Re: The timing of all this is terrible [RANT]
Originally posted by phillymjs
My love affair with Macs began 11 years ago when I got my first one, an LC. I've had a few others over the years, and since 1996 I've been running a 7600 as my primary machine at home. I've added in a couple G3 upgrades as faster chips were released, and USB, and IDE, and a better video card, but the last couple years I've really been nursing it along, holding out as long as I could for a new Mac that would have equal longevity.
I was using a PowerCenter 132 with G3 upgrade that I had since 1996 also. I knew I would need a new machine to run OS X when it came out, and after a while I realized that even with the USB card and the G3 card, it was still not as fast as a low end G4, due to slower FSB and RAM.
So I picked up a refurb G4/466 Digital Audio early 2001. It's by no means the fastest Mac, but this can hold me over for another year or two (and I might pop in a new CPU upgrade) while I wait for the real killer machines.
But my point is you would be doing much better even with a two year old G4 than with a souped up 7600!
My intent was to buy the killer G5 (with goodies like FireWire 2, USB 2, BlueTooth, etc built in) that everyone expected to be released at MWNY2002... and I don't want to lay out big bucks on a machine and then have to buy a PCI card or USB dongle to add stuff that should've been there in the first place.
I don't think anyone was seriously expecting a G5. I expected something like the Xserve, and that's what we got. I think we put too much importance in having the latest technology. USB 2? Who cares! There aren't even any USB 2 peripherals out, or not many if there are. For what I need USB for, USB 1.1 does its job, i.e., my printer, mouse, keyboard, digital camera... that's all I use it for. USB stinks for audio, I wouldn't even go that route. I haven't even used Firewire yet so...
Bluetooth? Sounds cool, but once again where are the devices? I don't see a problem with hanging a dongle off my USB hub when the time comes.
BTW anyone who hasn't tried a new G4 needs to check one out. I tried the Dual 1 GHz model, and it was pretty quick! Don't get hung up on numbers, try the new machines out.
The terrible timing comes in because for the last 10 years I've made a career out of supporting Macs, and my clients are starting to get antsy about upgrading to OS X. I've maintained that the best way for them to go about it is to stick with OS 9.x until all their must-have apps are X-native or at least carbonized, so they won't have to deal with the kludge that is Classic....
One of my clients chose to ignore my 'wait as long as you can' advice, made me roll out 10.1.x, and they've paid the price in lost productivity. To make matters worse, they are still using older versions of apps that have carbonized/native versions, and those older versions don't always play nice in Classic.
That's not very smart of them... if they are a business why haven't they upgraded their apps? I work in graphics, and we are still running OS 9.1, but we have the latest versions of everything... you have to!
At home I run Jag, and everything except Quark runs native. And Quark 5 works fine in classic, but Quark 4 was kind of iffy.
The last thing I'm waiting for is Cubase SX (and Quark 6) and then I don't need OS 9 for anything!
So come on, Apple-- get on the damned stick and put out a machine worthy of the money I'm dying to give you for it.
I'm sure they want to! Be patient.
