CTO CONNECTION: Intel at Apple's core - Thanks to open source, Apple's big shift from IBM to Intel will have little effect in the real world.(chief technical officer)(production management of Apple Computer Inc.)(Column)

The recent news about Apple adopting Intel chips for its hardware elicited roughly the same amount of excitement in me as washing a pile of dirty laundry -- that is to say, not much. My main reaction was this: Since when did Apple people care so much about CPUs?

Granted, the announcement was at Apple's Worldwide Developer Conference, but fretting about a chip just seems antithetical to the "it just works" mantra I hear so often from Mac fans. The volume of press devoted to the announcement has been staggering. But Apple's decision made me remember what I've always loved about open source: The CPU doesn't matter. Never have so many column inches and so much airtime …