Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
How long until our G4s become obsolete?
- Thread starter WillMak
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
I noticed my G3 isn't supported by the new iLife '06. For me, when my G4 can't handle a simple iLife upgrade then I will consider it obsolete.
I am glad I didn't buy a G4 / G5 just before Mac World. That would be a drag.
I am glad I didn't buy a G4 / G5 just before Mac World. That would be a drag.
PowerPC will be around for awhile longer the G5 especially. I am guessing it will take a couple years maybe around 2008 for the Intel machines to reach 50% of the total Macintosh user base.
BornAgainMac said:
i'm glad i did. on average, i upgrade my computer once every 2 years. as it stands, i've got a computer that can simultaneously run all of the apps that i want it to - Dreamweaver 8, PSCS2, Adium, Firefox, Transmit, Mail, VLC, iTunes. and it does this well. if i were to have waited for MacBook pro...how much longer would i be waiting for Dreamweaver and Photoshop? (both tools which i depend on to make money) as it stands, i'm not 100% on the ETA of these products...but i'm comfortable with the fact that i wont need to upgrade until i choose to.
Little Endian said:
Maybe even longer considering how long people hang onto their Macs, particularly in design setups... we won't be replacing our dual 2.5 G5s until 2008 and we're usually ahead of the curve compared to others in the sector.
I'm hoping to replace my dual G4 1.42 at home some time towards the end of 2007 or beginning of 2008, depending on rumors... of course.
WillMak said:
mine PB is 2.5 year old (1.25GHz 15 in), it works fine for what I do but I recently replaced its battery. My guess is that it will work well for at least another 2.5 years before I upgrade, maybe to a tablet (Come on, Steve, give what i want). The battery life and weight will be my major consideration.
my friend has a 6-year old powermac which still works well for what she does, although everyone is telling her to upgrade, she is unwilling to give up on it. and money is not an issue for her.
I see two sides to this topic:
1. If you don't have a need for new software that only works on an Intel Mac you should be fine for quite a while. As stated before (and witnessed first hand numerous times), there are plenty of people out there still running a G3 iMac that mainly use MS Office, Quicken and the Internet. For these people, it would seem wasteful to dump that system that already works for you and spend the money on a new system and the software. Of course if you're using software that has to stay current or playing games you probably will want to ditch your G3/G4/G5 in the near future (couple of years?)
2. I'm thinking back to my first Mac, the Performa 630CD. It was a 33 MHz, 16 MB of RAM, 500 MB HD, fun system. Six months later the PowerPC was introduced and all of the software started changing to two formats (non-PPC and PPC only). Because of a warranty issue in the first year I was able to trade up to a Performa 6220CD PPC and used that for nearly five years. My brother who had a Performa 550 (all-in-one) without the PPC didn't last another two years before he had to upgrade.
I realized Apple is urging the universal programming, but I'm wondering how long software developers (and Apple) will actually support the PPC.
Bottom line is that you'll end up buying what you feel you need. If you feel you need to have the newest technology/software out there, you'll spend the money. If you don't need to, you won't and thus will not be "outdated."
Just my worthless $.02!
1. If you don't have a need for new software that only works on an Intel Mac you should be fine for quite a while. As stated before (and witnessed first hand numerous times), there are plenty of people out there still running a G3 iMac that mainly use MS Office, Quicken and the Internet. For these people, it would seem wasteful to dump that system that already works for you and spend the money on a new system and the software. Of course if you're using software that has to stay current or playing games you probably will want to ditch your G3/G4/G5 in the near future (couple of years?)
2. I'm thinking back to my first Mac, the Performa 630CD. It was a 33 MHz, 16 MB of RAM, 500 MB HD, fun system. Six months later the PowerPC was introduced and all of the software started changing to two formats (non-PPC and PPC only). Because of a warranty issue in the first year I was able to trade up to a Performa 6220CD PPC and used that for nearly five years. My brother who had a Performa 550 (all-in-one) without the PPC didn't last another two years before he had to upgrade.
I realized Apple is urging the universal programming, but I'm wondering how long software developers (and Apple) will actually support the PPC.
Bottom line is that you'll end up buying what you feel you need. If you feel you need to have the newest technology/software out there, you'll spend the money. If you don't need to, you won't and thus will not be "outdated."
Just my worthless $.02!
What do you need it to do today?
A twist on the old microsoft commercial... but adequate.
I agree obsolescence (sp) is a personal thing. I would still play on gameboy classic, if all I needed was Tetris, for example.
I wonder why they took out fw800 and didnt put in external sata?
Some of the features in my powerbook will make it stick around probably even after I get a macbook pro revb or c
$
A twist on the old microsoft commercial... but adequate.
I agree obsolescence (sp) is a personal thing. I would still play on gameboy classic, if all I needed was Tetris, for example.
I wonder why they took out fw800 and didnt put in external sata?
Some of the features in my powerbook will make it stick around probably even after I get a macbook pro revb or c
$
i dissagree
i think that apples computers retain much ability to run operating systems for 3-5 years. Heck i just got an old pm g3 up and running jag the other day, i know jag is outdated a couple years, but still, a pretty impressive feat.
ibook g4s will not be obsolete til at leaste 2008 or so. Thats just my thought. Obsolete means no longer produced or used. it may no longer be produced, but used, it sure will be.
Daveway said:
i think that apples computers retain much ability to run operating systems for 3-5 years. Heck i just got an old pm g3 up and running jag the other day, i know jag is outdated a couple years, but still, a pretty impressive feat.
ibook g4s will not be obsolete til at leaste 2008 or so. Thats just my thought. Obsolete means no longer produced or used. it may no longer be produced, but used, it sure will be.
it will be a while until Apple completely drops support of all PowerPC processors. since they promised PowerPC support well beyond 5 years. if they drop off anytime sooner, you can always file a lawsuit
the G5 will probably be at the tail end in terms of dropping support, the G3 and G4 will probably be about 5 years.
hell my 1999 iMac SE is running Tiger, in fact it runs better than Panther did on it
the G5 will probably be at the tail end in terms of dropping support, the G3 and G4 will probably be about 5 years.
hell my 1999 iMac SE is running Tiger, in fact it runs better than Panther did on it
Deepdale said:
Amen. My computer sits idle 98% of the time, I'd wager. It's about a happy medium. Enough power on tap to do what I need, but not spending $1000's extra to save a few moments here and there. The mini, in my case, is just about perfect (I need to adda faster drive to make iPhoto a bit snappier, but that's not a huge issue... and a faster GPU would be nice but I can deal with it fine). It's fast enough that I can run the occasional PS/Gimp filter in a few seconds (not near instant like a quad G5 might do, but like you said what's rush?) or encode some CDs into iTunes. Other than that it's overkill for what most people do most of the time on their computers.
Anyways, on the topic... I will speculate that of course 10.5 will be Universal, with all features being available for both platforms, and that's supposed to be out, what early '07? I'll hazard to guess that 10.6 in '09 will be universal as well, but there may be a few things as Intel only. iLife and iWork will be Universal till the '09 versions as well. FCP and Aperture I'd guess we will see Intel only on those in late '08. Your old versions will keep running of course, so this last round of G4 laptops/minis will be realistically useful until 2010 if you feel like keeping it around that long.
mrgreen4242 said:
Very wise. Full of common sense.
Thx to you both.The thing is, you're going to get some hardcore fanatics here in this forum. I mean, who really takes the time to go on the net to post on a Macintosh forum? How many of those people at the Apple Store actually do this? Let alone their very own employees?
So I see why so many split hairs nerd style, but that's just how it is with stuff. It's kinda like the whole love for 0-60 times with cars. 1/4 races. It's a dick measuring contest.
I say it went obsolete some time last year already. Want to know what I mean? Just try viewing a 720p movie trailor on a powerbook... The powerbook is not fast enough for a pro machine. It's still supported but deserves to be obsolete. G5 and Core Duo is where it's at.
And OSX could do with a speedy CPU, to help the UI responsiveness and scrolling speed.
And OSX could do with a speedy CPU, to help the UI responsiveness and scrolling speed.
i4k20c said:
Seeing as they just released a new iLife that works with most (all?) G4 processors, it seems like there's a fair amount of like left in them. Maybe not for new software, but software up through 2006. Don't see why that can't be used for another couple of years at least.
Deepdale said:
Indeed couldnt agree more. just like PCs your computer will always function for people that dont do high impact work or just looking for the simple...not to worry your G4-G5 will always be good.
Bless
Yeah, I wanted to hold out on buying a new Mac until we got some video cards with superior h.264 decoding. This feels like the MPEG-2/DVD decoding of the late 1990's. You'd have to have a super CPU or buy a decoder card. Now most cards come with hardware DVD decoding onboard. I hope my next Mac has h.264 decoding onboard. It's annoying when you hit 60% CPU usage just by watching the MacWorld keynote.Blue Velvet said:
LethalWolfe said:
I agree. My Rev D Powerbook is going to do me just fine until then. I use Adobe CS2, Macromedia Studio 8, Painter IX on it and it works great. There'll be no magic switch Steve will flick when all the Mactels are out that will render PPC machines unusable. Sure updates, etc may grind to a halt in the next few years for current PPC software, but hey it all works now so why would that change in the future?
If however you are one who lusts for the latest and greatest then your PPC machine was probably outdated long before the MWSF '06.
i still have a Power Mac G4 digital audio 466, and its alive and kicking. It can do my basic day to day tasks. But im saving for a imac 17 inch pro duo for gaming
WillMak said:
I bought the latest PPC PowerBook 15" specifically because it is PPC because I need Classic for some apps to access legacy data. I expect to use it for the next five to seven years. I used my last PowerBook (Pismo) for five and a half years and my wife is now using it. It can run Tiger. So that is at least a five year supported life which fits with all the Macs I've had all the way back to the Mac128K. My mother is still using my MacPlus, which was upgraded from the 128K. She refuses to let us get her a new iBook which is what I think she should be using. She's happy. It still runs fine and does what she needs. The machine is over 20 years old.
It is not obsolete as long as it does what you need. When you need more then you upgrade. May your Mac last long and prosper. V
i4k20c said:
No, no, no, no, NO! You don't, you really, really, reeeeeally don't. Believe me.
I spent ten minutes downloading, installing and rebooting all three updates for QT, iTunes and 10.4.4 tonight, without issue. When I installed XP SP2, it took an hour to go on, broke my machine and then took until 2.15am to back out.
Think of all the other aspects to this. There are so many upsides to Mac ownership I lose count.