Everything has changed.
With the release of Leopard about a year age, OSX supports 16bit print output.
This was followed by 16bit print support in Adobe Lightroom, Apple Aperture and now Photoshop CS4.
With the introduction of the RGB LED display we now have monitors that support greater bit depth such as
the 30 bit HP Dream Color monitor.
We are no longer limited by 8 bit technology.