>or the >tremendously faster G5 whose 64 bits are, as the drone in the Apple store >(egotistical Gen Y guy who, strangely enough, seemed quite uninterested >in my situation or money) repeated to me, "the future of personal >computing" but which means migrating to a new portfolio of apps.
Although the G5 is OS X boot only, it still runs Classic, which means most all your existing apps can be kept and used, including Emailer. >I am not >a graphics person, just a writer who has to surf and mail, mostly. No >iPod to feed, and I still shoot and develop my own film. So, beyond the >promised land of X, the main allure of the G5 is my amateur interest in >editing video. If you have more than a small interest in video, the G5 may be the nicer route. > As a writer, I sometimes think I would do best with a >slow, non-Net computer, one that would enable me to write but not offer >to distract me so, but actually I do need the Web to do my job as a >computer journalist. Well then, this begs the question, do you NEED to upgrade at all? A computer is just another tool, it should do the job you need it to do, and nothing more. If you are operating fine on the machine you have, do you really need to bother upgrading? I still have a 68040 running at work full time doing accouting. It does the job, so why replace it. And until not too long ago, I had Pluses and SE's in regular use, for the same reason, they did the job, and they did the job perfectly, so there was no reason to replace them. If all you are after is a speed boost, remember there are accellerators for your machine. And of course, don't forget the other Macs... the eMac, iMac, iBook, PowerBook. Maybe one of them will suit you better then a G5. The G5 is MUCH MUCH more expensive then the eMac or iMac, and not just because of the G5 chip. You need to get a screen for it as well. You can get an adaptor and use your existing screen... but isn't that kind of like putting retread tires on your brand new Ferarri? :-) > Anyway, I am just tossing this out, wondering if anyone else here has >the same problem to solve, has heard if the G4 will ever get faster than >it is today (unlikely, seems to me; my friend in the store tossed me >another pre-canned answer: "I can't speculate about unannounced products" >-- just the kind of talk I used to hear from IBM execs for years.) Has >anyone heard rumours about faster G4s on the way? I see they used to have >a 1.4GHz chip, but it has been pulled. They are unlikely to continue with the G4 in the tower line at all. Why bother, their tower has been their high end machine for a while, so why put a lesser chip in it. The iMac may get another G4 speed boost, but if it does, it will probably be only one more before it too is moved to the G5. Powerbook and iBook may be a little longer on the G4 as I understand there are power issues with the currrent G5 making them undesirable for laptops. > Frankly, though I've only played with it a little in the store, OS X >strikes me as a vast playground, full of glittery, candy-colored knobs >and buttons, too shiny and sparkly for its own good. I am sure, >technically speaking, that underneath the gee-whiz facade it has much to >offer that is solid computing function. I am sure I could live with it, >if I chose to. But it is remarkably glitzy compared to its immediate >predecessor. I know I'm not the first to observe this. OS X does have a bit of the eye candy look to it. But I suspect once you start using it, you will like it. It is FAR FAR more stable then OS 9, and when an application does misbehave, it can safely be force quit without taking down the rest of the system. If it wasn't for the flyback being bad in my iMac causing it to spontaniously turn off, I wouldn't ever have to reboot it. Its also much nicer for doing multiple things at once. You can start a long process, and then go on to some other application, and not have to worry about the system slowing to a crawl, or possibly hanging or crashing the background application that is doing its long thing. It really does start to change the way you use a computer, and in my opinion, you start to get much more out of your computer because of it. I find myself at work now with OS 9 longing for OS X (I'm considering taking the plunge and attempting to get OS X running on my 9600-G3) But, like I said above, if you are getting all you need from your computer, do you need to worry about moving to a new one? Just because the salesman and Apple say you have to doesn't mean that you REALLY have to. -chris <http://www.mythtech.net> ___________________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe send a mail message with a SUBJECT line of "unsubscribe" to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> or <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
