Average total value of PPC based software owned

[stutz]

First, I would appreciate any responses to this thread start with a current estimation of the total value of your Mac OS X software. This includes for work, gaming, and any Mac OS X upgrades you own.

Mine is about $3900.

The reason I ask is that next year Apple will be releasing Intel chip based Macs next year as we all know. As of yet there is no Mac software optimized for Intel based Macs and won't be for months yet (other than possibly what Apple comes out with of course, but then again most of that is free). The biggest cost of switching over to the Intel based Macs is not the machine itself, but either being faced with buying all new software when Intel chip based versions come out (I'm sure Quark XPress will take 4 years at least) or being comfortable running on Rosetta at a performance hit. My bet is the performance hit will vary greatly and be larger than people fear. It has all but convinced me to buy one of the last PPC architecture Macs for economic reasons even though I'll have new hardware that has no future (a Mac living in the past, albeit a glorious one).

So...software tallys?

P.S.
Sorry if this thread has been posted before, but I couldn't find one posted.

 

[eva01]

I have no care about the software if it runs on an Intel Powermac well i will buy one.

 

[wrc fan]

Hmm... I'd say about $30-$50 (for a few shareware apps). Unless you include OS X itself, in which case it's $30-$50.

 

[mduser63]

I have mostly academic/student versions of software as I'm a student, so the following price is much lower than if I were to have bought my software at full price. Anyway, I calculated that I've spent $975 on software for my Macs. That includes Office 2004 Professional, Adobe CS2, Toast, Matlab, and some other stuff. I'm going to be buying Macromedia Studio 8 soon too.

I'm not too worried about the Intel switch. I'm planning to buy a Rev B. Intel PowerBook in mid-2007 (or whenever they come out). I figure that by then, most of my current software will be a version or two behind, and I'll want to upgrade anyway. I'm sure the newest versions will be Universal Binaries by then. PPC Macs will probably still be for sale new at that time, so developer's will basically have no choice but to support both architectures.

 

[portent]

I'd say about US$500. I worry, though, that some titles won't make it to Intel. (AppleWorks, for one...yes, I still use it, and more importantly I have hundreds of files that can't be easily accessed from any other app.)

I suppose it won't matter so long as Rosetta runs at reasonable speeds.

 

[JFreak]

over ten thousand dollars. most on altivec-based code (pro audio plugins), so i'm not so keen on moving to intels.

 

[tsaxer]

Well, I mostly bought academic software too. Sooo...
Filemaker Pro 7, Adobe CS, Tiger upgrade, MS Office, Virtual PC 7, and various tweak programs. It all comes to about $1300US.

I'll probably wait for at least a revb too; my 1.5G4 pb works just fine.

 

[Bear]

It isn't how much the software cost originally. It's how much will the software cost to upgrade? For instance Final Cut Express lists for $300 (US), but the upgrades cost $100(US) and with Apple software, I expect it to just be the normal upgrade prices. For instance, iLife will come with your Intel based Mac, so there won't be an upgrade cost there.

For the games, if they do make Intel versions, some will just be an upgrade price and some companies will make you pay for a whole revised game. It depends on the company. And of course some games will never have an Intel version.

 

[Bear]

I'd say about US$500. I worry, though, that some titles won't make it to Intel. (AppleWorks, for one...yes, I still use it, and more importantly I have hundreds of files that can't be easily accessed from any other app.)

I suppose it won't matter so long as Rosetta runs at reasonable speeds.

AppleWorks should be just fine under Rosetta. Some other applications won't be that good. For instance, Photoshop can run on a G3, but it runs much better on a G4 or G5 system. I would want a version of Photoshop that was built with universal binaries to run on an Intel Mac.

As for your AppleWorks files, some of them can be opened with Pages and Keynote, and I expect even more will be usable with the next release of iWork. (I expect iWork to have a spreadsheet package with the next releases.) It might be a good idea for you to buy the next release of iWork and start converting active documents.

 

[wordmunger]

I have a lot of "pro" versions of apps that I really don't need. For example, I have Photoshop 7, but if/when I switch to Intel I'll probably get Elements. I have MS Office but I may just switch to a combination of OpenOffice and iWork. I'm not sure if I can do without Dreamweaver/Fireworks, but by the time I upgrade to Intel it'll probably be about time to upgrade those as well. Quicken will definitely need to be upgraded, but, hey, they come out with an upgrade practically every year.

All these things were pretty much things I was planning on doing anyway. In fact, I'll probably hang on to my current mac for another 3 years, so by then I may have upgraded almost all my software to dual binaries before I make the switch. What will probably get me more than the major apps are niggling little shareware fees like Transmit.

 

[biohazard6969]

actually quite a lot,

lots of games:
call of duty - $70
BF 1942 - $60
UT2K4 - $70
Halo - $50
AVP2 - $45
Quake 3 - $50
Warcraft 3 (TFT) - 50+50
Close combat FTF - $60

then i have some programs:
microsoft office X - approx $150
Virtual PC 7 w/XP - $250
iLife+iWork '05 - $150
some random shareware apps - $100

this is all in candian dollars, and keep in mind i'm only in high school!! so that totals approximately $1155!!!!!!

holy crap, i never even THOUGHT about it untill now....i spent way too much money on my PB.....and i wouldn't have it any other way. a computer is just that, a computer, software is what makes it work and do wat its supposed to IMO

 

[carlos700]

I have Adobe Creative Suite, iWork, and Studio 8.

But I will gladly move to Intel-Mac if it provides increased performance and it is more industry standard with other PCs.

 

[Bear]

I have Adobe Creative Suite, iWork, and Studio 8.

At some point you'll be able to buy an upgrade for these products that have Universal Binaries. iWork should be universal when the next version is released.

But I will gladly move to Intel-Mac if it provides increased performance and it is more industry standard with other PCs.

If it doesn't buy increased performance, Apple made a bad move.

And what do you mean by "more industry standard with other PCs"? Apple already uses a lot of common components. The Intel Mac will still be running Mac OS X. You'll still need VirtualPC (or similar) to run Windows applications.

 

[Little Endian]

Fear not PowerPC based software will be here for years to come. I probably have over $4000 worth of PowerPC based software from the past decade. $1500 of which are less than two years old or so and I use on a regular basis. I regularly use about another $1000 of older PowerPC based software 2-5 years old that will probably never be converted natively to run on intel mac.

We probably won't see the first intel mac until more than 6 months from now. Even then there will be hardly any software that will run natively on an Intel Mac with optimizations for things like SSE and MMX. Excluding Apple's software most third party apps will rely on Rosetta or may be rebuilt with Universal binaries but that does not mean they will be optimized for the Intel based OSX machine. Apple has spent years encouraging it's software developers to optimize for the PowerPC platform and to take advantage of Altivec. Many developers especially Mac only developers may take awhile to optimize for the X86 platform.

I am certain that when we see Intel based macs ship the PowerPC based macs of the previous generation will beat them in performance in almost all applications. Remember Rosetta is said to emulate at G3 speeds. Who would care to have a brand new intel based Mac when older G4 or G5 based machines may be faster in most cases with 90% of the mac software library. This may very well be the case upon the release of the first intel based macs and may take 6 months to a year later until most major apps are converted.

Only time will tell though, I hardly think the transition to Intel will be a dramatic change for those of us on PowerPC based hardware. Right now intel based macs make up 0% share of the Mac market. Even with the releases of intel based macs Apple will still be selling PowerPC based Macs through 2006 and probably into 2007. Intel based macs probably won't make up more than 50% of the installed Mac user base until 2009.

 

[Bear]

Correction:

...
I am certain that when we see Intel based macs ship the PowerPC based macs of the previous generation will beat them in performance in almost all applications. Remember Rosetta is said to emulate at G3 speeds. Who would care to have a brand new intel based Mac when older G4 or G5 based machines may be faster in most cases with 90% of the mac software library. This may very well be the case upon the release of the first intel based macs and may take 6 months to a year later until most major apps are converted.
...

Rosetta emulates a G3, the speed is relative to the speed of the Intel processor it is running on. So that means anything that requires AltiVec won't run. Applications like Photoshop which make use of AltiVec when it is there but doesn't require it can run under Rosetta.

 

[balamw]

$79 for iWork.
$129 for Tiger.

Total: $210.

B

 

[Bear]

$79 for iWork.
$129 for Tiger.

Total: $210.

B

And if you buy an Intel Mac, you will get OS X with it, so it's only the iWork upgrade that would cost you money.

As I said, normal upgrades will take care of getting the bulk of Intel compatable software, so even though someone has $5,000 of software, they will probably pay between $500 and $1500 for upgrades that have Universal Binaries. For example, a full copy of Photoshop is what $699 now? But the most recent upgrade was only $179.

 

[Kernow]

I probably have around £2,000 ($3,600 ish) worth of PPC software on my current mac (mostly audio stuff like Logic etc). Hopefully (sorry IJ Reilly!) I'll get a good few years service out of it and the upgrade cost to Intel when I buy would be similar to that I would pay to keep updated anyway.

I would guess that Apple will continue to support the PPC users for a long time to come in any case.

 

[superbovine]

First, I would appreciate any responses to this thread start with a current estimation of the total value of your Mac OS X software. This includes for work, gaming, and any Mac OS X upgrades you own.

Mine is about $3900.

The reason I ask is that next year Apple will be releasing Intel chip based Macs next year as we all know. As of yet there is no Mac software optimized for Intel based Macs and won't be for months yet (other than possibly what Apple comes out with of course, but then again most of that is free). The biggest cost of switching over to the Intel based Macs is not the machine itself, but either being faced with buying all new software when Intel chip based versions come out (I'm sure Quark XPress will take 4 years at least) or being comfortable running on Rosetta at a performance hit. My bet is the performance hit will vary greatly and be larger than people fear. It has all but convinced me to buy one of the last PPC architecture Macs for economic reasons even though I'll have new hardware that has no future (a Mac living in the past, albeit a glorious one).

So...software tallys?

P.S.
Sorry if this thread has been posted before, but I couldn't find one posted.

this off developers kits and hardware are out for x86. companies are optimizing their software on the x86 plateform. second, companies like adobe who already have a port on x86, they won't have entirely reinvent the wheel.

 

[zelmo]

Between my PB and iMac G4, I have around $5,500 in software. I probably won't be getting an Intel Mac for another two years or so. For what I do, Rosetta will hopefully run well enough until I need to upgrade my apps, and then I will expect to get Universal Binaries for the cost of a regular upgrade.

In other words, I don't expect to just wash my prior software investments down the drain.

 

[rundevilrun]

I probably have about $500-600 in PPC software.
I wouldn't be surprised if Apple had a promotion when they release the Intel Macs, something like "buy a Mac, get Final Cut 5.1 universal binary upgrade for $20."

 

[stutz]

Well, after seeing the responses here I feel better about my decision to stick to buying a final PPC based Mac. There's a good point made here though. I guess the real cost is upgrades. Still, to upgrade all of my Adobe products, Macromedia Suite, Microsoft software, Quark and various other titles it would easily be a $1000 if not more. AND considering that all the major software developers will have to write universal code for both chip architectures for at least 3 more years (probably more), the argument for buying one of the new Intel based Macs next year seems.... well... pointless unless your Mac breaks or someone else buys it for you. Not only will I wait until all the major software manufacturers come out with universal code, but I'm going to wait until people here on these forums stop complaining about the Intel chip based Macs and software (at least no more than normal).

 

[Bear]

Well, after seeing the responses here I feel better about my decision to stick to buying a final PPC based Mac. There's a good point made here though. I guess the real cost is upgrades. Still, to upgrade all of my Adobe products, Macromedia Suite, Microsoft software, Quark and various other titles it would easily be a $1000 if not more. AND considering that all the major software developers will have to write universal code for both chip architectures for at least 3 more years (probably more), the argument for buying one of the new Intel based Macs next year seems.... well... pointless unless your Mac breaks or someone else buys it for you. Not only will I wait until all the major software manufacturers come out with universal code, but I'm going to wait until people here on these forums stop complaining about the Intel chip based Macs and software (at least no more than normal).

A very good summation of the situation, although I expect PPC sofyware support for at least 3 years after the PowerMac goes Intel since that is supposedly will be the last Mac to go Intel.

Another thing to watch for is when Apple stops upgrading OS X for PPC systems. It'll be a major release when it happens - some version after Leopard. That will be the sign that tells a lot of companies they no longer need to make Universal Binaries and that they just need to concentrate on Intel Mac software.

Is Classic available on the developer boxes? I suspect that Apple may continue classic support for PPC Macss but not have it for Intel Macs.

 

[dkeninitz]

Probably $4K or so, including Logic Pro, Reason and FC Pro. Those three alone are in excess of $2K.

The MacTel thing isn't looking so hot to me right, espeically since I switched to Mac's a few years ago to get away from the WinTel's I'd been using for nearly 20 years. From the sound of the threads I've been reading, it's looks like running Mac stuff on an Intel platform under Rosetta is gonna be worse than trying to use Virtual PC (a dog for sure, even on my dual processor PM).

 

[eva01]

80 dollars for iWork
and then Photoshop