The Mac Thread

I'm very happy with mine too, and yeah, Panther is working just fine for me. Just upgraded my memory on my iBook and it's running like a dream.

I love my MAC too!

Did you see the kids section they have at the Apple stores?
Little Apple customers in the making and they love it too....

That Apple Store is dangerous. I have to leave all of my money and debit cards at home before I go in there...

Changed my mind... I saw and used Tiger over the weekend and there is just not enough there to justify the $129 price tag. I am not going to upgrade.

A friend of mine has a multi-user license at work... And when he has tried it out, I might get it too.

Automator not good enough, jp? I thought that would be The Big Thing for people using the Mac for work. The widgets, Spotlight and the other thingamajigs are for people like me, showing off for the poor PC-population... ;-)

Eh... I wasn't real impressed with it. It takes a lot of work to set up the automation and I don'tthink I would use it enough to warrant the time/cost to set it up.



Spotlight was actually the thing I liked best about Tiger. It is very handy for finding things. Widgets was a big disappointment... the mini itunes controller is no smaller then the collapsed itunes window, you can't resize the stickynotes and you actually have to switch applications in order to use them... pretty stupid.

That problem will prolly be solved in v.10.4.1 ;-)

Spotlight alone makes the update worthwhile. In capable hands it can dramatically increase productivity.

Steve Jobs anounced yesterday that Apple will be switching from IBM processors to Intel processors. I know a few people that are already unhappy with this. Funny thing is, if you go here they match up the current PPC G5 chip against a Pentium 4 which, according to their own website, is no match for the G5.

After pushing the 64-bit G5 processor this seems like an odd move for Apple. Not sure where it is going to lead to, but I will seriously consider holding off on any hardware upgrades until I see where this is headed.

So, you're saying Intel processors are not as reliable
as IBM? Why are they switching?

They are switching because Jobs is unhappy with the speed in which IBM produced and developed new processors for Apple. Jobs made a big deal awhile back about IBM getting them processors faster or they would switch companies. IBM called his bluff and more or less said go ahead. Jobs did go ahead.

I'm not sure about the reliability of intel vs the ibm chips but it seems like a step back performance/quality wise to me. They made a big deal about the G5 chip and now it is basically scrapped.

Plus, software companies will now have to produce software that is compatible with both the PPC chips AND the new intel chips. It was just starting to get easier finding software for macs... I'm not sure how willing companies, especially smaller companies, will be to produce software for both.

It is worth watching before any major upgrades IMO.

Thank you for the info jp. I just bought a new ibook G4,
so I'm set for another 2 years and hopefully by then
all the bugs are being taken care off.

Jobs is still the stubborn freak he's always been. In
a way I admire his determination, and so far it always has
benefited us MAC user, let's hope this will continue.

Stubborn freak is a good description for Jobs.

I always get mixed feelings about him. On one hand they have this whole "Switch" promotion trying to get people to switch from PCs to macs but on the other hand it seems like Jobs is really content with the Mac World the way it is... kind of like his own private little club sort of thing and doesn't always make it easy to let outsiders in.

True.

His half-sister, Mona Simpson, wrote a book about him (fiction, different names, has admitted it's about him though) and I've viewed him fondly but with suspicion since.

Yet, he's been successful despite the utter competition,
and his cutting edge designs speaks directly to us, the
privatel little club people of Apple products. I don't
mind being somewhat limited in software as I get more
enjoyment out of having a user friendly, easy to handle
computer that looks good too (typical female answer )

I'm right there with ya, CJ.

I hear that the transision is not very difficult for those who use Apple's XCode programming tool to develop applications for the Mac OS, but that for those who use Metrowerks, for example, it may not be so smooth. But this problem is for programmers.
I hope some difficulties on the part of developers do not cause a loss for users.
In other respects, there should be no confusion on the part of users.

me too girlfriend
my G5 still looks very slick but ooooo do I want one of those new letterbox display monitors.

Did you watch the Keynote from Jobs? Where he told all the developers that they have to make it work on both PowerPC and Intel chips(whatchamacallits)... And did ya hear that ALL OSX software works on Intel as well as PowerPC.
... since the beginning of OS X.
And now, please bring me Intel on MAC. Or the other way around.

So after all of my concerns.... I came across a deal that I just couldn't afford to pass up so I went out and bought a new G5. As an added bonus, I got a new 20in apple cinema screen for $250 off of the retail price. So Intel or not... I'm set for the next few years.