Apple rumor...?

[skitten78]

Hey again! 2 posts in one week, wow- hehe.

This morning my sweet wonderful man told me that this might not be the best time to buy an Apple. He said he thought he recently heard that soon they are putting all new chips into them- they will be a lot more like PCs maybe and pretty much be a completely different machine, with an Apple label- or that's the impression he got from what he heard. I thought that they would usually make upgrades available but he said for this particular change, it didn't sound so.

I'm sorry if this has been posted before- I was going to do a search but I knew if I searched for "apple" I would probably get a million things to sort through!!

Thanks!!!
Sam

[asheep_uk]

I actually mentioned this in your other thread.

Apple are going to use Intel processors in their computers from next year, starting with the Mac mini.

The price will be different and the processor will be faster - but not much different from any other year's worth of advance in technology.

They will still run all the existing software for Mac OS X without a problem. They will not, however, run OS 9.

I'd still buy one. Yes - they are changing the processor, but so what? Everything will still work next year and you will have had a brand new computer for a year. The G4 PowerPC is still a good processor and is plenty fast enough for all the things you said you wanted to do.

[Markp.com]

I wouldn't waste your money... wait till next year when the new machines come out with the new chips... this will make all the old machines with old chips much cheaper...

[Subway]

Anyone that waits a full year to buy a new computer is nuts, really. Because in one year, the computer that will come out an other year later will again be faster, better or cheaper or both. Get it now. You will have a great computer for the next two to three years.

Fredi

[TallGuyLittleCar]

I'm curious, after the switch to intel chips, what is to stop a person from building their own mac as they do with windows or linux based machines?

[Subway]

Oh I'm sure Apple will find a way. Will it be through a special bios, the intel drm technology or something else I don't know, but it will defenitly not run on PC's you can buy now. (Only the current developer preview version runs on normal PC's)

Fredi

[skitten78]

Thanks-
I've had my circa 2000 G4 since- well, then So I think 5 years is pretty damn good! It isn't like I do a lot of work on it and even if so, in my case, it's the software that really matters for what I do, not the computer. Nothing I do is super complex, so having a little more speed, etc. isn't really a concern to me.

I just REALLY wanted to make sure I could still get things in the future that will run on a machine that I buy this year! But if they just need OS X then that shouldn't be a problem.

Thanks.

[Markp.com]

Normally I'd agree with you subbers... but Macs are different... when their new OS comes out, you need a new machine, when a new super program comes out, you need a new machine...

Look at the ipods, they were all upgraded and thousands of people had just bought a "shiny new" ipod, only to find the next day a newer model had come out with better performance, larger capacity etc... devaluing their "new" Ipods.

I'd say wait till the new processors come out and when all the mac junkies run out to splerge their money on the latest shiney mac fetish, you can go and pick yourself out a nice (old processor) bargain...

[PAlexC]

If you need more horsepower now, then get it. ALL technology becomes outdated quickly, but that doesn't mean it's useless or unsupported.

I expect little from Apple until next summer. Maybe one or two spec bump-ups just to keep interest going and clear out inventory, but nothing major.

BTW Mr. P, I'm quite happy with my 3rd Gen iPod.

[skitten78]

I kind of think the same way too, i mean i could just say "poo on this mac mini" and go get a last-year mac now. There's always going to be an old model....

[Subway]

Normally I'd agree with you subbers... but Macs are different... when their new OS comes out, you need a new machine, when a new super program comes out, you need a new machine...

Huh? I still have an old G3 iMac running and everything except GPU or RAM heavy apps like Motion still runs on it without any problems and that Mac is now ... hmmm ... about five years old! I have OS X installed on it, Photoshop, Dreamweaver, Flash MX, Office and all those apps work, of course not nearly as fast as on my G5, but they work.

And how did you get the idea that a new OS needs a new Mac? Actualy it is the case that every new OS X version did run faster on old Macs than previous versions.

Fredi

[krona]

And how did you get the idea that a new OS needs a new Mac? Actualy it is the case that every new OS X version did run faster on old Macs than previous versions.

Do we know that they are selling PPC versions of their new OS? It wouldn't make much sence to me.

The new OS wont install on old macs unless there is a specific sub-version of the OS for that architecture. That would probably mean buying 2 OS's.

[PAlexC]

Of course they will. Do you really think they're going to forego legacy support with OSX within the next 4-5 years? If you listened to the keynote at the WWDC, their whole strategy is to make this painless for consumers as well as developers. (Or as pain-free as it can get for them.) OSX has been running on x86 hardware for 5 years now, there is NOTHING NEW HERE.

It would be incredibly stupid of any company to drop support for hardware overnight.

[Subway]

Leopard (aka 10.5), the next OS will run on PowerPC's. I don't know if 10.6 will run on it, but that's about four years away, so if you buy a new Mac now, than you will be able to at least run anything on it for the next four years. Now knowing how Apple handled the transition from 680x0 to PowerPC, the OS will run much longer on the old architecture. I would'nt be surprised if even 10.7 will run on PowerPC's.

Fredi

[krona]

Yes, I know about the "dark secret" blah blah, but what i'm saying is will one purchase of the OS run on both platforms...

Maybe thats irrelevant, I dont know, but I thought that was the point Markp was making.

[Subway]

One DVD, all architectures. It was always like that and I don't see why this should change in the future.

Fredi

[jAQUAN]

If apple is making such huge leap towards the PC architecture, wouldn't you be behooved to check out what they spending so much effort trying to become?

[indivision]

Just build a PC with a fancy white box and put an apple sticker on it.

[shorty116]

my 2 cents: for tiger you almost HAVE to get a new mac to take advantage of all improvements - although it runs just fine (and of course faster than panther) on my g3 ibook but it could be way more with a g5. previous systems would have just been a little faster on new macs but you could use all features afaik on old macs, too.

oh and yes i know, i gotta get a new one too. but i heard that widescreen ibooks are around the corner, that's about time - no updates in over a year or so.

[skitten78]

If apple is making such huge leap towards the PC architecture, wouldn't you be behooved to check out what they spending so much effort trying to become?

Nice avatar

I was wondering the same thing, why not just go get a Windows PC whatever machine. Everyone is all "Dell has awesome deals now" and all this. Thing is, no matter how good of a deal it is, I'm guessing I'd be spending close to $800 no matter what I get. Or even if it was as low as $400- if I buy a new Mac, I have all the graphics software that I need for it right now. yeah super old versions, but I'm comfortable with them and don't NEED the newest right now. If I buy a Windows PC, I'm also looking at the Adobe Creative Suite which- last I checked- runs about $2 grand