It will hardly come as a surprise to many, but it appears Apple is finally calling time on PowerPC apps with OS X Lion.
9to5mac reports that Rosetta, the compatibility layer that allowed applications compiled for PowerPC processors to run on Intel-based Macs, will not be available for Lion when it is released later this year. When a user attempts to run a PowerPC-based app in the Lion developer preview, released last week, they are informed that PPC applications are no longer supported.
Rosetta is available for OS X Snow Leopard as an optional download, meaning those who rely on a PowerPC application - or just can"t bear to let go - will have to stick with that version of the Mac OS.
Rosetta was a key part of Apple"s transition from IBM"s PowerPC architecture to ""Intelmacs"" in 2006, with the Mac-maker at the time touting Rosetta as ""the smartest software you"ll never see"". Since then, developers had been encouraged to move away from ""Universal"" applications to those designed purely for the Intel architecture. As a result, the omission of Rosetta from OS X Lion is unlikely to even be noticed by the majority of OS X users.