Current state of OSX86 (Macintel) for CF development

Currently it does not look like you could do "stand alone" development for ColdFusion if you have a Mactel or have hacked OSx to run on a PC. Stand alone meaning running your application server, database and an IDE all on your local computer.

If you have not been keeping up with the going ons at 1 Infinite Loop Cupertino CA, Apple has decided to change from the Motorola Power PC processor (PPC) to the Intel Pentium processor (x86). This change has two major advantages apple is flaunting, one more availability two, faster chips that use less power. Although it hard to get an exact comparison, it seems that the claim that apple has been making for years that the PPC chip is much faster than the x86 chip, may be another case of the Steve Jobs reality distortion field that surrounds all of the Apple Keynotes and marketing.

To ease the transition between processors Apple has come up with Rosetta. Rosetta translates instructions from applications that uses PowerPC instructions into corresponding x86 instructions on the fly. Some applications run almost at full speed, most run about at 3 / 4 speed and some run really really slow. (The CFMX 7 installer for one.)

To get the real power out of the new Macintels, developers are forced to rewrite their applications in part or in whole. In the Apple developer conference keynote Steve Jobs demo-ed the compile for both x86 and PPC (universal binaries) check box in the apple Xcode compile options. The word on the street is that for some applications this does work, but in most cases some work will be needed to get the app running on a Macintel in native form.

On to how this applies to us ColdFusion developers... I tried installing all of the basic tools needed for CF Development. CF server, database , CF IDE and FTP on my computer running OSX 10.4.3 for Intel. Here is the result:

What fails.
Lets start with the big one...
Coldfusion MX 7 installs under Rosetta, but does not start due to the "Java for ppc cannot run in this configuration."error. I thought maybe there might be a chance if I tried tweaking the JVM path in the jvm.config to point to apple's native intel java JVM that comes with OSx. No luck there. I still get the Java for ppc cannot run in this configuration." error. Anyone have any ideas what to try next? I am not a java expert. Any comments from the CF dev team on when will CF 7 run on mactel? Any chance an unoffical "how to get CFMX running on a Macintel" could be leaked from the CF team at  Adobe?

What works:
Editors
Cfeclipse:
http://wiki.osx86project.org/wiki/index.php/X86_software#Eclipse
BBedit:
http://wiki.osx86project.org/wiki/index.php/X86_software#BBEdit

Database
MySQL 5:
http://wiki.osx86project.org/wiki/index.php/X86_software#MySQL_5.0

FTP:
Cyberduck
http://wiki.osx86project.org/wiki/index.php/X86_software#Cyberduck

For a full list of Intel native OS X software: (or at least the best I
have found)
http://wiki.osx86project.org/wiki/index.php/X86_softwar

It sounds like Dreamweaver runs fairly well under Rosetta. I have not tried DW yet myself.

I did not spend any time looking for a MySQL admin tool that have been compiled for Mactels. In theory, you could use one of the SQL admin plug-ins for eclipse.