Adrian and Bruce: I think there are some things that the two of you overlooked in your exchange. I am a retired school teacher on a fixed and very little pension. I would love to have a new G5 Macintosh but it just isn't feasible until the current G5 Mac becomes 4 or 5 years old and drops in price on the used market. I was introduced to Apple while teaching with the Apple II. I wanted one the first time I saw and used it. It took me several years to save up the $3,000 it cost to buy the computer, drives, monitor, and printer. By that time the current model was the Apple IIe and I needed to visit my credit union for some money to go with with what I already saved to meet the price increase of that model. I used that Apple IIe for many years, long after many people called it obsolete. My first Macintosh computer was a PowerBook 165 which I charged on my MasterCard and took several years to pay off. The 165 was a lemon from day one so when I finally got it paid off I sold it at a fraction of what I paid for it and bought a PowerBook 520c. I used that through most of my teaching career until both hinges broke off and I sold it for parts. In the mean time I bought a Performa 638 CDV and once again started making credit card payments. I used that system for 10 years and in fact I am typing this to you on it. Also, about 5 years ago the school I was working at was totally Windows so it was necessary for me to buy a WallStreet PowerBook for my personal use. Back to making payments on Apple financing. I would say that Apple has made a good deal of money off of me over the years. Don't forget to add in the peripherals I have bought from them over that time as well. Now to where this discussion started about Mac OS 9 and Mac OS X and the new equipment needed to run it. A few years ago Apple gave a copy of OS X (10.2) to every teacher. I have held on to it over the years because I didn't really have anything to run it on. My WallStreet has the original memory, which is not enough to support Mac OS X, and PowerBook memory is expensive. When I retired I wanted to run OS X in the worst way so I bought 2 Power Macintosh 8500s off of the swap list for $17 each. I then went to eBay and bought processor upgrade cards, USB and FireWire upgrade cards, memory, VRAM, hard drives, and CDRW drives. All together I probably have about $200 in each computer. I am sure that this is not what Apple had in mine but they ought to be glad I did it rather than not be an Apple customer and supporter at all. Now here is my point...................I just recently bought the iLife upgrade off of the swap list and a dot mac account off of eBay. Money that indirectly went into Apple's pocket. Recently, at the Apple store, I bought the latest AppleWorks and a fish aquarium screen saver, again money in Apple's pocket. So it looks to me if Apple can keep me in the fold, even if it is on Legacy Macintosh Computers, it is to their advantage while I am biding my time until I can afford a newer piece of their hardware. It seems to me in this highly competitive industry that Apple ought to be doing everything within its power to keep me a very satisfied customer whether it is on Legacy equipment or brand new equipment. Put another way, if GM ever started saying they didn't want to sell me parts, accessories, and service for my 4 year old Monte Carlo, my next car would be from a different company in a flash.
Bob K. -- PCI-PowerMacs is sponsored by <http://lowendmac.com/> and... Small Dog Electronics http://www.smalldog.com | Refurbished Drives | -- Sonnet & PowerLogix Upgrades - start at $169 | & CDRWs on Sale! | Support Low End Mac <http://lowendmac.com/lists/support.html> PCI-PowerMacs list info: <http://lowendmac.com/lists/pci-powermacs.shtml> --> AOL users, remove "mailto:"; Send list messages to: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For digest mode, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subscription questions: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Archive:<http://www.mail-archive.com/pci-powermacs%40mail.maclaunch.com/> Using a Mac? Free email & more at Applelinks! http://www.applelinks.com
