Confirmation--B&W PowerMac G3 "Eunuched" By Apple

's G3 Firmware Update v1.0.2 according to Mike Breeden. "I've verified that both my rev 1 and rev 2 B&W G3s will not boot with a G4 CPU. See my latest news update (9/2) for details. And there is no going back it seems...." Mike is testing a G4 CPU ZIF card from XLR8. Being an early adopter in order to test things out for our readers on Macs Only!, I bit on Apple's statement that v1.0.2, which installed Firmware v1.1f4 on my B&W G3/300, would improve my PCI performance and installed it the day it came out. I noticed no perceptible performance increase and now find out that this firmware update actually ended my B&W's ability to upgrade to a G4, at least readily. Meanwhile, an Apple rep on the Technical Exchange Forums wrote that Apple never guaranteed the B&W G3 would be upgradable to a G4. This seems disingenuous at best since a firmware update was released by Apple that appears to have accomplished little or nothing but killing the upgrade possibility from G3 to G4 even if that were not the intent. While I am disappointed by this chain of events, I am also reasonably confident that the G4 CPU card manufacturers will find a way to patch the firmware to allow a G4 upgrade for those who want one.