The apps ran on both types of machines thanks to rosetta and the performance hit this takes: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosetta_(software) It is doubtful that a PPC system can boot an intel MacOS HD. One is RISC the other CISC.
I know about this because I used to do it all the time when I worked in tech support. Regardless of which Mac a client might show up with, I could boot it with the same external hard drive back in the mid-90s.
Rosetta allowed unmodified PPC apps to run on Intel Macs by translating them on the fly.
However, developers had the option of making a few changes and recompiling their apps to produce a version that would include native code for PPC and Intel machines; macOS would handle running the correct binary. These were known as "fat binaries".
Fast forward to 2020 and Apple is applying the same strategy. Rosetta2 translates Intel apps on the fly to run on ARM. And developers can recompile their apps so that they run natively on Intel and ARM machines.
Even though I'm typing this on an Intel Mac, I could boot an ARM-based Mac with its hard drive if necessary.
Here's the output from the file command on the ls command:
You must be new here. ;-)
The apps ran on both types of machines thanks to rosetta and the performance hit this takes: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosetta_(software) It is doubtful that a PPC system can boot an intel MacOS HD. One is RISC the other CISC.
I know about this because I used to do it all the time when I worked in tech support. Regardless of which Mac a client might show up with, I could boot it with the same external hard drive back in the mid-90s.
Rosetta allowed unmodified PPC apps to run on Intel Macs by translating them on the fly.
However, developers had the option of making a few changes and recompiling their apps to produce a version that would include native code for PPC and Intel machines; macOS would handle running the correct binary. These were known as "fat binaries".
Fast forward to 2020 and Apple is applying the same strategy. Rosetta2 translates Intel apps on the fly to run on ARM. And developers can recompile their apps so that they run natively on Intel and ARM machines.
Even though I'm typing this on an Intel Mac, I could boot an ARM-based Mac with its hard drive if necessary.
Here's the output from the file command on the ls command:
Yes, even ls is a fat binary that runs natively on Intel and ARM-based Macs.Please read up before posting.
Perhaps you should take your own advice?