Well, the plates are cleaned, the belts are loosened, and it's time to settle back in a digestive torpor and reflect on all those things for which we're thankful. And really, it's not tough to get into a thankful frame of mind when stuffed to the gills with stuffing and other stuff. First and foremost, we're thankful we don't have to get up and run anywhere right now. Then comes the whole list of obvious blessings: Steve Jobs back at Apple, a Mac product line that takes names and kicks butt, Judge Jackson's findings of fact in the "Redmond Justice" saga, etc. But when you're giving thanks for all the things that already happened, don't forget to give thanks for what's coming next.

Like even faster PowerPC processors, for one thing. Right now Apple's shipping products using G3s running at up to 400 MHz and G4s peaking at 450 MHz. If you want even more speed, third-party companies are selling G3 upgrades running at up to 500 MHz, and we can confirm first-hand that using a Mac upgraded with an XLR8 G3/466 is tantamount to Krazy-Glueing a couple of NASA-class rockets under each arm and igniting them (only we suspect that using the Mac is a whole lot less unpleasant). Sure, Intel and AMD may have a huge lead in raw clock speed, but to say that Macs are slow would be like saying that Bill Gates is "scraping by." Megahertz ain't everything, and real-world tests are proving it.

Still, it'd be nice to see the PowerPC at least narrow the MHz Gap, for marketing purposes if for no other reason. And that's why we're thankful that, according to The Register, Motorola's gearing up to show off the next iteration of the PowerPC line, the G4+, at February's IEEE International Solid-state Circuits conference. While by that time we hope Apple will be shipping 500 MHz G4 Macs, the G4+ will be shown running at 780 MHz-- more than respectable by today's Wintel standards, and hopefully still competitive by the time the processor actually ships. We've all but given up hope that the PowerPC will ever retake the MHz lead, but the closer it gets, the more its fundamental architectural advantages can shine through. If things stay on track, we ought to give thanks for some really nice things next year.