Mac or Universal binaries? Explanation needed!

In considering the switch, my concerns are mainly that of software. I realize that I can use Bootcamp or Parallels to load Windows and get at PC programs that way, but I'd like to stay on the Apple side as much as possible. (Why else would I buy one?)

So, in some searches for Mac OSX software, I noticed that I often had a choice between two downloads... Mac and Universal binaries? Whats the difference? And what is all this talk about Rosetta? What does that do?

Can someone give a brief explanation? I searched the FAQ sticky above without success.

Thanks!

Universal Apps are apps that are written to run on both the PPC chips, and Intel chips. I'm guessing the Mac Apps are just PPC code.

Rosetta is the "emulation" software for the Intel chips, it lets them run software that hasn't been made universal yet, like Adobe apps. They will still run on the Intel chips, they will just run a little slower.

Thank you, StretchR.

http://www.apple.com/universal/

http://www.apple.com/rosetta/