Need advice from Mac people

sorry i cant answer your first questions, but i can answer the last one. OS X is amazing, and yes in my opinion it beats the heck out of windows. i havent used windows for much anything other than typing homework assignments in school. but i would deffinatley recomend OSX. there are a lot of really cool features in the new Tiger, for example an application called ichat. it is like AIM, but if you have a built in mic,you can literally talk to other mac users over the internet.there are tons of other great new apps for tiger. check out www.apple.com if you havent already.

Hello. A while ago I posted a thread about reliable laptops. Now, I'm wondering if I ought to just go for a Mac. However, with the big changes ahead for Apple, I'm not sure how to go about this.

Click to expand...

I'm not sure I would use an iMac as a laptop. It is easier to move them around and hook them back up but the keyboard and mouse are extra baggage.

The 17 inch iMac G5 looks like a solid but reasonably priced (for a Mac) machine. I do, however, have concerns about heat and upgrading. Is it a problem to have all those components crammed in there? It seems like they've put desktop-sized stuff into laptop-sized space.

Click to expand...

The first version of the new iMacs had an unusually high number of problems with them. The latest iMacs appear to have addressed those original problems and seem to be back to normal.

I have heard some people report loud fan noise coming from iMacs but I am not aware of any unusual heat problems.

The nice thing about Macs is that they keep their relevancy much longer than PC's sold at the same time. The bad thing about pretty much every Mac, except the PowerMac, is that upgrading is usually significantly more difficult than on a PC.

The guy who records the MacCast podcast just had his iMac burn out and he just upgraded to a new one. The iMac that just died last month was a G3 from 1999 and he was still getting good performance out of it and using it to record his podcast.

Buy the best Mac you can afford and you should be good for a long time. With a 2 ghz G5 I suspect the area that is most likely to limit it down the road would be the 512 RAM. Get at least 1 gig if you order it.

Also, I was thinking that if I can hold out till next summer I could save money by buying an Intel-based Mac. Are Intel processors better than G5s? Will my OS X programs still work on the new architecture? I may end up spending all the money I saved on compatible versions of the programs.

Click to expand...

Let's keep the Intel switch in perspective (see the bottom post in my journal for a long winded post on this).

First, the first Mac to run Intel will be Mac Mini's and probably iBooks. The PowerMac isn't scheduled to start shipping with Intel processors until near the end of 2007. I haven't heard when the first Intel iMacs will be released.

Even if Apple wasn't switching, next year's computers would be faster than this years. Don't let that hold you up if you want to get a new computer this year.

Are Intel processors better than G5s?

Click to expand...

Depends on who you ask and who you believe.

Will my OS X programs still work on the new architecture?

Click to expand...

The new Intel Macs will come with Rosetta which is a transparent emulation program that will allow them to run many native PowerPC programs. Because it is emulation you will take a performance hit which I have heard is between 20 - 40%. I have heard of a few exceptions, like Firefox, which apparently runs at full speed.

Future programming for Macs will be based on "Universal Binaries" which will allow a company to develop software for both Intel and PowerPC Macs. Both will install and run natively with no emulation required for either system.

So, if you buy a PowerPC based Mac you will likely not have to run anything in emulation mode. Current Mac programs only run on PowerPC chips and future ones will run on them natively as well.

If you hold off and buy an Intel based Mac, which could be a long time depending on the model you want, all of the current programs will run in emulation mode and it may take awhile for everything to be produced as a universal binary so it will run natively on the Intel Macs.

Basically, PowerPC's won't have to run anything in emulation mode and Intel Macs will likely have to rely on emulation for awhile.

If that is the case, I might just as well not wait so long and get the G5. But then will those computers lose support after the switch? Will I be using an incompatible machine that needs to last me for years?

Click to expand...

Good question, i don't know the answer to that but with the last PowerPC PowerMacs coming out at the end of 2007 and Applecare extending up to 3 years, I don't think it is likely that Apple will drop support for the PowerPC until 2010-2011 at the earliest.

I could be wrong.

Finally, is OS X honestly that much better than Windows? While I dislike MS for some of their policies, I've spent limited time working on Macs and I've seen those things pull some whoppers. However, these were older machines taking heavy abuse in a graphics lab, so maybe I'm not being fair. I just know that Windows isn't as bad as everyone says, and Macs probably aren't as miraculous as everyone says either.

Click to expand...

There is no comparison between Tiger and XP. The best thing to do is go to a store that sells Macs and try Tiger on one of their display models. There are just too many things to talk about here, check out Apple's Tiger page for more details:

Apple

Hope that helps.

Battie said:

Hello. A while ago I posted a thread about reliable laptops. Now, I'm wondering if I ought to just go for a Mac. However, with the big changes ahead for Apple, I'm not sure how to go about this.

I think I said before that the reason I don't just save some money and move to Linux is the lack of support for the programs I use. However, I have copies of Illustrator and Painter 9 that, apparently can be installed on both OS X and Windows.

The 17 inch iMac G5 looks like a solid but reasonably priced (for a Mac) machine. I do, however, have concerns about heat and upgrading. Is it a problem to have all those components crammed in there? It seems like they've put desktop-sized stuff into laptop-sized space.

Click to expand...

Nope, Apple has been 'cramming' stuff in their machines for years. The iMac has been out long enough to calm any concerns about heating.

Also, I was thinking that if I can hold out till next summer I could save money by buying an Intel-based Mac. Are Intel processors better than G5s? Will my OS X programs still work on the new architecture? I may end up spending all the money I saved on compatible versions of the programs.

If that is the case, I might just as well not wait so long and get the G5. But then will those computers lose support after the switch? Will I be using an incompatible machine that needs to last me for years?

Click to expand...

That depends on how many years you plan on using it. For three years and you'll be fine, six years and that's another issue.
For example, say you bought an iMac six years ago. When OS X came out, you got to find out that Apple's promise for "full support" didn't come through. Like Powerbook owners that found out their DVD drivers would not be supported, iMac users found no OpenGL support for their cards. In fact, Apple ended up on the losing side of a lawsuit and had to refund people who bought OS X because of it. That's all well and fine, but would those people have bought their computers before OS X came out if they knew Apple's promises would not come true? I wouldn't have.

The newest version of OS X will not even run on those machines.

Finally, is OS X honestly that much better than Windows? While I dislike MS for some of their policies, I've spent limited time working on Macs and I've seen those things pull some whoppers. However, these were older machines taking heavy abuse in a graphics lab, so maybe I'm not being fair. I just know that Windows isn't as bad as everyone says, and Macs probably aren't as miraculous as everyone says either.

Might have more questions later. Thanks for the help!

Click to expand...

The advantages of OS X are simplicity and stability. You really don't need to worry as much about viruses and especially spyware which totally plagues Windows PCs.

I've been a Mac user for years, however, and this is only my personal belief, I feel Apple is a company that has a bad reputation when it comes to trust. They are moving to Intel because they had a habit of under purchasing processors from IBM and then blaming IBM when they didn't have enough, they did the same thing with Motorola before IBM. -ticking off their suppliers
Back in the late 1990s, Apple allowed companies to make Mac clones, like IBM did with PCs. Overnight, they decided they were too successful and put a stop to them- after companies invested millions into their clones. -ticking off their friends and allies
They talked about their transition from OS 9 to OS X, but didn't mention the future transition to PPC to Intel. -ticking off their developers
They've done a lot of other things, like as I said earlier, promising support and then not delivering. They had a thing called 'iTools' that people signed up for with purchase of OS 9 and switched their email addresses to to show their support for and pride in Apple, only to discover soon after they would have to pay for it.

I'm not trying to persuade you either way. I was a happy Mac user for years, but when Apple announced the move to Intel, I did not purchase an iBook as planned, but went with a PC (Linux). I hope that Apple will prove to me they are a company worth investing in again. I made the mistake of purchasing a computer of their before a transition six years ago, I won't make it again.

I hate working with Windows, I dislike the lack of control over the system. I don't like the idea of connecting with the mothership just to register my computer and ask permission to use XP every time I switch three devices. However, it is well supported and most developers still produce software that works with Windows 98.

Will do. Is Tiger as bad a resource hog as XP? I use over 200MB running close to nothing.

Click to expand...

OS X loves RAM, gobble, gobble.

My Mac came with 256 and ran fairly well under Panther. After upgrading to Tiger I began to notice too many beach balls.

I was planning to upgrade to 512 so I could play World of Warcraft, and 512 runs things very well. If I were to buy a new Mac today I would go with 1 gig just to cover me down the road.

Again, best thing to do is to try Tiger out at a local store and see how you like it compared to XP.

Also, if you plan to use the iLife Suite, which comes with most Macs, you might want to consider getting a Mac with a Superdrive so you can use iMovieHD and iDVD. Both are excellent video compilers but will only work with a Superdrive.

I guess that is important to understand. Apple is a hardware company and the software they create is designed to sell hardware. Why is iTunes available for Windows? Because it sells iPods. Why isn't the rest of the iLife suite available for Windows? Because it sells Macs.

I'll just chime in and say I absolutely love my iBook. It came with all the applications and the 512 ram doesn't hurt.