Did i pick the wrong time to buy?

[Malik]

While in town last week (while i was on my break), I happened to stop in one of the Apple Retail Stores, i originally wanted to look for the new Ipod and the Nano to see how much roughly they were gonna cost me (my current mp3 player is *****).

well i got chatting with the sales guy, and happened to mention i was lookin to upgrade my pc soon too. He suggested i looked at some of the macs in store, so i let im show me a few systems. i saw the portabl e but i dont really need a laptop, and also the iMac which seemed to be good 4 the price. i had a play around with some of the systems on show and MAC OS seemed nice, much better than windows xp home i have on my old machine. so one thing led to anuther and i ened up getting my creidt card out. there isnt one specific task i want to do but i do want graphics horsepower so i can play games and such... oh yeah and i got my Ipod too.

I was goin to get an imac but the guy in the apple store said you cant open the imac up and upgrade the graphics processor, and i dont like the idea of not being able to expand its capability alter. so i bought a 2 Ghz Power Mac G5 with a 7800 gt, although they dont have the 7800 in stock yet or something so i had to leave it out or wait a while (6 weeks? ) so i choose to hold out till xmas time when hopefully it will arrive.

problem is that i didnt know about apple and this intel thing? a friend of mine told me id wasted my money as the macs are gonna be obselete next year and no new software will come out for em, i though he was talking crap but he showed me a link to an intel switch article.. and it seems its true?

should i get my order cancled and wait till 2006? i wanted to keep my mac for about 3 years or so, i i like to get alot of use out of my stuff. how come the guy in the apple store didnt tell me about this, are apple trying to clear out old stock or something that sux!! i think ill stop my order and just grab a new PC cos it seems that now is a bad time to buy a macintosh.. apple should warn new buyers about this change in store, its unfair.

 

[Bear]

...
problem is that i didnt know about apple and this intel thing? a friend of mine told me id wasted my money as the macs are gonna be obselete next year and no new software will come out for em, i though he was talking crap but he showed me a link to an intel switch article.. and it seems its true?

should i get my order cancled and wait till 2006? i wanted to keep my mac for about 3 years or so, i i like to get alot of use out of my stuff. how come the guy in the apple store didnt tell me about this, are apple trying to clear out old stock or something that sux!! i think ill stop my order and just grab a new PC cos it seems that now is a bad time to buy a macintosh.. apple should warn new buyers about this change in store, its unfair.

The PowerMac will be one of the last products announce an Intel version of.

Also, Apple will be supporting PowerPC software until at least 2010 (maybe longer). There is no risk in buying a PowerMac now.

 

[lopresmb]

yeah, any new software, will run on both PowerPC and Intel machines, so there is no problem from that point. The only thing you gain by waiting for Intel is speed (and possibly dual-booting). That is one heck of a machine, that ought to last you for quite a while to come, and if you do decide to wait on an intel powermac, no one knows for sure, but you'll prob be waiting for quite a while.

 

[plinden]

problem is that i didnt know about apple and this intel thing? a friend of mine told me id wasted my money as the macs are gonna be obselete next year and no new software will come out for em, i though he was talking crap but he showed me a link to an intel switch article.. and it seems its true?

should i get my order cancled and wait till 2006? i wanted to keep my mac for about 3 years or so, i i like to get alot of use out of my stuff. how come the guy in the apple store didnt tell me about this, are apple trying to clear out old stock or something that sux!! i think ill stop my order and just grab a new PC cos it seems that now is a bad time to buy a macintosh.. apple should warn new buyers about this change in store, its unfair.

No, you should be ok. Like previous posters have said, it should be good for the next three years at least. No one expects the first Intel PowerMacs before early 2007.

There will be plenty of software since most will be in the form of universal binaries, that will run on both Intel and PPC Macs.

It is a bummer though that they didn't tell you about this in the store.

But I'm wondering about whether it's a good idea for you to go for the PM when you don't know a lot about Macs or the Mac OS. Although most people who try it love it, it just doesn't suit everyone. If I were you, I would get a Mini and play about with it. It wouldn't be too hard to offload it if you found you didn't like it. However, the Mini isn't upgradeable is most likely will be one of the first, if not the first, Mac to go Intel.

 

[sushi]

problem is that i didnt know about apple and this intel thing? a friend of mine told me id wasted my money as the macs are gonna be obselete next year and no new software will come out for em, i though he was talking crap but he showed me a link to an intel switch article.. and it seems its true?

I hate seeing misinformation such as this.

The Mac is not dying or going to be obsolete next year or whenever Apple switches to the Intel engine (CPU). It will still be a Mac.

Macs have used a variety of processors (CPUs) over the years such as:

68000
68020
68030
68040
601
603
603e
G3 (with variations)
G4 (with variations)
G5 (with variations)

But they were all Macs.

A Mac with Intel guts (CPU and Mobo) will still be a Mac.

Older Macs that run OS X will actively be supported for quite some time by Apple. Developers will be creating code for both the G series and Intel series processors.

In this area, your friend is sadly misinformed.

Sushi

 

[yoda13]

No, you should be fine with that machine for three years. Apple will be supporting PPC for a while, at least three years for sure. So you have no worries mate.

 

[redAPPLE]

what has not been mentioned yet is that "usually" the first revisions of any product should be taken with a grain of salt.

e.g. the nano that scratches easily (i can't comment on this, but this is what some people say, and the nano is "actually" a revision A product).

the powermac would last longer than you wish for.

 

[andiwm2003]

i'm specifically looking to buy a powermac BEFORE the intel switch. you get a fully matured system with all the software running "bug-free". the intel powerrmacs will be there in 15 month earliest. and then you'd better wait for a few month so you don't play test person for a rev.a product.

you're system is fine for the next three years. enjoy.

 

[RobHague]

I think this might get to be a frequently asked question to closer it gets to the Intel releases. Maybe im wrong but i think Apple should do a little public relations in regards to this issue? I dont know how, i guess have something on their website assuring people buying now that their products wont cease to exist in Apples mind when the new processors arrive. Fans of mac products might be convinced but as sushi said there, there is a lot of misinformation about. Someone new to mac could be 'put off' if they dont fully understand the situation.

I dunno why the Apple staff wouldnt have mentioned it, but then, if you are a sales person you dont really want to make a habbit of telling your customers reasons not to buy a product your selling.

btw 7800 GT lucky sod

 

[generik]

Well it is all nice and good..

but looking at the latest release of Xcode it seems like while Apple is goading devs to use the Accelerate framework instead of handcrafted optimisations, there also exists things that aren't optimised by that framework.

What that means?

Sooner or later there will be apps that will just plain work better on Intel, or even just plain not work on PPC despite what Apple says. Fact is universal binaries are tricky business, it is not as trivial as steve put it on stage.

However on the upside, any company excluding PPC users for whatever product they release in the coming future will be committing suicide before their product even hits the shelves, so rest assured that PPC users will still be well taken care of in the coming future.

Personally I am really looking forward to a Merom powerbook, 64 bit dual core goodness in a laptop? Sounds irresistible.. 12 more months to go

 

[stevep]

i'm specifically looking to buy a powermac BEFORE the intel switch. you get a fully matured system with all the software running "bug-free". the intel powerrmacs will be there in 15 month earliest. and then you'd better wait for a few month so you don't play test person for a rev.a product.
you're system is fine for the next three years. enjoy.

It'll be obsolete this time next year. Just like my Windows pc with its AMD K6 chip is obsolete after just 2 years. Just like everybody's computer is after 2 years, or even the week after you bought it.
The important point is that any computer (barring mishaps) will continue to work as well as the day it was bought - it'll have the same clock speed, same bus speed, same video card speed etc etc.
A computer is only really outdated when you get to the point that there is no software available for it that will do what you want.
As for the chip inside it - who cares who makes it? You don't worry what chip is in your car, dvd player, washing machine etc.
Enjoy your new PM andiwm2003.

 

[brendan67]

i second that

I hate seeing misinformation such as this.

The Mac is not dying or going to be obsolete next year or whenever Apple switches to the Intel engine (CPU). It will still be a Mac.

Macs have used a variety of processors (CPUs) over the years such as:

68000
68020
68030
68040
601
603
603e
G3 (with variations)
G4 (with variations)
G5 (with variations)

But they were all Macs.

A Mac with Intel guts (CPU and Mobo) will still be a Mac.

Older Macs that run OS X will actively be supported for quite some time by Apple. Developers will be creating code for both the G series and Intel series processors.

In this area, your friend is sadly misinformed.

Sushi

WOW well said could'nt have put it better

well done sushi

 

[revisionA]

Obsolete my arse!

Check out osxaudio.com and look at the signatures in those audiophiles posts.

Many are still using an older powerbook or a dual g4 system as many as six or more years old to produce music.

If you can afford the software that requires a dualcore 2.0 to run smoothly you can afford to replace or upgrade that system as you need...

if you arent using the full capacity of your rig, that its NEVER obsolete.

osx 10.5 and 11 will both run on PPC machines.

They have to, or apple loses its loyal customerbase.

Intel machines are not going to suddenly be all that developers care about, considering the initial cost and durability of Powermacs and Apple computers - there will be a demand for PPC compliant software for as much as a decade.

Sure, the universal binaries will begin to be optimized for the new platform... but it will support the current lot of machines for quite some time.

You will get more life out of an apple than a dell.

$

 

[digitalmatty]

your friend is a total gong show!

that setup will last you 3 years EASILY. Look around at setups, lots of people still have their quicksilvers and sawtooths kicking around!

tell your friend I said he was a bozo.

 

[sushi]

WOW well said could'nt have put it better

well done sushi

Thanks!

I forgot to mention that most of those CPUs were used in different Mobos as well.

Apple has been through the transition from pre-system 7 to system 7 and beyond (32 bit vice 24 bit addressing). I was a developer during that time and it was an interesting time to say the least.

They have been through the 68 family CPUs to the PPC family.

They have transitioned to Mac OS X.

Apple had good experience with transitions having learned from their mistakes.

The biggest negative for me, is that the new MacTels will not support Classic mode from what I understand. I use Classic mode daily for a few programs. Guess I will need to finally upgrade them after almost 10 years. About time I guess.

Seen some folks comment about the dual binaries. Some comments do no seem correct. However, I am not a current developer so I will differ to someone else for the answer.

I bet for most folks once the MacTels are out, they would not know the difference between the two CPU/Mobo combinations. The difference will be for the most part seamless much like prior transitions. By that I mean the user experience will be much the same...only faster if rumor holds true.

Sushi

 

[revisionA]

I agree with sushi that some of the above comments might not be fully correct.

Logically the universal binaries means that osx x86 runs on ppc natively or on intel using rosetta for components that cant take intel but natively when possible. At first, this means some things will not be running an the Intel's full potential. And as the list of things needing rosetta gets smaller, the performance advantage will grow.

Lucky for us, OSX runs faster, even on g4s and g3s, with each new iteration. That should continue, as they increase the efficiency of the core processes and threading capability.

I am just a big geek, but Apple is going to pull this off with style, like they do most everything else.

$