We know, we know-- now that IBM is getting jiggy with the G5, you'd just as soon never hear the name "Motorola" again. You'd rather just pretend that whole phase of the Mac's history never really happened and that the whole "wait a year, get another 50 MHz" cycle was merely one of Pamela Ewing's extended nightmares. But like it or not, Motorola is still a big part of Apple's business; G4s still currently power iMacs, eMacs, iBooks, and PowerBooks, so basically, if it's not a G5 or an iPod, there's a Motorola chip in it. (Yes, even the displays, smart guy. Heck, even Final Cut Pro comes with three or four G4s rattling around loose in the box.) And unless those rumors of Apple looking to switch to an IBM G3 with Altivec grafted on turn out to be true, it could be a good long while before Motorola skulks off to go make camera phones and we can finally put the whole sorry story to bed.

Which is why we should at least try to be interested in the fact that Motorola has finally settled on a replacement for "departing" CEO Chris Galvin. According to a company press release, the lucky guy to take over the hot seat is one Ed Zander, formerly the president and COO of Sun. He's a heavy-hitter, so we're told, and he talks it, too: his goal at Motorola is "to establish [it] as the definitive industry force for today as well as the next global generation." Psst, Ed-- we've been watching the Motorola saga for a while, now, so we're going to go out on a limb and tell you that step one on the path to that goal is probably not to issue another 30,000 pink slips. Just a tip from the peanut gallery.

Anyway, Zander has our best wishes and sincere hopes that he can somehow restore Motorola to its glory of old (whatever that must have been), or, at the very, very least, ensure that Apple doesn't wind up with product shortages because Motorola left a shipment of G4s in the back of a friend's van the night before the guy drove to Mexico. It's a tall order, especially for a guy who lost an eye when a misogynistic preacher with superhuman strength gouged it out in the service of ultimate evil.

Okay, so that was a lot of setup for one cheap Buffy joke, but c'mon, cut us a little slack, here-- the opportunities are a lot rarer these days, and we have to take what we can.