Apple HAS evaluated Intel processors
"Does anyone know why Apple refuses to evaluate Intel processors for their systems? Is the Mac OS so heavily tuned for PowerPC that it would be too much work to port, or is there some other reason? I think adding the "Intel Inside" marketing message to their advertising campaign would be great for sales (I'd even consider buying a Mac then)."
But your premise is incorrect. Apple _has_ evaluated Intel processors several times over the years, and has reportedly booted OS X, presumably not optimized sufficiently for a product release, on recent Pentiums. (This has been reported many times in the press, over various generations, and friends of my who have worked, past or present, for Apple tell me the same things.)
Lastly, Apple once offered a Mac version which contained an x86 processor.
Darwin, the BSD core part of OS X, can be bought at Fry's for Intel processors. (I saw it there a few weeks ago.) What's missing is the Aqua interface and, of course, drivers.
(A major headache. Supporting the thousands of graphics cards, ports, devices, etc. in the PC world is a lot harder than supporting the core hardware that Apple builds and then carefully defining the port and interface standards for third party vendors to deal with.)
I wrote about a rumored HammerMac in a thread on SI, before the Maniban expunged me.
--Tim May
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