I test on all of them and use SVN as my > > > > bridge for getting updates of the various branches of the software to > > > > each. > > > > > The issue is not in not having the hardware. > > > > > On Feb 28, 12:54 am, Alex Zavatone <[email protected]> wrote: > > > > > But really, I had a quad processor G5 that was last made in 2006. > > > > > That's > > > > 5 years ago. Apple doesn't even support the G5 anymore with the new OS > > > > or > > > > the current one. > > > > > > They might be fine machines (we even used a G4 for a server for a long > > > > time and I still have my TI) but they aren't being made anymore and the > > > > market sure isn't growing. > > > > > > On another note, I purchased a Quad processor Intel iMac last year > > > > > (1067 > > > > MHz speed RAM) refurbed from Apple for 1400 bucks. It's just so nice > > > > and > > > > the current ones with RAM at 1333MHz are simply nutty fast. > > > > > > Sniff around here, I'm sure you'll see something you like that's > > > > affordable. > > > >http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/specialdeals/mac?mco=MTM3NTA4MTI > > > > > > As a guy who had a Quad G5, a Quad Intel Core 2 Duo, 2 iMacs from the > > > > past 2 years, the 12 core Intel Mac with an internal SSD, if you can > > > > afford > > > > it, get a new Intel Mac. Even a Mini is loads faster than the G5. The > > > > RAM > > > > speed alone is 3x faster than that in your G5. > > > > > -- > > > > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google > > > > Groups > > > > "Versions" group. > > > > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > > > > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > > > > [email protected]. > > > > For more options, visit this group at > > > >http://groups.google.com/group/versions?hl=en.
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