Hey, how 'bout that whole "Open Source" thingy, huh? Pretty cool, right? No doubt you're nodding vigorously in agreement right now, because what with Mac OS X's core, QuickTime's Streaming Server, Safari's rendering engine, etc., Apple is clearly digging on the benefits of Open Source these days. Microsoft's Steve Ballmer can equate Linux with communism until Adam Smith rises from the grave and smacks him upside the head, but we think it might be a while before the rest of the world comes around to seeing Open Source as the new Red Menace. And guess what? Now there's another connection between the Open Source philosophy and the Mac experience: IBM has joined the party.

Faithful viewer John Corso alerted us to a WIRED article about IBM's big "Power Everywhere" presentation today, at which it outlined the new POWER5 architecture (the G5 is based on the POWER4, donchaknow), and also announced that the Power Architecture™-- which includes PowerPC, by the way-- is going Open Source. Well, sort of, anyway; you still have to license the architecture, as far as we can tell, but once you do, you're allowed to "use the technology to create a wide variety of chips" ideally suited to your particular needs. Like, you could probably make one that's mesquite-flavored. Or Cool Ranch™. Why, the variations are practically endless!

This is actually cool in a couple of ways; for one thing, it might get a lot more people using Power-based chips; IBM just announced that Sony is a new licensee. That could mean bigger business for IBM and eventually maybe cheaper chips for Apple, as well as more PowerPC mind share so that fewer clueless shoppers ignore Macs because they don't have "Intel Inside." And on the whole customizability front, don't forget that Apple has worked closely with both Motorola and IBM on PowerPC designs; remember the struggles when Apple wanted PowerPCs to be Mac chips and Motorola just wanted to turn them into something to throw into Cisco routers and coffeemakers? Now Apple has the option of designing its own Mac-specific PowerPCs that are optimized strictly for Mac use, should it choose to do so. And it can make them taste like Sour Cream 'n' Onion, which is just a huge bonus.

Indeed, the Open Sourcish nature of the Power Architecture lets licensees change a lot more than a chip's flavor: according to WIRED, "chips could automatically make additional memory available or download accelerators to boost performance as needed." In the words of IBM chief technologist Dr. Bernard Myerson, "soon the chip you have may not be the chip you originally purchased." Which, now that we think about it, could prove to be a bit of a problem. If we go out and buy a dual 2.0 GHz Power Mac G5, we're going to be a little ticked off if, three days later, those dual 2.0 GHz PowerPC 970s turn into a hockey puck and a baked potato-- even if the potato does come with fixin's.

Actually, that potato sounds pretty good. But the hockey puck, that'd be disappointing.