OS 9, G5's in 2003, and Apple Engineers

The announcements at Apple Expo Paris brought to light previously-rumored information about future motherboards not being allowed to boot Mac OS 9.

The first of this rumor, however, came from an unlikely source... a reader report of an discussion by an Apple engineer back in June:

the new models of motherboards do not support os 9, it is thus finished definitively on the next machines. (French Translation)

This was before Mac World Expo NY and the opening of the Soho store - where readers reported that Jobs hinted at the same (OS X-only next year). This rumor was later repeated in August by eWeek.

The original rumor, however, could be of some interest, if it contains other truths. Unfortunately, the remainder is a bit disjointed and inconsistent. The most notable blurb is the following about the G5, which pegs it at late 2003

G5 will not even be available until the end of 2003, on the other hand it really exists and runs reliably. The manufacturing is, however, not very reliable in terms of loss and is too expensive for the moment.