Buy now or wait

[ron88]

Hi I need a bit of help/advice. I am totally new here too so go easy on me. I decided last year that I was going to make the switch to a Mac and was all set to go with an iMac G5 17". Then the new machines came out and I am not sure what to do. Here's what I do...some web publishing using DreamweaverMx2004. My current image editor is Photo Impact. I publish 2 newsletters a month using MS Publisher, and I do lots of general desktop publishing with Word for my business and use Excel for keeping up with my mailing list. My question is should I buy a iMac Intel CoreDuo or go backwards and get a iMac G5. Pros/cons? What software would I need to get to continue doing what I do on a Mac? This whole thing with Rosetta is confusing to me. I'll leave it at that for now and see what you all have to say. I'm really ready to do SOMETHING. Thanks!!

 

[solidbreakz]

Tough call. Read THIS first.

Studio 8 was released in Sept 2005 IIRC. On an 18 to 24 month update scale, you'll be running your DW on rosetta (at probably 1/2 normal speed) until xmas '06 or [gasp] summer '07!

Now if Dreamweaver is your bread n' butter, I recommend going with the G5. If not, I suggest you close your eyes, slap down the plastic, and get a Core Duo and MAX OUT THE RAM (from a cheaper source of course).

 

[gunm]

I agree w/Solidbreakz, but will take a step further and recommend waiting at least until your primary app (Adobe/Dreamweaver) is upgraded to Universal Binary (Mac w/Intel native programming) in 18-24 months.

The main reason to wait is that regardless of which system you choose, you'll still need to buy Mac versions of all the software you mentioned in your OP. And there is no Mac version of MS Publisher or Photo Impact--you'll have to research Mac replacements for those.