[molmalo]

just asking seriously.. aren't Macs x86 now? Doesn't that distinction comes from the time when Macs used a totally different architecture (risc) based on something called Ironically "PowerPC"? I still can't see the difference now. Why then don't call Linux-PC or BSD-PC to others if based on the platform? I may be wrong, but the way I see it its just something anachronistic with an historical basis, but now just used for marketing purposes.

[idspispopd]

The early intel macs were "x86". The current line up is x86_64. Depending on who you ask in the industry this is called AMD64, Intel64, EM64T, IA-32e. This is the 64 bit platform as developed by AMD, it's not to be confused with Intels IA-64 as sold in "Itanium" chips.

[yuhong]

And licensing purposes too. Back in the old days Apple used the Mac ROMs to prevent cloning.