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So how long do I have left with my PowerPC Macs.

rj-300zx

rj-300zx

macrumors regular
Original poster
Feb 2, 2009
112
0
I love my Powerbook G4 to death, its like my baby, (thats been beatin up by younger siblings, then taken care of and repeated >.<) but I really hope Snow-Leopard is PPC compatible as I dont have the money for even a first gen. Core Duo Macbook Pro. Plus ive got just about every PPC mac available (I only use the Powerbooks and the iMac G5 however).

So how long do you think i have?
 
This has been discussed ad nauseam. Please try a search.

It looks like Snow Leopard will not be PowerPC-compatible. The question is, do you really need all of your computers running the very latest greatest operating system? If they're serving your needs now, they will probably continue to serve the same needs in the future.
 
Plus, they will only get slower with the latest and greatest since that will require more processing power.

Stick to leopard.
 
As with Leopard now, Tiger is still officially supported by Apple. While I'm not sure about the most recent versions of iTunes within the past couple of months, before that the most recent version supported Tiger just fine. Basically, if you have a new iPod you'll need at least Tiger to be able to sync it with iTunes.

That's pretty much Apple's planned obsolescence: millions of people have iPods, and those aren't meant to last more than a few years, so if you have a new one you need a recent version of our OS if using a Mac.

Using my whacky theory, Leopard will not be obsolete in Apple's eye's until well into Snow-Leopard's life, if not easily into its following OS's (as hopefully they realize there are plenty of great PPC machines still out there).
 
As long as you like.

They are not going to self destruct the day Snow Leopard comes out, in fact they will last forever, probably far longer than the Intel machines in fact.

If you want Snow and you say you have just about every PPC Mac, selling them would probably fetch enough for a Mac Mini or Macbook.
 
Its been made abundantly clear that Snow Leopard is more an architecture change rather than feature change .... its focussed on utilising the vast processing power inside the modern GPU's, chipsets and processors .... it simply wouldn't yield any benefit to the older (maybe even early intel macs) technologies that wouldn't actually support OpenCL etc

Apple is drawing its line in the sand which it kinda has to ... it gives Apple the chance to strip its code back to the bone, remove legacy and tighten it all up ... which will give benefits just by doing that... The closed eco-system is why i like apple ... i understand the risks and limitations of their policy but ultimately have to support it
 
Continue with Leopard... and the same path as the other OSs.

Leopard shall likely continue to get a major update or two followed by security fixes until Snow Leopard is replaced.

At which time Leopard likely will get relegated to EOL.

In the meantime, you will find that the newest Apple apps will require Snow Leopard as a minimum spec and will likely also go Intel only.

Apple tends to be ahead of the curve, but Apple is pushing developers to drop Carbon apps and go with Cocoa -- so you might see a contraction in the supported OS installs with developers if they decide to update to the newer technologies.
 
synagence said:
Its been made abundantly clear that Snow Leopard is more an architecture change rather than feature change .... its focussed on utilising the vast processing power inside the modern GPU's, chipsets and processors .... it simply wouldn't yield any benefit to the older (maybe even early intel macs) technologies that wouldn't actually support OpenCL etc

Apple is drawing its line in the sand which it kinda has to ... it gives Apple the chance to strip its code back to the bone, remove legacy and tighten it all up ... which will give benefits just by doing that... The closed eco-system is why i like apple ... i understand the risks and limitations of their policy but ultimately have to support it
Click to expand...

well seeing as though the latest PPC's were 64-bit CPU's i honestly cant see why they still wouldnt support them.. expect maybe for the fact that the GPU/CPU arent up to speed.

i can see them dropping support for the 32-bit Intels (coreDuo), because it would make it so much harder to write both 32-bit and 64-bit code. (us much as i want my MBP to be supported.
 
PPCs are not 64bit (at least the versions Apple used) while 10.6 will only be 64bit compliant... but you never know Apple!

But to answer the question you asked in the title: I think you have left an eternity... or as long as you love your Machine!

My first self owned machine was a Compaq 7 series (dont laugh) 400MHz Desktop which I still proudly own and pulled it off line just about an year ago... after about 8 or 9 years of service!
 
Tallest Skil said:
The G5 was a 64-bit processor. The Core line was 32-bit, and the Core 2 line is 64-bit again.

The PowerMac G5 was ALWAYS spun as being the first 64-bit personal computer.

Also, 603, baby! WOO.
Click to expand...

As always.... agreed

But the G4 that OP asked about isnt 64bit no?

Oh... and congrats about 603.... 5000 posts
You've been one of the best members in this forum Skil... hope to see another 10,000 soon! :)
 
Apple Ink said:
As always.... agreed

But the G4 that OP asked about isnt 64bit no?
Click to expand...

I don't believe that any of the G4s were 64-bit, no.:(

Not like it matters, since PowerPC is probably going to be dropped in Snow Leopard.

Seriously, our local opthamologist's office uses exclusively Macs and they only update hardware when they have to. 10.2 runs faster on their Pismos than 10.4 would, so they've left it on.

On some occasions it's WORSE to have the "latest and greatest" on old hardware.
 
Tallest Skil said:
I don't believe that any of the G4s were 64-bit, no.:(

Not like it matters, since PowerPC is probably going to be dropped in Snow Leopard.

Seriously, our local opthamologist's office uses exclusively Macs and they only update hardware when they have to. 10.2 runs faster on their Pismos than 10.4 would, so they've left it on.

On some occasions it's WORSE to have the "latest and greatest" on old hardware.
Click to expand...

Agreed again... I once tried installing a volume license XP on my Presario and the results were terrifying.... I killed its HDD (10GB)... and I remember... a 64MB RAM upgrade costed me the moon at that time..
 
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