what about old macs after intel fitted one's come.

[findpankaj]

Read few articles about intel-apple pairing and rumors are strong and suggest that apple is going to launch an ibook with "intel inside". This may be a totally new model or a remake of ibook 14" G4 which is not so well accepted in the market (don't know why). I bought an ibook 14" last month and i am happy with that. Considering a scenario where 14" ibook is launched with intel, how long apple is going to support the G4 one's?

Now take this, I have taken an apple care plan for 3 years so i would expect to get full support till the end of Nov 2008. IS apple going to linger that long with G4 ibooks and specially if intel one's become huge hits.

What about the software? Are people going to divert all their attention towards intel platform ibook (or may be for all macs). I don't think that they will burn time and effort to release the s/w for all the flavors of mac. I think this is the problem with all the mac users.

I read in the same article that steve jobs wants to have innovation as his main strategy to sell macs in the market and so he needs intel (low power consumption processors). So that means innovation is over for us???

Hmmmm...i am already feeling alienated even before first intel mac is out in market
I haven't noticed such transformation in the PC processor world..Only thing I know is AMD and INTEL PC's. But then I think they are from the same family of micro processors and hence no issues at all with compatibilty.
I don't think this is the case with G4/G5 vs INTEL.

This kind of experiments are being done in ipod market where now a days ipod mini/ipod (old) is not available. but then this is only ipod just a music player....

I wonder what would happen to old mac platform ... die a silent/gradual death??


-----------------------------
ibook G4 14" , ipod shuffle, Dell Latitude..

 

[LethalWolfe]

I wonder what would happen to old mac platform ... die a silent/gradual death??

Basically. There will probably be a few years of "transitioning" where support for the old is gradually dropped before Apple officially "kills" it. Same as w/the transition from OS9 to OSX.


Lethal

 

[ripfrankwhite]

I'm debating whether or not to get a new iMac. I guess if it's only gonna be supported for a couple more years, I might as well wait for the new ones.

 

[freiheit]

I wouldn't worry about that

If you paid for 3 years AppleCare support, by law they have to provide you with 3 years AppleCare support. I wouldn't worry about that.

Also since the transition to Intel will take about a year and a half to two years to be completed, we're very likely to see another generation of PowerPC based Macs before it's over. Ergo Apple and other software developers will continue to support PowerPC based Macs for at least that long. I wouldn't worry about that.

And since currently 100% of the Mac market is PowerPC based, any software maker who "jumps ship" and make their Mac software run only on Intel before 2008 is going to run themselves out of business. I wouldn't worry about that.

And right now the rev C iMac G5 is a VERY nice machine. Lots of handy features on a system with quite respectable stats. If it's something you're interested in, it's still going to be a great machine a year from now. I wouldn't... well you get the idea.

 

[shadowmoses]

I'd rather have a PPC machine and have tried and tested software and hardware than an experimental Intel mac, and i think the current generation of PPC mac's will still be supported in 5 years time no questions, i am probably gonna get myself the last generation iMac G5 as it is a great buy and its PPC,

Shadow

 

[semaja2]

im going to be so happy if they actually keep some sort of ppc machines on their lineup but ill be extremly happy if they keep ppc all together its like the thing that seperates the pc from the mac

 

[GorillaPaws]

What about the software? Are people going to divert all their attention towards intel platform ibook (or may be for all macs). I don't think that they will burn time and effort to release the s/w for all the flavors of mac.

Xcode2, the program that developers use to write Apple software, has been designed so that when the developers "build and compile" their projects (i.e. turn all the code they've written into a final app), it'll generate a universal binary. What this means is that, without any more work on their part (since they're already doing the work to create the intel-compatible software anyways), an app will be created that will install on both a PPC and Intel Macs. What I'm more worried about is how many more years their operating system will support the PPC archetecture. Leopard will (pretty much guaranteed), but after that, who knows. Personally, I'm going to try to make my G4 iMac 800 last until the rev. B Intel iMacs come out.

 

[superbovine]

I'd rather have a PPC machine and have tried and tested software and hardware than an experimental Intel mac, and i think the current generation of PPC mac's will still be supported in 5 years time no questions, i am probably gonna get myself the last generation iMac G5 as it is a great buy and its PPC,

Shadow

calling a production release of a mac "experimental" is a bit far fetched. Yes, the new macs are it share of problems as any engineering project of that scale would. However, x86 mobo and processors is far from "experimental". They aren't reinventing the wheel here. It is a x86 processor running freebsd kernel + mach with a fancy gui. You should also realize every version of OS X along with the kernel, Darwin, have been compiled on both x86 and PPC. So, in other words, they just might have tested just a bit before releasing it.

 

[Morn]

I would go for a x86 mac. I just have to read this forum, if nobody is whinging about a serious problem, then they should be ok to buy.