Slashdot Mirror


Apple Previewing New Power Mac?

dunric writes "CNET.com reports that Apple Computer may be previewing a new Power Mac, complete with dual G5 processors and a more advanced memory configuration." The "previewing" isn't intentional, though -- the report is based on service and repair documents distributed last month and reported on AppleInsider.com. AppleInsider has taken down at least one image from their report, but have added an artist's rendering.

242 of 377 comments (clear)

  1. previewing by name773 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    why wouldn't apple want the previewing?
    to me, it seems like good advertising... for free, and you know how companies like free adverts

    1. Re:previewing by iotaborg · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Simple, because it would mean everyone will know that Apple is going to refresh the PowerMac lines real soon. Then people will tend to want to wait for the next model rather than buy the current, which isn't really what Apple wants.

    2. Re:previewing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful


      It cripples current sales. If you're in the market for a G5, why spend now when something better is coming out a bit later?
      (Something better is ALWAYS coming out a bit later, but if you know the details of the next cycle, you're more likely to wait. And then crush the company with ridiculous demand when the new product rolls out.)

      Premature leaks like this piss off every company for this reason. But Apple especially so.

    3. Re:previewing by jwthompson2 · · Score: 4, Funny

      Spoils keynotes...

      --
      Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree. -Martin Luther
    4. Re:previewing by NoData · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Also, companies like to time new releases with liquidation of current stock. They know few people are gonna buy the old model once they hear about the new one coming out (as you point out), but the real bitch is that it leaves them with a surplus of old stock they can't move and then have to eat a loss discounting it. This is why sometimes new products are ready to go months before a company wants to officially announce them. When you have tiny margin and a small market share like Apple, this is a big problem. (Apple also has kinda crappy inventory control, which exacerbates this problem. They routinely come up in short-supply after a new product launch, or overstocked near the end of a product cycle).

    5. Re:previewing by Have+Blue · · Score: 5, Interesting

      This is also why rumor sites tend to keep careful track of promotions and discounts from Apple, believing they are efforts to clear out inventories of older models in preparation for a new product launch.

    6. Re:previewing by SphericalCrusher · · Score: 1

      PC Users. If Apple gives them a preview of an unfinished version, they will receive a mass amount of hate directed towards it; people taunting the system, disrespecting Apple, etc... and that's something I know they don't want right now. It would only stir up more flames in BBSs also, as people seem to want to compare unfinished things to everything else they feel is good.

      --
      "Instant gratification takes too long." - Carrie Fisher
    7. Re:previewing by mbbac · · Score: 1

      That's been happening since January. I finally broke down and bought mine.

      --

      mbbac

  2. Old News by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    Apple Insider, Mac Rumors and a bunch of other sites have been reporting this for at least a week.

  3. Big heatsink by Fiz+Ocelot · · Score: 4, Informative

    There seems to be either a huge heatsink or some kind of cover over it in this image Here looks cool.

    1. Re:Big heatsink by SuperBanana · · Score: 4, Interesting
      There seems to be either a huge heatsink or some kind of cover over it in this image

      It doesn't have fins, so it's not a heatsink. Apple's long-stated goal with the thermal design of the G5 was to compartmentalize heat sources; the extension of the box(which appears to be one piece of formed metal) seems purely to help compartmentalize the CPU area more. Wouldn't it be interesting if this was done because the heatsinks are taller? Taller but thinner heatsinks would let you put(ahem) more CPUs into that space. I honestly can't say I think they bumped processor speeds; wasn't IBM at a brick wall in that regard with the G5? Seems like we'd be more likely to see a quad box, although for 90% of even high end users, 4 processors wouldn't be terribly useful.

      What is also interesting is that the motherboard has shrunk by a few inches, hence the longer connecting cable in one set of photos; it's a few inches back from the front of the case instead of nearly abutting it.

    2. Re:Big heatsink by mebob · · Score: 5, Interesting

      it does have fins. The current G5's are just like this. There is just a seperate cover for each.

      --
      =1000101
    3. Re:Big heatsink by Genady · · Score: 5, Funny

      That's no heat sink. It's a spacestation.

      --


      What if it is just turtles all the way down?
    4. Re:Big heatsink by peragrin · · Score: 4, Informative

      No IBm wasn't at a brick wall, they just had probelms in the actual manufactoring processes. They were losing a large amount of chips due to defects. Those have been worked out a for a couple of months now.

      --
      i thought once I was found, but it was only a dream.
    5. Re:Big heatsink by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      Look at this also - Lian Li has produced a PC case BETTER than the Apple G5 case:

      http://dansdata.com/pcv1000.htm

      Too bad Apple. I can't wait to see where they go next, but I'm getting on carbon fibre composites.

    6. Re:Big heatsink by boaworm · · Score: 1

      Oboy.. that was a true ripoff :-)

      Ok.. the wheels are new.. but otherwise, every detail seem to have been "stolen with pride"

      --
      Probable impossibilities are to be preferred to improbable possibilities.
      Aristotele
    7. Re:Big heatsink by BenjyD · · Score: 1

      wankie.net? Interesting choice of domain name.

    8. Re:Big heatsink by stephentyrone · · Score: 1
      ...the ability to use mainboards and processors "the rest of us" can afford...

      Good, because at AU$374 for the case alone, you'll have to use a cheap processor to be price competetive.

    9. Re:Big heatsink by jcsehak · · Score: 1

      well, unfortunately, it's still the size of a space station...

      --

      c-hack.com |
  4. Re:Go APPLE !! by ericdano · · Score: 5, Interesting
    I know I shouldn't feed the Trolls but....

    Honestly, the life of an Apple product is a lot longer than a typical windows PC. I still use my Powermac 9500 (running 10.3.4) but I have retired my 600Mhz Pentium III.

    And how many people do you see driving old BMWs compared to Toyotas? Which looks better?

    --
    It's either on the beat or off the beat, it's that easy.
    I moderate therefore I rule!
    --
  5. G5 Espresso Machine by thedogcow · · Score: 5, Funny

    Check this link out from Appleinsider under the user name "windowsblowsass". I thought that was humorous.

    --
    Yes! I listen to NYC Speedcore and do math at 3AM. I suggest you try it too.
    1. Re:G5 Espresso Machine by JamieF · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Here's a link that spares you the need to scoll past a bunch of ridiculous speculation:

      http://forums.appleinsider.com/showthread.php?s=&t hreadid=42736#post627583

      Also, in the process of looking at the source to figure out how to make the above URL, I found these comments in the HTML starting at line 45:

      "DO NOT CHANGE THIS AGAIN
      THERE NEEDS TO BE A WAY FOR MEMBERS TO RETURN TO THE CONTENT"
      (some HTML code removed here)
      "DO NOT EDIT ABOVE THIS LINE
      GO FUCK YOURSELF - The Management"

      Nice. It's always good to see design arguments that have escalated into profane insults embedded in one's publicly visible HTML source. The least they could do would be to use the scripting language's comment syntax so those little love notes wouldn't be visible to anybody looking at the source code...

  6. Missing picture by polyp2000 · · Score: 5, Informative

    This may be the picture you are looking for...
    New G5 Picture

    nick ...

    --
    Electronic Music Made Using Linux http://soundcloud.com/polyp
    1. Re:Missing picture by bogie · · Score: 4, Funny

      Wow. Just mindblowing. A VERY bold move by Apple.

      --
      If you wanna get rich, you know that payback is a bitch
    2. Re:Missing picture by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      A slightly smaller motherboard is "mindblowing"? WTF? The current G5 motherboard is relatively big; reducing the size a bit would be more of a logical cost-saving move, not a bold one.

    3. Re:Missing picture by timeOday · · Score: 1

      Isn't that just a G5 with the grille off?

    4. Re:Missing picture by GFLPraxis · · Score: 1

      They look the same on the outside, but as you can see if you bother looking at the picture, the two G5's have a completely different layout on the lower parts of the inside.

    5. Re:Missing picture by Thomas+A.+Anderson · · Score: 1

      I think he's being sarcastic....

      --
      Personally its not God I dislike, its his fan club I cant stand (bash.org)
    6. Re:Missing picture by bogie · · Score: 1

      Just having a bit of fun mate.

      --
      If you wanna get rich, you know that payback is a bitch
    7. Re:Missing picture by shotfeel · · Score: 1

      For some reason, reading that caused flashbacks to dissection labs in biology.

  7. Re:apple is overated by mgs1000 · · Score: 4, Funny

    Unfortunately, you didn't seem to get a keyboard that has caps lock or shift keys.

  8. Re:Go APPLE !! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    And how many people do you see driving old BMWs compared to Toyotas? Which looks better?

    Except that while the Toyata might look like a pile of shit, its engine will keep running perfectly for hundreds of thousands of miles needing nothing but regular spark plug and oil changes.

    Meanwhile, while the BMW may look nicer, it's going to need costly repairs and engine overhauls every 50,000 miles or so.

  9. Isn't this predictable by agent+dero · · Score: 5, Insightful

    With WWDC coming up, isn't it somewhat obvious that apple is preparing a new PowerMac? Most likely a new revision of most of there stuff.

    I mean, they are coming out with 10.4 at the WWDC, why not new hardware to run it on?

    --
    Error 407 - No creative sig found
  10. Re:Only apple... by torpor · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Not saying it isn't fast, but why all the fuss over pictures?

    The design of Apple computers is one of the things, small and insignificant though it is, that differentiates Apple from its competition.

    Like it or not, people do have an affinity for aesthetic design. Compare your average Dell to a G5, and you'll see the difference.

    There are some that assume that any 'major change in industrial design' which Apple introduces to its product line will signify a shift in direction for the company. When the tiBooks came out, for example, it was clear that Apple was 'rejuvenating its purpose as a computer designer/manufacturer' ... to many Apple fans, this is a simple way of gauging Apples' intentions for the future... if they make major exterior design changes, it usually indicates a change in architecture.

    Strange, perhaps, but I believe this has something to do with marketing, not technology. Many computer geeks forget that marketing is the only thing that truly counts in computers these days ...

    --
    ; -- the corruption of government starts with its secrets. a truly free people keep no secrets. --
  11. Anything is better... by erockett · · Score: 4, Funny

    I'll take any Mac that runs at 1GHz or more (...not saying that 2 or 3GHz wouldn't be nice...). The family computer is shared by 4 people and runs at 800MHz. I want to get my own computer, so I can fill it up with my junk instead of everyone else's.

    1. Re:Anything is better... by tupps · · Score: 1

      Just get a firewire harddrive enclosure and a hard drive. Firewire hard drives a pretty close to the same speed as internal ones and you can boot of it without a problem.

      --
      Go out and get sailing!
  12. Re:Only apple... by Overly+Critical+Guy · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Why do people prefer good-looking cars over jalopies?

    Do you really need to ask this question? Apple is one of the few companies that actually treats computers like a home appliance. You want a home appliance that looks good in addition to running well.

    --
    "Sufferin' succotash."
  13. Re:Go APPLE !! by Jeremy+Erwin · · Score: 1

    Have you upgraded that 9500? Did you need to "fool" the OSX installer into cooperating?

  14. Re:Only apple... by Mononoke · · Score: 5, Insightful
    Only for an apple product would the fans care more about how pretty it looked, rather than how fast it ran. Not saying it isn't fast, but why all the fuss over pictures?
    The pics are of the internal designs, many of which directly affect the operation of the computer.
    --
    NetInfo connection failed for server 127.0.0.1/local
  15. Re:Only apple... by 2nd+Post! · · Score: 2, Insightful

    You forget fans of automobiles, they obviously care how their products look!

  16. Re:Go APPLE !! by ericdano · · Score: 1

    Yes, the 9500 has been upgraded. G4 700, 1.5 gigs of ram, Firewire/USB/IDE card. And I pursuded it to install OS X with XPostFacto. Stable, fast system.

    --
    It's either on the beat or off the beat, it's that easy.
    I moderate therefore I rule!
    --
  17. Re:apple is overated by jwthompson2 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Care to share your parts and prices? Also, are you using a legal copy of Windows?

    --
    Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree. -Martin Luther
  18. Re:apple is overated by haruchai · · Score: 1, Funny

    Please post your complete system specs and that of your brother's machine. Let's do an apples to Apple's comparison.

    --
    Pain is merely failure leaving the body
  19. Hey by Ikn · · Score: 5, Informative

    Go to Wired and check out their Cult of Mac blog, and I think get have some pics/more info on this.

    --
    I know nothing
    1. Re:Hey by robbieduncan · · Score: 1

      Above is the wrong link! This is a direct link to the Cult Of Mac Blog.

      Note that the blog and wired section are different.

  20. Re:Go APPLE !! by metallicagoaltender · · Score: 1

    Honestly, the life of an Apple product is a lot longer than a typical windows PC. I still use my Powermac 9500 (running 10.3.4) but I have retired my 600Mhz Pentium III.

    That all depends on your uses...I've still got a 7 year old PII chugging along. It's by no means my primary machine, but it still serves a purpose for me.

  21. Re:apple is overated by 2nd+Post! · · Score: 2, Informative
    i built a p4 2.6ghz rdram machine


    And how about the other 90% of the population who cannot do that?

    People pay hundreds of thousands of dollars for Ferraris and Lamborghinis too you know.
  22. What I found most interesting by foidulus · · Score: 4, Informative

    Is that the rumor is that the next "generation" of the G5 will be all duals. This definitely puts a kink in my plans to buy a dual 1.8, esp. since Apple tends to keep the same prices but bumps up the specs when they make new releases(and doesn't sell the old stuff anymore), and since I am a student, it seems the best deal is to buy off apple themselves(through the $99 student developer program you can get 1 hardware purchase at about 20% off, more than pays for itself even against the normal student discount)

    1. Re:What I found most interesting by CubeDude213 · · Score: 3, Informative

      At Apple's online store, under the Special Deals section(scroll down at store.apple.com and its on the left hand side) they often sell old stuff. I just bought a Powerbook through that. I'd post a direct link but Apple's store is session-based.

    2. Re:What I found most interesting by DiscoOnTheSide · · Score: 1

      I was thinking the same thing as you, until I noticed one thing. If you're using one of the base models, it IS cheaper, but to upgrade the specs it's more expensive as a developer, so if you're going to be adding HDs, RAM or a Superdrive, compare the two before you compare. Might not be worth the $99 for the discount... just a friendly hint.

      --
      Viva La Revolucion! Buy a Mac!
    3. Re:What I found most interesting by foidulus · · Score: 1

      I was thinking the same thing as you, until I noticed one thing. If you're using one of the base models, it IS cheaper, but to upgrade the specs it's more expensive as a developer, so if you're going to be adding HDs, RAM or a Superdrive, compare the two before you compare. Might not be worth the $99 for the discount... just a friendly hint.
      That is what this is for ;)

    4. Re:What I found most interesting by Pfhor · · Score: 1

      For Apple machines, if you want to save cash, you always buy the base model with the parts you want but can't get anywhere else but apple (their graphics cards, etc.).

      Then you go third party for the rest of the parts. If you notice, they are usually cheaper or the same price as paying apple to install the parts for you, but you get to keep the old stuff too, which you can unload on ebay, or throw into an external enclosure, etc.

    5. Re:What I found most interesting by dasmegabyte · · Score: 1

      What I've found is that Apple generally has a nice "old equipment sell off" about a week or so after bumping specs. The deal is not as good as 20% off usually, but it's quite good.

      What's better is that, two to three weeks after this, they have a quick run of last gen refurbs. These are machines that had problems and were swapped out, fixed, and now are being resold. These sell for as much as 40% off the latest model and are generally in sound shape, with 1 year of applecare and eligible for the three year extension. I got my 15.1 1.25 GHz 80 gig Superdrive laptop for $1900...it did have a problem with the logic board (for shame, refurbisher!) when i picked it up, but they fixed that and had it back to me in less than a week. It's run amazing ever since.

      --
      Hey freaks: now you're ju
    6. Re:What I found most interesting by System.out.println() · · Score: 1

      Smalldog sells older-model Macs for somewhat lower prices.

  23. Re:Only apple... by danamania · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Only for an apple product would the fans care more about how pretty it looked, rather than how fast it ran. Not saying it isn't fast, but why all the fuss over pictures?

    This time, because there are no specs to go with the pictures. We have an image to pore over, look at, spot the differences in, all in the vacuum before a product release. It gives us something to do :)

    Last year was the opposite. A leak for a few hours on Apple's own site had a picture of the current G4 models, but with the new G5 specs listed next to it. Then, we didn't have a picture but only an idea of how fast it ran.

  24. Re:Only apple... by qqqqarl · · Score: 5, Funny

    me too.

    i'll never understand why people drive jaguars. my 70's chevy impala station wagon was way faster.

    K.

  25. Re:Only apple... by drinkypoo · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Apple hardware is supposed to be where form meets function, the state of the art in personal computers. At several times this has been true and these machines may very well represent that principle from a technical standpoint. Early and recently in Macintosh's lifetime it has been the pinnacle of home computing in many ways. Right now, whatever you think of their politics or their price tags, you have to appreciate their technology. And, at the same time, they havr tended to have some of the most functional and attractive cases in the personal computer market.

    So, naturally the Macintosh today attracts both people who want a good-looking computer, and those who want a technogically superior (not in every way, obviously, but it has some serious advantages over "the competition". This hasn't really been true for Apple since the days of the Macintosh II family - when it was young, that is. Arguably they reached that point with the dual G4, and equally arguably with the existence of some of the nice shiny hammer-core processors available now they don't have it at this moment, either, but this is my personal perception :P

    --
    "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  26. Re:Go APPLE !! by Blastrogath · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Honestly, the life of an Apple product is a lot longer than a typical windows PC. I still use my Powermac 9500 (running 10.3.4) but I have retired my 600Mhz Pentium III.

    So what? I still use my pentium 200, and I'm fixing up a pentum 90 to use as a firewall. I will admit my computer use habits are not typical, but how many people still use their Powermac 9500s? Maybe you're not a typical user either.

    --
    "The price good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men." -Plato
  27. Re:Go APPLE !! by IamTheRealMike · · Score: 4, Insightful
    That's pretty anecdotal. I know a few people still using 500/600mhz PCs just fine, it's not like they *need* to upgrade. I'm sure your Powermac 9500 is just fine, but that doesn't mean PCs (even "typical windows" ones) have a short shelf life.

    Like many things, you can get as much out of it as you are willing to.

  28. Re:Only apple... by kalidasa · · Score: 1

    They're not pictures of the outside of the case, but of the INSIDE of the case: so they are seen as clues to changes to the engineering. As for "how fast it ran," I suspect the megahertz myth is lurking behind that phrase.

  29. Re:Oh boy! by Durandal64 · · Score: 3, Informative

    Yeah, they shrunk the motherboard, reworked the cooling system and added more space for drives inside. From an engineering standpoint, that is a big deal.

  30. Re:Go APPLE !! by ericdano · · Score: 2, Insightful
    Oh, my Pentium III is servering very well as a RAID 5 server right now (Adaptec 2400a, 4 250 gig drives).

    But in general, it seems that Apple's hardware has a longer life than your typical Windows PC.

    --
    It's either on the beat or off the beat, it's that easy.
    I moderate therefore I rule!
    --
  31. Re:Oh boy! by scottgfx · · Score: 1

    I'm an Apple fan, and I agree with you. The only thing one can see in the picture is that the motherboard is smaller. Some have speculated that this may be a low-end machine. I'm not going to worry about it until WWDC.

    --
    It's mandatory to wash your hands before returning to the land of Dairy Queen.
  32. Re:Go APPLE !! by Ompaloskeptic · · Score: 1

    I still use my Performa 600 runing system 7.5. I don't use it for anything except cheap arcade games, but I use it.

    --
    Good health is merely the slowest possible rate at which one can die.
  33. Re:Go APPLE !! by jwcorder · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Got to argue against you here. PIII 500mhz, running Windows 2000 Server at home as we speak. Got 4 40 gig drives in it and it supports all of my ftp needs.

    --
    http://jayceecorder.blogspot.com
  34. Re:Go APPLE !! by ArbitraryConstant · · Score: 3, Interesting

    God I hate posts like this.

    My iBook has had the logic board replaced 4 times. In the first year I owned it, I had a month of downtime. After the OS 10.2.8 update, I had to reboot almost every day, even when I wasn't doing anything more than browsing the web. That's more than windows.

    Some people have perfect experiences with Apple. But some don't.

    --
    I rarely criticize things I don't care about.
  35. Flashback by douthat · · Score: 5, Informative

    June 23, 2003

    visit http://www.apple.com/quicktime/qtv/wwdc03/ and fast forward to 1:51:50

    "We're at 2GHz today. IBM and Apple are today announcing that within 12 months that we'll be at 3GHz. 3GHz processor clock. That's up 50% within 12 months. And so, believe me, this architecture has legs."

    Some people dispute what Jobs meant when he said that. At best, it could mean new 3GHz G5 PowerMacs by late June. Or at worst, it could mean that IBM will release a 3GHz G5 Processor by August 2004, since the G5 PowerMac was slated to ship in August of 2003.

    --
    She loves me: 09F911029D74E35BD84156C5635688C0 She loves me not: 09F911029D74E35BD84156C5635688BF ...
  36. Re:Only apple... by sensate_mass · · Score: 5, Informative

    Because the pictures show a smaller motherboard, which indicates:

    A) that the G5 processors used will almost certainly be of the .9 fab process variety, and

    B) that there will be room in the case for an additional 2 hard drives, the lack of which space was a big complaint about the Rev. A models.

    --
    --- Submission is feudal.
  37. Apple Rules by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    Who the hell can say that Apple is not THE SHIT?

    - Cocoa
    - Quartz
    - Stylish industrial design.
    - Best tech support in the business. They treat you WELL!

    I go to the library with my puny little iBook and chicks come talk to me. OVER a freaking computer!!!

    You can run all kinds of free software thru Fink.
    You can run Windows thru Virtual PC (Dog slow, but it works).

    They include X11, Developer tools, all kinds of pretty things....

    WHAT MORE CAN YOU WANT?????

    Can't wait until they put Gianpaolo to good use and get rid of HFS+, though. Case preservation can kiss my ass.

    I'm 28, been using computers since 5. Apple is THE SHIT!!!
    I had forgot about the fun in computing until I got my first Apple in 2001.

    There are a lot of old dogs, who have been through a lot of shit, and they all say that, for example, a Powerbook is what computers should have been all along.
    Damn right.

    BTW... screw Political Correctness. You all post shit on slashdot like you were waiting a table. You CAN make a valid point and still say the word FUCK. It's OK.

    I like this quote by Lenny Bruce (don't know who the hell he is, but anyhow):

    'Take away the right to say "fuck" and you take away the right to say "fuck the government.'

    Take care! Oh, and get a Mac. You'll see what I'm talking about.

    P.S. - It rules when a HOT chick you just hooked up with complains about the breathing led on your sleeping Mac.

    Yes, it is possible to write some serious code and still pull ass.
    Wasn't Feynman the biggest nerd ever, and still able to pull ass?
    Feminists hated the bitch, and he was fucking with quantum physics.
    How can you not admire a dude like that, who goes to Brasil to learn how to play the bongos :)

    Some idiot writes 10 lines of PERL and thinks it's OK to have no game. Pathetic.

    What's the point of being able to mess (as in write/modify -- not compile) a kernel if you can't walk up to a HOT girl and say:

    "Hi! I'm XYZ. You have a beatiful smile. Can I buy you a drink/Hold this for you/Open the fucking door/Give you flowers/whatever the fuck?"

    Women are humans. Humans.

    Sorry about the offtopicness but half of the blogs I read, from people who write better code than me, are depressing because those dudes can't get laid.

    "When I go to a conference, I relate to those people, but how do I talk to girls?"

    Geek guides for dating.... WHAT THE HELL!!!!!!

    There is NO guide for dating.

    Be the fucking man. Be assertive. Be strong. Just fucking do it.
    Insecure? Go test your fucking limits: skydive, pump iron, pick a fight... do something fucking manly... and you get women.

    That's it. I'm sick of this post. Take care.

    1. Re:Apple Rules by Ignignot · · Score: 1

      I was sick of this post too, so i skipped to the end... ;-) This post is so off topic it is amazing.

      --
      I submitted this story last night, and it didn't get posted.
    2. Re:Apple Rules by NaugaHunter · · Score: 2, Funny

      That's it. I'm sick of this post.

      Damn, that was close. I was worried it was just me.

      --
      R: That voice. Where have I heard that voice before? B: In about 365 other episodes. But I don't know who it is either.
    3. Re:Apple Rules by Jeff+DeMaagd · · Score: 4, Funny

      Are you geek version of Grandpa Simpson?

    4. Re:Apple Rules by dfj225 · · Score: 1

      Apple is pretty good except for the Dock...I hate the Dock!!!!!

      --
      SIGFAULT
    5. Re:Apple Rules by Barto · · Score: 1

      Dear sir, are you Denis Leary?

    6. Re:Apple Rules by metrazol · · Score: 3, Funny

      - Best tech support in the business. They treat you WELL!

      Yeah, they do. Except you goddamn fanboys have caused a shortage of parts that means the Dual 2ghz G5 my office bought last month then sent back in 24 hrs. for repair (Google Post 1076 error) won't be fixed in 10 days...oh no.... 20 June! A month! A frickin' month! A month I have to share my machine w/ a student, a month I don't have dual G5 goodness.. Oh please god...let it end...

      --
      "Life's funny sometimes." "And sometimes it isn't." --Cat's Cradle
    7. Re:Apple Rules by VaCUm · · Score: 1

      What the fuck are you talking about?

    8. Re:Apple Rules by chromaphobic · · Score: 1

      WHAT MORE CAN YOU WANT?????

      The ability to turn off pointless, cycle wasting eye candy in the OS?

      A consistent UI design, instead of a mish-mash of brushed metal and Aqua? It's like Sybil designed the OS.

    9. Re:Apple Rules by amichalo · · Score: 1

      Welcome to the world of not being a virgin.

      28 years old, huh? Right on par for a nerd.

      --
      I only came here to do two things; kick some ass, and drink some beer...looks like we're almost out of beer.
    10. Re:Apple Rules by Lost+Engineer · · Score: 1

      Seriously, dude... Lay off the crystal meth.

    11. Re:Apple Rules by Cybrex · · Score: 1

      I'd like to be the first to welcome Dennis Leary to Slashdot!

      Your standup rocks, man! I didn't know you could code too! ;-)

      -Cybrex

      --
      Boundless Expansion, Self-Transformation, Dynamic Optimism, Intelligent Technology, Spontaneous Order- BEST DO IT SO!
  38. Please remove parent post by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    Please remove parent post.

    Love,

    Apple.

  39. Re:Go APPLE !! by ericdano · · Score: 1

    Yeah, but for DAILY use? Using it as a server is one thing, but being able to function as a machine someone uses?

    --
    It's either on the beat or off the beat, it's that easy.
    I moderate therefore I rule!
    --
  40. Re:apple is overated by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    That's funny, because I have a 2.8 GHz machine with 1 GB of DDR and a nice, big 120 ultra scsi that I paid 1.2K for the parts on, and run Windows XP on, and my 1.8 G5 (which I paid 2.5K for) blows it away on every program they have in common: Photoshop, Celestia, SETI@Home, Word (yes, Word on a Mac blows away Word on a Windows computer - me thinks Microsoft should look into going PowerPC), iTunes, VNC, any kind of number crunching. Meanwhile, OS X is twice as stable (i.e., crashes half as often); and that 2.8 GHz P4 is a replacement for a 2.6 GHz P4 processor that only lasted a year, as did the mother board; can't say that there's any proof yet that the 8 month old G5 is more reliable hardware, but my 2001 iBook is still running strong, and still gets 2h/battery charge (with WiFi running, processor on full speed, and screen up to full brightness). I'm guessing that you're comparing a tricked out p4 that actually cost a lot more than half a grand if you count all the real expenses (like the video card - a video card comparable to the 1.6 GHz G5's would be $150; add 512 MB of memory, a gigabit ethernet card, and a DVD-R and you're already over half a grand. Toss in Firewire 800 (oh, yeah, there isn't any interface at that speed on a wintel, is there?), dual FW 400 and Dual USB2, another 3 USBs and 5.1 audio . . . then keep in mind that the 1.6 GHz PowerPC is using a very different architecture and so can't be compared to a P4 by clock speed ... and I'd say you're talking out your ass, blizzy83. (Is that your Mom's date of birth, 1983?)

  41. Re:apple is overated by ameoba · · Score: 2, Informative

    I'm not going to argue that you can't build a PC for less than a low-end G5 but $500 for a system like that? You're going to drop near $500 for the CPU, motherboard & drive, and that doesn't even get into the cost of things like RAM, a case or a video card.

    --
    my sig's at the bottom of the page.
  42. Re:Go APPLE !! by talonracer · · Score: 5, Funny

    I have. I had an old Camry and an old 320i. The Camry was dependable, durable, and went forever. The beemer was nasty. Looked great, people went "ooh, BMW...", but it broke down far too often.

    The worst was when two hotties watched me walk up to my car, I heard one say "ooh, he drives a BMW.." - I started it up, and it belched a MASSIVE cloud of exhaust that nearly filled the block. Fortunately I used the smokescreen to escape and evaid their laughter...

    So yes, this analogy is appropriate. Give me the Toyota.

  43. Re:Only apple... by The+Infamous+Grimace · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Only for an apple product would the fans care more about how pretty it looked, rather than how fast it ran. Not saying it isn't fast, but why all the fuss over pictures?

    Right, because I've noticed a serious lag between when I make a keystroke and when it appears onscreen.
    Computers are no longer a luxury, they are a commodity. And once something becomes a commodity, appearance becomes important. Mankind is vain.
    Besides, speed is irrelevant. Computational ability is much more important. To use the beaten-to-death car anology, I have a 6-cylinder Explorer, my brother has a 6-cylinder Dodge Cummins diesel. His Dodge runs at almost 1/3 less RPMs, yet has significantly more towing ability.
    The speed masters themselves at Intel have begun de-stressing MHz with their Pentium M proc.
    What matters is how well the computer does what you need it to do, not how fast and hot the proc runs, unless thats what you need.
    Me, I'm typing this on a 6-yr-old powerbook. Do I want the latest and greatest? Hell yes! But in the meantime I'll still get done what I need on this ol' workhorse.

    (tig)
    --
    Ignorance and prejudice and fear
    Walk hand in hand
  44. Re:Only apple... by Trurl's+Machine · · Score: 4, Interesting

    You forget fans of automobiles, they obviously care how their products look!

    In fact, it's rather difficult to find fans of anything that don't care how their products look - with x86 computers being the only odd exception. Fans of automobiles, home cinema, audio systems, motorcycles, biking, hiking, surfing, wine tasting etc. - they all care very much about the look. They wouldn't accept the ugliness of a plain, nondescript beige-box like your average PC (try selling such a nondescript surfing board or mountain bike!). Why x86 computer fans accepted it, it's actually a very interesting question.

  45. Re:Only apple... by MidnightBrewer · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Because seeing is believing? Of course, photos can be doctored, too, but there's a certain reassurance in seeing a product, rather than a list of imaginary numbers somebody typed up in five minutes.

    --
    "Give a man fire, and he'll be warm for a day; set a man on fire, and he'll be warm for the rest of his life
  46. Correction... by WiseWeasel · · Score: 4, Insightful

    They're PREVIEWING MacOS 10.4 Tiger, not releasing it, supposedly. Also, their G5s are seriously due for an update, after almost a year (if you don't count the change to the 1.8 GHz model). This would have happened sooner if IBM could produce the 90 nm chips faster, but c'est la vie...

    --
    "I like systems, their application excepted", George Sand (French)
  47. Re:Parts and prices.... by jwthompson2 · · Score: 2, Informative

    No OS, no other software...not SCSI as mentioned by the original poster....Yet my Mac came with twice as much hard drive, Wireless Net card, Gigabit Ethernet, Dual Head Vid Card, plus a solid Unix based operating system, iPhoto (matched by some built-in Windows features), iTunes (matched by Windows Media), iMovie & iDVD (matched by Movie Maker? HA!), iCal (not matched on stock Windows system), AND now would come with GrageBand (no match on stock Windows system)...but then again this list doesn't include any software, nor a keyboard or mouse (optical) as included with every PowerMac...Both mac and windows are good for abought anything you want to do, sure macs are more expensive, but you do get a decent amount of features out of the box....PLUS, I can pretty easily install any Open Source app with minimal reconfiguration being OS X is a BSD system...

    --
    Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree. -Martin Luther
  48. Re:apple is overated by 2nd+Post! · · Score: 1

    You're right.

    Ferraris are more expensive than the average car, of *lower* quality than the average car, and not leaps and bounds beyond everyone else.

    My point was only that people pay for what they think is value, and different people have different values.

    I'd rather have a house than a Ferrari; yet I would have a Mac rather than a PC.

  49. Re:Only apple... by Lars+T. · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Excuse me? Who puts graphics cards with blinkenlights an colorful fans on them into their computers? Mac users?

    --

    Lars T.

    To the guy who modded me down from perfect to terrible Karma - Apple haters still suck

  50. Here's what's significant... by sfgoth · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The significance here is that the new motherboard is smaller.

    Because Apple doesn't have to create motherboards that fit some standard size and fastener layout, they're free to adjust their designs as parts change, which makes them free to adjust the external design of the machine as the motherboard shrinks.

    They also have a strong desire to be able to reuse a motherboard design across multiple products.

    In other words, the smaller that G5 motherboard gets, the closer we are to seeing it in a consumer iMac, or even a PowerBook.

    Innovation doesn't just grow on trees, and Apple's proprietary designs give them the flexibility needed to produce unique computers.

    By contrast, there have been around, what, five? standard PC motherboard sizes since the 386. Commodity parts are great for end user prices, but commodity means "same", and it shows in the final product.

    1. Re:Here's what's significant... by TheGavster · · Score: 1

      What exactly does a multitude of wacky motherboard shaped do for making better machines? It just means that you need to buy new parts more often. My PCs, on the other hand, have been cycling through the same few cases for the past 10 years. Smaller mobos don't mean laptops; did you see the height of the heatsink assemblies? That's big by even early 90's 'portable' standards.

      --
      "Because Science" is one step from "Because old book". Try "Because of my experiment testing my falsifiable assertion".
    2. Re:Here's what's significant... by geekoid · · Score: 1

      Actually,there are a wide variety of keyboards for the PC, many designs, types etc...
      "Innovation doesn't just grow on trees, and Apple's proprietary designs give them the flexibility needed to produce unique computers."

      now, thats crap. You telling my they couldn't created a keyboard like this for the PC? of cours they could. What it does is makes it easier to shove it down the customers throat. Of course, you can use other keyboards with the MAC.

      --
      The Kruger Dunning explains most post on /. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
    3. Re:Here's what's significant... by Sycraft-fu · · Score: 2, Interesting

      So I guess those tiny dual Opteron systems were just a figment of our collective imagination?

      Get off it, Apple certianly is a company that can claim many innovations but the MOTHERBOARD isn't one of them. They don't even build them (Foxconn does) and have very little to say in their design. Most of it is simply dictated by what they want on it. You want 8 memory slots and 64-bit PCI slots? Ok, that is going to take a certian amount of traces and a certian amount of space to do.

      Apple doesn't need any innovation to stick a G5 in a smaller case, they could do it now. They just put less on the board. iMacs do not have all the expansion slots towers do and that makes the board much smaller both because the slots take up space, and because the traces they need do as well.

      The real issue with G5s in lower end systems is cost, heat and competition. They don't want their lower lines competing with their towers, and the G5 DOES generate a good bit more heat than a G4, which is something you have to deal with. It's more expensive too.

      So no, actually, Apple's proprietary system is doing the OPPOSITE of what you suggest. If it was commodity hardware, smaller boards would exist, as the existance of mini-itx P4, Athlon and Opteron boards demonstrate. Given that there is competition, companies usually roll out hardware as soon as they can. As is, Apple decides when it is in their intrests to roll out the G5 in their lesser lines.

    4. Re:Here's what's significant... by dasmegabyte · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Apple's whole thrust into the consumer market is based on their iMac and eMac computers not looking like computers. Which is amazingly effective...people are willing to spend more money for slower hardware because it's easy to use and looks fucking awesome.

      Why should you care? Hey, if you want an ugly ass machine, be my guest. I'm not going to waste time convincing you that the soft white corrugated look of the Apple 23" cinema display is the reason why I'd buy one...that's the last of maybe 15 reasons, of which viewing angle, refresh rate and warranty quality being at the top. But think: with all else being equal, wouldn't you choose the interesting case over the bland one?

      --
      Hey freaks: now you're ju
    5. Re:Here's what's significant... by name773 · · Score: 1

      with all else being equal, wouldn't you choose the interesting case over the bland one?
      point taken, but all else isn't equal

    6. Re:Here's what's significant... by dmaxwell · · Score: 1

      Given enough budget, you would be hard pressed to see that I even have a computer. Think stereo systems built into a wall. The best setup I ever saw had the tower on a shelf behind a utility door. It could be as pretty or ugly and not matter, because it's just something else to clutter the decor. Some people put neon in their cases for crying out loud. You can even get them prebuilt that way. Ideally, the only things I want visible are an unobtrusive screen, mouse, keyboard. Gee-whiz industrial design is completely wasted when those are the criteria.

      Without an unlimited budget, I hide it under the desk as I said. It doesn't matter what it looks like.

    7. Re:Here's what's significant... by dasmegabyte · · Score: 1

      You know, I think it's a bit silly to think that every device needs to be hidden to improve the "decor." Doesn't that show a great deal of disdane for the modern world: that we want these things to run our lives, but we don't want to actually see them?

      My family were farmers. Their tools were their livelihood, so they decorated with old tools. Spinning wheels and hand saws still have a place my mom's decor. Well, my livelihood is software. So my decor is built around that. There's a small desk in the office with room enough for keys and a Mac SE, where guests can check their email on its 9 inch screen. It's also quite uncluttered. Unless, like my wife, you consider a single short wire "clutter."

      --
      Hey freaks: now you're ju
    8. Re:Here's what's significant... by Beek · · Score: 1

      I'd agree if it weren't for the fact that you need to get at your CD/DVD drive, USB ports, etc.

    9. Re:Here's what's significant... by Ohreally_factor · · Score: 1
      You're pretty right on, except for one point:

      Apple certianly is a company that can claim many innovations but the MOTHERBOARD isn't one of them. They don't even build them (Foxconn does) and have very little to say in their design. Most of it is simply dictated by what they want on it. You want 8 memory slots and 64-bit PCI slots? Ok, that is going to take a certian amount of traces and a certian amount of space to do.


      You forgot that the layout of the board has to be pretty, because Steve says so. PC Board Esthetics
      --
      It's not offtopic, dumbass. It's orthogonal.
    10. Re:Here's what's significant... by Ohreally_factor · · Score: 1

      I had this brief vision of you living in a cottage with a roof shingled with floppy discs and CDs.

      --
      It's not offtopic, dumbass. It's orthogonal.
    11. Re:Here's what's significant... by Geek_in_Marketing · · Score: 1

      > Unless, like my wife, you consider a single short wire "clutter."

      How true!

      I have exactly the same. But. . . .

      Have you ever noticed that YOUR single cable (or whatever) is clutter - but HER candles, pot plants and fscking cuddly toys AREN'T clutter?

      No, they're utterly necessary and you're insensitive/horrible/uncaring/chauvinist/delete as applicable if you dare to comment on them!

      --

      "This is your life - and it's ending one minute at a time" - Narrator, Fight Club
    12. Re:Here's what's significant... by dasmegabyte · · Score: 1

      I agreed with you in theory. In practice, the dog eats all the cuddly toys, the candles melt because she doesn't believe in air conditioning, and the pot plants are absolutely essential.

      Furthermore, the 250 exotic beer bottles that sit atop the sconce in the sunroom are a stroke of Feng Shui genius, far outstepping the framed monochrome pictures of Erwin Schrodinger, Steve Wozniak, Jim Henson and Del tha Funkee Homosapien in my writing room.

      Now, if you want to complain about all the damned seashell fragments, I'm willing to discuss.

      --
      Hey freaks: now you're ju
  51. Re:Only apple... by denisonbigred · · Score: 1

    You think the G5s make use of tacky colors? Have you even looked at them, they are white and metallic.

    --

    "There's no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals."
  52. Re:Go APPLE !! by Beer_Smurf · · Score: 1

    Heck, I still use my 8500 daily and my webserver is a Quadra.

  53. Partwise comparison... here's what you pay for by wirelessbuzzers · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I'd like to see some benchmarks on performance there...

    Here's what you're paying for on the mac:

    mobo ... $54
    The Mac mobo supports pci-x, serial ata and up to 1ghz fsb. It can also take up to 8 gigs of DDR-400 RAM if you want/need it. Also, what about the gigabit ethernet, optical spdif audio, bluetooth, etc?

    Entry level gamers video card ... $70
    The Mac video card, a GeForce FX 5200, supports two monitors and is rather faster than that entry level card. Still, it's not that much more expensive.

    cpu ... $138
    The G5 is probably not as fast, but it has a faster fsb and a comparable vector processing unit. I don't know about you, but in most of the stuff I do, the fsb and vector unit are more important than raw crunching here (not to mention the video card). For compilation, the Athlon would probably win.

    Ram ...$87
    Same as you get through Apple, but they mark it up.

    hard drive ... $59
    Apple is using larger drives (yours is only 40gb) and they're SATA rather than IDE... should give you a faster transfer rate there.

    DVD-CDRW thingie ... $72
    Yep, can't beat you there, I have one of those and it's quite a nice drive. Apple is using an older Pioneer drive, which is also unfortunately more expensive.

    Case ... $40
    The G5 case has you beat pretty soundly. It's higher quality if heavier material. It's extremely quiet (to people with a normal hearing range, it's a bit leaky in the 19k area). It's trivial to install drives: open the case door, slide the drive in, fold in the connectors (no cables to mess with). Similarly with RAM. There aren't as many drive bays, though, but Apple is supposedly going to address this in the next revision.

    --
    I hereby place the above post in the public domain.
    1. Re: Partwise comparison... here's what you pay for by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

      The Mac mobo supports pci-x, serial ata and up to 1ghz fsb. It can also take up to 8 gigs of DDR-400 RAM if you want/need it. Also, what about the gigabit ethernet, optical spdif audio, bluetooth, etc?

      Yawn. My ASUS motherboard (model P4P800 I think) has gigabit ethernet, serial ATA, optical spdif audio, DDR-400 RAM and an 800MHz bus. I have a hyperthreading P4/3GHz chip in there - and my current desktop setup is about a year old. Way to party on with 2003, Apple.

      The Mac video card, a GeForce FX 5200, supports two monitors and is rather faster than that entry level card.

      But the GEForce FX 5200 *is* an entry-level video card. Flash forward from 2002 - the FX 5700, FX 5900 and the FX 6800 are the current performance winners.. although personally I prefer ATI's range of card.

      The G5 is probably not as fast, but it has a faster fsb and a comparable vector processing unit. I don't know about you, but in most of the stuff I do, the fsb and vector unit are more important than raw crunching here (not to mention the video card).

      Do enlighten us with your assembly programming prowess? Unless you can - you should not care about such features unless you're playing games. Which is doubly pointless with the Mac.. uh.. because there are no games for the Mac.

      Apple is using larger drives (yours is only 40gb)

      I bought a 120GB Western Digital SATA drive. Last year. Yawn.

      I mean - come on. Wake up. I own (and love) a Powerbook G4 because it was the best integrated mobile solution - and even I would buy nothing except the bare machine from Apple. They wanted to charge $100 for a 256MB memory upgrade that was $59 online for a brand-name part with a lifetime guarantee. Any system integrator - including Dell and Apple will take you to the cleaners at each and every opportunity that they have. They lure customers with a bare-bones base price and massively overcharge for periperals (I mean - come on - they think 256MB is usable for a workstation? I think not).

    2. Re: Partwise comparison... here's what you pay for by prockcore · · Score: 1

      The G5 case has you beat pretty soundly. It's higher quality if heavier material. It's extremely quiet (to people with a normal hearing range, it's a bit leaky in the 19k area). It's trivial to install drives: open the case door, slide the drive in, fold in the connectors (no cables to mess with).

      Sorry, take off your rose colored glasses (and earplugs), the G5 is very loud. Plus, the design isn't that great. We replaced the cd burner that came with one of our dual G5s with a dvd burner from a dual g4, and it doesn't open the little slider door correctly. (Plus it was a bitch to install because the cabling is all tight and tucked under a divider)

      So you have this "pretty" G5 that you have to manually pull the cd door down in order to eject it because the door was so poorly designed.

      But mac fans don't care, they go "look at how clever, the door slides down rather than flips out."

    3. Re: Partwise comparison... here's what you pay for by wirelessbuzzers · · Score: 1

      Sorry, take off your rose colored glasses (and earplugs), the G5 is very loud.

      No. It's quite a bit louder than my sff fileserver, or something underpowered like an iMac, but if you compare to other workstations, it's much quieter. Except for one who built his own box and thinks that two baffled case fans will cover for his 10 drives full of bootleg movies.

      Plus, the design isn't that great. We replaced the cd burner that came with one of our dual G5s with a dvd burner from a dual g4, and it doesn't open the little slider door correctly. (Plus it was a bitch to install because the cabling is all tight and tucked under a divider)

      Oh. Yeah, I was referring to the hard drive. The optical drives are a bitch to replace.

      --
      I hereby place the above post in the public domain.
    4. Re: Partwise comparison... here's what you pay for by wirelessbuzzers · · Score: 1

      Yawn. My ASUS motherboard (model P4P800 I think) has gigabit ethernet, serial ATA, optical spdif audio, DDR-400 RAM and an 800MHz bus. I have a hyperthreading P4/3GHz chip in there - and my current desktop setup is about a year old. Way to party on with 2003, Apple.

      Yes. Their design is almost a year old. That's why we have an article about the next round here. However, that wasn't my point. My point was that my parent had got a cheap-ass motherboard and was doing price comparisons with the G5.

      Do enlighten us with your assembly programming prowess? Unless you can - you should not care about such features unless you're playing games. Which is doubly pointless with the Mac.. uh.. because there are no games for the Mac.

      Well, there's no counterstrike, but there is UT2004, Warcraft III, and Halo. That's just off the top of my head, it seems that the majority of new high-end games get released for Mac, Windows and often Linux at about the same time. Personally, I play classic games anyway (Starcraft, Alpha Centauri), and don't worry about processing power. That's probably why I know very little about video cards :-). The only thing I've really used on the 5200FX is the dual-head support.

      And what I was referring to was raytracing and graphic design. They're speeded up immensely by a vector unit; just compare render times on the same G4 of POVRay G4 engine and G3 engine (which doesn't use the vector unit). My family has a G5/1.8 SP, which is mostly wasted cpu power, but I queue renderjobs and other CPU intensive stuff, since my computer at school sucks.

      I bought a 120GB Western Digital SATA drive. Last year. Yawn.

      Yeah. And it was probably more expensive than your grandparent's 40GB EIDE. I think the Macs come standard with 160GB now, and can be upgraded up to 250GB, but that's beside the point.

      I mean - come on. Wake up. I own (and love) a Powerbook G4 because it was the best integrated mobile solution - and even I would buy nothing except the bare machine from Apple. They wanted to charge $100 for a 256MB memory upgrade that was $59 online for a brand-name part with a lifetime guarantee. Any system integrator - including Dell and Apple will take you to the cleaners at each and every opportunity that they have. They lure customers with a bare-bones base price and massively overcharge for periperals (I mean - come on - they think 256MB is usable for a workstation? I think not).

      You're right. They vastly overcharge for memory, which is why I don't get memory from them. Ditto for hard drives. I personally buy Apple because I like their OS. But you entirely missed my point, which was that my parent was out of line comparing his $500 workstation to a G5, because almost every one of his parts was inferior.

      --
      I hereby place the above post in the public domain.
  54. All go, no show! by FatSean · · Score: 1

    They aren't REAL geeks if they care too much about the looks!

    --
    Blar.
  55. Re:QUAD G5 by midifarm · · Score: 1
    Don't get the drool started too early... I've heard speculation about an enterprise server with an 8x8 matrix for G5 processors. I don't know what I'd do with all that power, but I'm sure it'll run the latest incarnation of Office.

    Peace

  56. Apple's missing product by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    I'm probably not the only one who feels Apple has a glaring hole in it's current product line: the small form factor desktop. At the moment, the choices are the HUGE G5 tower (clearly designed to be placed on the floor rather than on a desk), or the all-in-ones e/iMac. Personally, I don't find any of the desktop designs particularly attractive. The iMac design is really an acquired taste, while the eMac somehow manages to be uglier than the old CRT iMacs. Many people are moving to LCD screens, and Apple selection is a bit lacking.

    I really wished Apple would release something like the Dell SX270 with a G4 at a low price, basically an e/iMac sans monitor. I know last time Apple tried something in this direction didn't work too well, but the Cube was just too expensive for what it offered.

    1. Re:Apple's missing product by mrchaotica · · Score: 1
      ...why not get a 14" iBook? It's got a small form factor, you can hook it up to an external keyboard and display and use it like a desktop...
      What makes you think that? My 12" iBook (I assume the 14"s are the same) actually can't really do what you suggest. Although you can hook up a monitor, it will only mirror what's on the LCD (so you can't stretch the desktop over multiple displays), and you can't close the cover without it going to sleep (so you have to have the LCD running even with a monitor attached). Even if you get a 3rd party app to let it run with the display closed, it can overheat!
      --

      "[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz

    2. Re:Apple's missing product by RzUpAnmsCwrds · · Score: 1

      "The "stock" configuration of that machine when you follow that link costs over $1400 and does not include the display"

      No, but it does include Office 2003 Small Business, Windows XP Home, a 3.2GHz Pentium 4, 512M of DDR, and a lot more that's probably not necessary.

      With a 2.4GHz P4, no office suite, XP home, a combo drive, and a 15" LCD panel, it's $1011.
      That's $200+ cheaper than the iMac, and it comes with a 3 year warranty, faster CPU, faster memory, faster FSB, and gigabit ethernet (the Apple has better graphics and FireWire). Moreover, you can get it without the monitor for $871 and add your own LCD or CRT monitor.

      See for yourself:
      E-Value Code: 6W463 - SX270U

      If you want something cheaper, the Dell Dimension 4600C is around $700 without monitor. It's not exactly huge.

      Or you could get one of the tiny mini-itx systems. Many of the mini-itx systems don't even require active cooling.

    3. Re:Apple's missing product by mrchaotica · · Score: 1
      Yes, I know about the OF hack.
      Heh, I don't. Maybe I should go look it up; it'd be nice to have higher resolution when using my external (non-Apple, 19" CRT) monitor...
      --

      "[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz

    4. Re:Apple's missing product by identity0 · · Score: 1

      How happy are you with the 12" ibook? I've been thinking about getting one as a "desktop replacement", and was wondering if it was up to the task. My current setup is an ancient k6-2 450 running debian, so I'm sure the ibook will be powerful enough, just was wondering about screen size and other laptop issues? Should I spring for a 14"?

    5. Re:Apple's missing product by mrchaotica · · Score: 1

      I got mine because I wanted it to be really portable (I originally wanted a Sharp Actius MM-10, but I couldn't find one for a reasonable price). I've found that I haven't used my desktop (Athlon XP 2100+ running Gentoo) since I got it 5 months ago, but that's because I like OSX so much, not because the iBook is a better computer. I personally would prefer a bigger screen (I can't fit more than one real window on it at a time; it's 1024x768 max), but I sacrificed that for portability. So, for a desktop replacement I'd go for a bigger one, like the 14", or if you've got the money, a large PowerBook. Also, the iBook doesn't lend itself to being used while closed and attached to an external monitor; see here

      --

      "[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz

    6. Re:Apple's missing product by General+Sherman · · Score: 1

      Could I interest you in an old G4 cube I've got lying around? No one seems to want to buy it.

      --
      - Sherman
    7. Re:Apple's missing product by Paulrothrock · · Score: 1
      I just bought a 15" powerbook with S-Video out... there's nothing like watching StrongBad on the big screen.

      I just never get to use it...

      --
      I'm in the hole of the broadband donut.
  57. Don't knock our enthusiasm for new design pictures by Tibor+the+Hun · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Apple's design goes beyond aesthetics. For example, the new keyboard's don't have a "scroll lock" or "num lock" keyes. The reason for this is not just so that they can eliminate a few keys, but because they're not needed.
    If I have a full size number keypad, why would I want to switch it off and on? (and for those 12 of you that actually use the diagonal arrows instead of arrows, I don't really care to hear the explanation)
    And WTF is "scroll lock" again?

    --
    If you don't know what AltaVista is (was), get off my lawn.
  58. Now that they've got a bunch of extra space... by Artifex · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Is it too early to start talking about a case redesign from Apple?
    I'd love to see a small box instead of a tower. Worked great for Sun's "pizza box" and "lunch box" server models, and those are even stackable.

    If they really can't design something that size that would be heat efficient with the (expected) speed bump, they could still use that smaller board with slower speed CPUS that use the new die. Surely they've already figured the temperature issue out with their work on the XServes, though?

    If Apple doesn't do it, I'll bet someone else will.

    --
    Get off my launchpad!
    1. Re:Now that they've got a bunch of extra space... by System.out.println() · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I'd love to see a small box instead of a tower. Worked great for Sun's "pizza box" and "lunch box" server models, and those are even stackable.


      It sounds like your want a mini XServe on your desk.

      Hate to say it, but I seriously doubt that'll happen. It wouldn't work well with any of the current Apple monitors - namely, LCD's - unless they made it shallow as well. (And isn't the main reason of having a pizza box form factor to put the monitor on top of it?)

      And what does making it stackable do for home users? Absolutely nothing - if someone has more than one Mac in their home, it won't be in the same place.

      The eMac works out better than the pizzabox-plus-monitor setup, anyway. There wouldn't be any place for such a computer.

    2. Re:Now that they've got a bunch of extra space... by truenoir · · Score: 1

      While I'd rather have an expandable tower for the long run, the current "expansion" of the G5 is laughable. The only thing that you can add a good amount of is RAM. With that in mind, I'd certainly like to see a smaller form for the G5. Why do I want a behemoth of a machine that I can't load up with upgrades?

    3. Re:Now that they've got a bunch of extra space... by Artifex · · Score: 1

      That's precisely why I want it smaller.
      We already know that if we get one, we're going to have to get external drives, etc. Naturally, this makes me think of the great form factors Sun used in their early desktop models. Of course anything less chromey or bubbly would be cool.

      --
      Get off my launchpad!
  59. Re:Only apple... by CrowScape · · Score: 4, Funny

    Apple is one of the few companies that actually treats computers like a home appliance.

    Which is why you can use the G5 as a cheese grater.

    --
    common sense: noun
    What those who are ignorant of the subject matter think; usually wrong.
  60. Re:Don't knock our enthusiasm for new design pictu by Barlo_Mung_42 · · Score: 3, Funny

    "Apple's design goes beyond aesthetics"

    Yep. I still own one of the old iMacs. It makes a fine mp3 player in the living room.
    I am reminded of the famous Apple design aesthetic each time I try to use that round mouse.

  61. Re:Go APPLE !! by sessamoid · · Score: 1
    Honestly, the life of an Apple product is a lot longer than a typical windows PC. I still use my Powermac 9500 (running 10.3.4) but I have retired my 600Mhz Pentium III.
    I'm typing this on a machine at work containing a Pentium Pro, Windows 95, and 32 MB of RAM, and a 2 GB hard drive. I don't necessarily think Apple's hardware is more durable (though I have some myself), but that PC people upgrade more often because upgrades are more frequent and more available.
    --
    "No, no, no. Don't tug on that. You never know what it might be attached to."
  62. Re:Go APPLE !! by flatt · · Score: 1

    Hardly a fair comparison then isn't it?

    For the price you paid for that upgrade, you probably could have bought a new PC.

    (Note: I still run a P3 500 as my main system, it works)

  63. inventory control? by johnpaul191 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    generally Apple get's very good points from analysts when they see how small Apple's inventory is... hrm i can't think of the term but generally Apple does not have more than a few weeks of products in limbo. they have an issue with iPod minis and that's the hard drive manufacturer. while it isn't great to have demand outpace supply, it's better than having mountians of devices nobody will buy. some companies live by that motto..... Minui Coopers, Harley Davidsons and Triumph motorcycles for example. they take it to an extreme (somepared to Apple), but they know every vehicle they make will be sold right off. that's a nice place to be.
    the delay on the new powermacs has def been processors. it's possible there are other components, but Apple and IBM admitted there were issues at the IBM chipmaking plant that caused problems for supplies getting to Apple. it was the chip that is in the current Xserves and rumored to have been in the G5 tower revision. now the speculation is that the G5 tower may hop right up to the next chip revision alltogether.

    1. Re:inventory control? by Wetware · · Score: 1

      I believe the term is "channel supply."

    2. Re:inventory control? by zaffir · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Wasn't it Enzo Ferrari who said "Build one less than you can sell" ?

      --
      "Upon attaching the waterblock to my penis, I began to notice that I know nothing about computers." -- JRockway
  64. Re:Don't knock our enthusiasm for new design pictu by foidulus · · Score: 2, Funny

    My G4 iBook still has numlock
    But I fail to see how it is useful
    4 5 53 6 6 5 5 443.

  65. PC enthusiasts are no different. by tukkayoot · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Hence the popularity of case modding.

  66. Re:Oh boy! by OS24Ever · · Score: 1

    Especially if one of the posts on MacRumors is remotely true. The poster stated that 'a friend' told him that it's actually just a big flap that is covering a new liquid cooling system.

    If that's even close to true that means 3.0GHz G5s are here. That's exciting.

    What'd be more exciting to me is if they come out with an iMac G5. My 800Mhz is long in the tooth for video editing.

    --

    As a rock-in-roll Physicist once said, No matter where you go, there you are.

  67. Re:Only apple... by OneArmedMan · · Score: 1

    I would say that there is a certain segment of the x86 market that truely does care about how their pc looks. and im sure you could find examples in almost any other market / hobby etc

    http://pcdb.overclockers.com.au/g allery.php?type=lrate

  68. Scroll lock is used in Excell by geekoid · · Score: 1

    so you can moce around witout loosing cell focus.
    I bring this up, because this keyboard will make some features in office unusable.
    It is often faster then using the mouse.

    Numlock is used in some older games, makes moving diaganol easy.

    --
    The Kruger Dunning explains most post on /. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
    1. Re:Scroll lock is used in Excell by Jeff+DeMaagd · · Score: 1

      Numlock is used in some older games, makes moving diaganol easy.

      Which isn't too bad to lose that key because there currently are only about thirty commercial games for Apple machines.

    2. Re:Scroll lock is used in Excell by The+Infamous+Grimace · · Score: 4, Informative

      Which isn't too bad to lose that key because there currently are only about thirty commercial games for Apple machines.

      You sure 'bout that?

      (tig)
      --
      Ignorance and prejudice and fear
      Walk hand in hand
    3. Re:Scroll lock is used in Excell by Tibor+the+Hun · · Score: 2, Informative

      as far as apple games go, you'd be right if you were talking about sports games. i don't believe there are too many of those.
      but if you're talking about FPSs:
      wolfenstein,
      call of duty,
      various quakes,
      halo,
      jedi knight,
      jedi academy,
      battlefield 1942,
      america's army,
      NOLF,
      XIII,
      Unreal Tournament 2004,
      doom,
      medal of honor,
      and i'm sure there are some other ones i'm forgetting.

      so if one is an FPS player, saying that there are only 30 games for apples, or that their gaming collection sucks, they sound about as informative as a noob screaming "you're a cheater", and need to re-educate themselves

      and if one is not an FPS player, then they're probably not a power gamer anyway.

      --
      If you don't know what AltaVista is (was), get off my lawn.
  69. Re:Only apple... by be-fan · · Score: 1

    I haven't seen a beige box PC for awhile now. True, most PC cases these days are ugly plastic jobs, but the same seems to be true of cars too, so chalk that up to bad consumer taste. A G5 looks nice, but these machines are hardly nondescript beige boxes!

    --
    A deep unwavering belief is a sure sign you're missing something...
  70. Re:Go APPLE !! by geekoid · · Score: 1

    How do you figure? Iwould say PC owners have a tendency to upgrade there computer more often, not becasue of quality, because of ease.
    It is far wasier and cheaper to upgrade a PC, then it is to buy a new PC. PC owner often buy New video card, sound cards, etc... even when the aren't strictly needed. I have a garge full of 386, 486, that will still boot into DOS. and run 3.1. Go to any center the collect used PC, and you can proably find 10 to 12 year old PC's that will boot. Stilldoing what it was designed to do.

    Since many Vendors are used to make PCs its difficult, if not impossible, to say the PC will last longer then the MAC. so PC's will fail sooner, but then those were made cheaper, and some system that have the same specs will last a long time becasue there manufacturing process was better.

    --
    The Kruger Dunning explains most post on /. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
  71. Re:apple is overated by mrchaotica · · Score: 3, Insightful
    What do you do, then? The Mac is the best machine for what my girlfriend does (she's an art student majoring in animation), and for what I do (computer science student). IMHO, it's also the best machine for what casual computer users (read: n00bs) would do (i.e. email, web browsing etc) just because it's easier to avoid viruses and malware. Off the top of my head, the only use I can think of that it's not best at is compatibility with Windows software, and that's mostly limited to games. So what do you (not) use it for?

    Oh, by the way:
    "If they were the best at everything, they'd have more than an 8% share of the market."
    Not necessarily, because MS got it's monopoly before they became the best.
    --

    "[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz

  72. Re:Only apple... by mrchaotica · · Score: 1
    "...hammer-core processors..."
    I think you're a little confused; the processors called "hammer" are AMD's 64 bit chips, and are x86-64s; the PowerMac uses IBM's 64 bit chips, which are PPCs.
    --

    "[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz

  73. Re:what's your orientation? by user+no.+590291 · · Score: 1

    Or "erect" memory modules, as they're no doubt at least subconsciously thought of in those circles.

  74. Re:Don't knock our enthusiasm for new design pictu by dasmegabyte · · Score: 1

    Actually, your G4 iBook has an F key mapped to "num lock". You can remap it if it bothers you that much...i have mine mapped to Expose Desktop.

    It would be a useful key, if you knew the alternate numlock setup on your laptop by heart. I don't, but I knew a guy who did.

    --
    Hey freaks: now you're ju
  75. Re:Only apple... by mrchaotica · · Score: 5, Informative
    Some of Apple's cool technology:
    • Quartz 3d, display PDF
    • UNIX with a cohesive, integrated interface
    • G5 processor (yes, I know IBM made it, but Apple is the only company using it in a desktop)
    • PCI-X, Firewire, etc.
    Also, whether their cases are attractive or not, they are functional. Consider the G5's case, with the fold-down side panel, and the elaborate noise-reduction technology (which could also be listed above).
    --

    "[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz

  76. Re:Go APPLE !! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    How many of those people are using the current Windows version? Yeah. That's what I thought.

    Windows gets slower and more loaded every release. MacOS tends to get faster, leaner. With the exception of the OS 9-> OS 10 move--which was a huge discontunity in the large scheme of things (like Windows 3.1 -> Windows 95 in the PC world). Still, 10.3 is hugely faster than 10.1, many legacy Macs are supported still, and you can bank on the probability that 10.4 is going to be faster and more feature filled than 10.3

    The next Windows will be 50% slower, and require a 50% larger computer (but will reccomed a 200% larger machine), and will provide about 5% more functionality, with a really cool new cotton-candy sweet theme. Wow. Talk about progress.

  77. Re:apple is overated by Lord+Kano · · Score: 2, Insightful

    What do you do, then?

    Gaming & programming primarily.

    The Mac is the best machine for what my girlfriend does (she's an art student majoring in animation)

    No question about it.

    and for what I do (computer science student).

    That's a bit of a stretch.

    IMHO, it's also the best machine for what casual computer users (read: n00bs) would do (i.e. email, web browsing etc) just because it's easier to avoid viruses and malware.

    In a vacume that would be correct, but in this world n00bs need to rely on their friends and relatives who have more experience than they do. Most of the people out here know about Windows. Have a problem with your machine, you'll have less trouble getting help with a Windows setup.

    Not necessarily, because MS got it's monopoly before they became the best.

    I disagree. Mac OS 7 was superior to Win 3.1 in many ways even System 6 was on par with Windows 3.1 but MS dominated the marketplace anyway.

    LK

    --
    "Hi. This is my friend, Jack Shit, and you don't know him." - Lord Kano
  78. Re:comparison Athlon64, G5 by Genady · · Score: 2, Informative

    Funny, I priced out and got a G5 1.6 GHz with 512 MB and no superdrive for about $1300. Granted that's Edu pricing, but I got the OS, iLife, and firewire in the bargain. Yeah, they're more expensive, quality products are. They aren't mind-blowingly more expensive.

    --


    What if it is just turtles all the way down?
  79. The day you manage to put OS X or something by dusanv · · Score: 1

    as good I'll buy that machine. Your view is too simplistic. It's not just the hardware, it's the software as well. And XP doesn't compare to OS X in any way.

    1. Re:The day you manage to put OS X or something by Too+Much+Noise · · Score: 1

      He said a server for his studies in databases and OS: None (he uses SuSE). Did you actually read the post?

  80. Re:comparison Athlon64, G5 by dasmegabyte · · Score: 5, Funny

    Congratulations. You have created a detailed Apple-is-Too-Expensive response to an Apple article. Your numbers were nice, and though your prose lacked both quality and originality, I assume you care about either and merely wanted the most cost effective language that could complete the task. As a Slashdot-pronounced "Mac-loving, astroturfering fag" I should attempt to construct the requisite "stupid windows user, nobody cares how cheap your Athlon 64 system was, the Mac is a superior package" response. But my heart's not really into it. So I'll respond thusly:

    Good for you. You should be very proud of yourself, creating a nice, fast, usable computer for a very decent price. I personally have been scammed into purchasing four of their computers over the past 10 years for prices that were 10-30% higher than their warranty-free open market PC equivalents. I suppose I should be upset about being a victim of Apple's unfair pricing, but I'm not. I like my Apple gear. It's really good stuff.

    Incidentally, if your friend was REALLY doing anything serious with databases, he'd have asked you to scrap the fancy graphics card for a RAID setup with dual CPUs.

    --
    Hey freaks: now you're ju
  81. Re:Go APPLE !! by MacDork · · Score: 4, Insightful
    That's pretty anecdotal.

    Fine, then compare resale value. 333 Mhz iMac vs. 350 Mhz PII Compaq.

    That's $330 vs. $59 for machines that are about the same age. Given, the Compaq doesn't have a monitor or modem like the iMac. Those two things can hardly make up for that much price difference though. It's simple. A four year old PC is crap. A four year old Mac is still useful. Remember that the next time you bemoan how expensive Macs are ;-)

  82. Re:apple is overated by mebob · · Score: 1

    From my own experience I would have to agree.
    But kernel panics aren't as common as plain old application error (some times applications just disappearing) or just odd bugginess system wide. If your repeatedly getting kernel, either with the OS or possibly the hardware. Hardware for the power book would probably mean replacing the logic board as there isn't really much else to replace.

    --
    =1000101
  83. Re:Go APPLE !! by ArbitraryConstant · · Score: 2, Insightful

    No. It means that on both sides of the fence, there is some crap and some gold. And that even though they present themselves well and have a loyal customer base, Apple can shovel crap with the best of them.

    I've got a Pentium 2 400. I believe it's about 7-8 years old. It started out running NT, but then I moved to Linux and now it's OpenBSD. I have yet to see it crash, though to be fair I lived in Houston when it ran NT and the power there was way to unreliable to give me a good idea of how long it could have gone without a reboot.

    --
    I rarely criticize things I don't care about.
  84. Re:apple is overated by mrchaotica · · Score: 4, Insightful
    and for what I do (computer science student).
    That's a bit of a stretch.
    Hey, Windows doesn't even come with a C compiler! My iBook at least shipped with a Developer Tools CD (even if it wasn't installed by default). Also, Developer Tools is FREE. How much does Visual Studio cost again? (Actually, I can get it through MSDN-AA free, but most people probably can't)

    The only stretch is whether it's better than a Linux computer, which has the advantage of coming with GCC and Emacs by default, and being the turn-in platform for my homework (we can write it on whatever we want, but it has to compile on RedHat9/x86). However, my Mac's user interface is enough better than Linux's to compensate.
    I disagree. Mac OS 7 was superior to Win 3.1 in many ways even System 6 was on par with Windows 3.1 but MS dominated the marketplace anyway.
    Okay, I have to admit that back then I didn't use OS 7 enough, or understand enough about computers, to know whether it was better or not. However, by that time they had already lost because they wouldn't allow clones, and IBM did. The fact that all the clones could run Windows (and MS-DOS, for that matter) was what allowed MS to get their monopoly in the first place.
    --

    "[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz

  85. Re:comparison Athlon64, G5 by derubergeek · · Score: 4, Insightful
    1) If you "have" to add a monitor to the Mac then obviously you "have" to add a monitor to the AMD.

    2) You forgot to add in your expenses for warranty & support.

    3) Your base price is wrong - the G5 is $1800, not $1900.

    4) Drop the DVD burner & modem from the G5 & it's $1570 - with an OS, AppleWorks, iLife, et. al. Of course, you can always nuke it & run Darwin or Linux.

    So, for an extra $275 you get an engineered, warrantied, professionally manufactured machine that you can easily upgrade to dual CPU in the future. Just my 16#0000_0000_0000_0002# cents worth.

    --
    Trust me. This is an inactive account. Regardless of what the /. bean counters might report.
  86. Re:Only apple... by fermion · · Score: 4, Interesting
    Not only differentiates, but sets the standards that will be copied. Unfortunately, those copying tend to have no sense of aesthetics.

    A good example is the HP I have sitting next to my mac. When the mac is asleep, a small 1 inch circle of dim light slowly and pleasently pulsates. OTOH, the HP has a huge 3 or 4 inch square of bright blue light that blinks to indicate the machine is asleep. The mac pulsing can be ignored. The HP demands the attention of all in the room. Is this some inferiority complex on the part of HP. I mean it is like a child who screams just to get attention.

    The pulsing is a good idea. Unfortunately, the designers at HP just haven't a clue of what the idea is.

    --
    "She's a scientist and a lesbian. She's not going to let it slide." Orphan Black
  87. Bwahahahaha! by sbszine · · Score: 1

    Best. Post. Evar!!!111

    --

    Vino, gyno, and techno -Bruce Sterling

  88. Re:Go APPLE !! by The+Phantom+Buffalo · · Score: 1

    I have a 350Mhz pentium 2 that I use on a daily basis. The only thing I don't use it for is gaming.

  89. Re:apple is overated by Lord+Kano · · Score: 3, Informative

    Hey, Windows doesn't even come with a C compiler! My iBook at least shipped with a Developer Tools CD (even if it wasn't installed by default). Also, Developer Tools is FREE. How much does Visual Studio cost again? (Actually, I can get it through MSDN-AA free, but most people probably can't)

    It just so happens that Microsoft has a version of their compiler that is $Free.

    Okay, I have to admit that back then I didn't use OS 7 enough, or understand enough about computers, to know whether it was better or not.

    I did, and it was.

    However, by that time they had already lost because they wouldn't allow clones, and IBM did.

    Eventually Apple DID allow clones. Power Computing, UMAX, SuperMac, APS et all made nice Mac clones. Power Computing's top of the line was usually faster than Apple's top of the line. The PowerTower Pro series from Power Computing stomped ass all over the Powermac 8500/9500s from Apple.

    This is part of the reason why Jobs killed off the clones. People who needed as much speed as possible bought Power Computing. People who needed the lowest price possible bought UMAX. People who wanted the best bang for their buck bought other clones. Only people who were loyal to the Apple brand name bought Apple.

    The fact that all the clones could run Windows (and MS-DOS, for that matter) was what allowed MS to get their monopoly in the first place.

    That's arguable. I agree that not allowing clones earlier was one of the biggest mistakes in all of the computing industry; but who can say how much different things would have turned out if they had allowed it earlier?

    LK

    --
    "Hi. This is my friend, Jack Shit, and you don't know him." - Lord Kano
  90. Re:Go APPLE !! by Too+Much+Noise · · Score: 3, Insightful

    well, not exactly. A 4-year-old PC will be dog-slow with the latest Windows. A 4-years-old Mac will be faster with the latest OSX (not by a whole lot, mind you). On the other hand, you can do a minimal Linux install on both and compare - but that's an unusual case even for the PC.

    Long story short - the value of the default OS has a huge impact. And 'still useful' depends on what you need to use it for - neither will be good at playing high-res mpeg4 movies, for instance.

  91. better pics... by Cyno01 · · Score: 1

    Of my favorite cases on that page. That guy has way too much time on his hands, impressive nonetheless.

    --
    "Sic Semper Tyrannosaurus Rex."
  92. Pizzaboxes by vasqzr · · Score: 1

    you can hang a Pizza box on the wall, behind your LCD (if that's not on the wall already)

    Or put it on a stand.

    Example

    1. Re:Pizzaboxes by System.out.println() · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Maybe a new iMac could be built into the back of the LCD itself? The disc slot could be a small thingy that slides out from the bottom.

    2. Re:Pizzaboxes by HybridJeff · · Score: 2, Informative

      sounds kind of like these sun boxes, we've got a bunch of them in my schools library used mainly for web access and catalog browsing.

    3. Re:Pizzaboxes by spare.dave · · Score: 1

      The design you're talking about was considered, and rejected, by Jobs several ago. The idea being that making a LCD bulky like that defeated the whole point of the LCD (at least aesthetically). Thus the current design of the imac...

      It was however implemented in the 20th anniversary Mac, several years before that.

    4. Re:Pizzaboxes by truenoir · · Score: 1

      The other problem with the vertical design was the optical drives if I recall. At the time of the 20th Anniversary Mac, the CD-ROM speed was hampered by it (down to what, 4X?). While I'm sure we can do a little better now, it might pose a problem if you were, say, trying to write a DVD or some such task.

  93. Re:Go APPLE !! by edmac3 · · Score: 1
    But its award-winning design isn't all that makes iMac a best-seller. Beneath its jaw-dropping exterior, iMac is a rocket of a computer. Its PowerPC G3 processor, integrated 3D graphics accelerator, and 6MB of video memory make it lightning fast.
    How can you trust the sites figures after they say this? The whole description is just too funny.
  94. Re:Only apple... by mkldev · · Score: 1
    Umm... if you don't count the blue-and-white G3, all professional PowerMacs have been either black, grey, or metal since Apple left beige behind. Only the consumer products (the iMac, iBook, and iPod) are white and/or colors.

    --
    120 character sigs suck. Make it 250.
  95. Re:Go APPLE !! by obey13 · · Score: 1

    I have to say though, as the owner of an iBook that had to go through the logic board repair nonsense, you might have been one of the few that had real issues getting good service from Apple. Personally when I sent in my iBook for its new logic board it came back running Panther(I had sent it in with jag), a new key board, a fixed pinched cable, and they even replaced one of the little foot thingys that had fallen off. All at no cost to me, I'd have to say, for the most part, no one does a better job of taking care of customers than Apple.

    --
    Oh my, I think Dave just turned into a bear.
  96. Re:comparison Athlon64, G5 by aristotle-dude · · Score: 2, Informative
    But none of that matters and all that theoretical speed goes out the window if you install Windows XP and try to encode DVD and do something else. Now SuSE is a fine distro but is does not run the following:

    Games

    Adobe Photoshop

    Adobe Illustrator

    Macromedia Dreamweaver

    MS Office

    etc....

    --
    Jesus was a compassionate social conservative who called individuals to sin no more.
  97. Re:apple is overated by mkldev · · Score: 1
    If you -really- get a kernel panic once a week and aren't just trolling, there's something wrong with your girlfriend's hardware---probably bad RAM.

    If you exclude panics caused by failing motherboards and device drivers that I was writing, I have only seem about four or five kernel panics in the 4 years I've been using Mac OS X. A weekly panic is an order of magnitude more failures than normal. The word "AppleCare" springs suddenly to mind.

    --
    120 character sigs suck. Make it 250.
  98. Re:comparison Athlon64, G5 by JoeShmoe950 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Your implying that Linux is not an OS. It very much is. It doesn't have the same shiny brushed metal theme, but you can d/l it for KDE, IceWM, Gnome, etc. Linux is just as fast and stable as OSX. Plus, OpenOffice, I believe gnome has a calender program, but I don't use it. Linux comes with just as many if not more packages depending on your distro. G5's are great, but so are the new x86-64's from AMD. Their up there too, plus not that expensive depending on the model. Apple is better for dual-processing I'll agree, and for certain people OSX is just great (too flashy for me personally though). If you know where to look, you can configure a PC for a good bit less (www.pricewatch.com), and for those of us not into 3d animation, a $500 box will just be fine. For most people on slashdot, the only thing that will tax the processer/ram is a compile of some sort. Any of the AMD64's should be just fine with anything though. If your using that up, i don't know what your doing besides media.

  99. Re:comparison Athlon64, G5 by flottman · · Score: 4, Insightful

    My time is worth enough to me that I don't want to spend it pricing every component of my computer. Am I paying more than some other comparable machine? Probably. Do I regret not saving a few bucks in exchange for having the opportunty to discover that an Abit KV8-MAX3 motherboard works fine with a Antec TruePower 480W power supply UNLESS one uses Corsair's XMS PC4200 RAM? Yeah, not so much.

    Also, and I realize that there is a large crowd for which this is laughable, but I use a Mac for the same reason I drive an automatic. I've got better things to do than telling the computers in my life how to do their job.

  100. the preview is over by pwiringa · · Score: 1

    there are dual 1.8 and 2 GHz G5s on the Apple store right now. did I miss something earlier in the topic or did these just appear in the last couple of hours? http://www.apple.com/store

    1. Re:the preview is over by NatasRevol · · Score: 1

      Yeah, you missed about the last 9 months.

      Get off the drugs!!

      --
      There are two types of people in the world: Those who crave closure
  101. Re:Only apple... by mnemonic_ · · Score: 1

    UNIX? That's BSD you mean.

    PCI-X? No, that was not made by Apple

  102. Re:comparison Athlon64, G5 by drsmithy · · Score: 1
    So, for an extra $275 you get an engineered, warrantied, professionally manufactured machine that you can easily upgrade to dual CPU in the future.

    You can't (well, you couldn't last I checked) upgrade a single CPU G5 to dual CPUs. It's a single CPU *motherboard*.

  103. Re:Go APPLE !! by drsmithy · · Score: 1
    Honestly, the life of an Apple product is a lot longer than a typical windows PC. I still use my Powermac 9500 (running 10.3.4) but I have retired my 600Mhz Pentium III.

    This is by your choice, not necessity. And IME at least, XP will run a hell of a lot better on your P3 than OS X will on your 9500.

    People might stretch out the lives of their Macs for longer, but an old PC runs newer PC OSes a lot better than an old Mac runs newer MacOSes. Not to mention the money you save buying a PC makes buying a new one more often similar in overall cost.

  104. Re:Go APPLE !! by ArbitraryConstant · · Score: 1

    Wow. You were lucky. One of the times I had mine repaired, it came back with a broken SO-DIMM. Kingston was good enough to replace it, but I was still pissed. This was an Apple authorized place, not Apple themselves, but "Apple authorized" still means something.

    To be fair, I don't have any complaints about 10.3.4. I used to be able to crash it at will with 10.3.2 and lower, but that's been fixed. I haven't seen any problems with NFS support, which was buggy up until 10.3.4, and Java seems okay now. Safari still sucks, but it's not like there aren't any other browsers out there. I was thrilled when Camino 0.8 beta came out. 0.7 was my favorite till it started getting so out of date.

    I have no standing issues at the moment. Broken NFS was the last thing.

    Apple's on my shit list for now. I had several other issues attributable to poor QC (2 power adaptors failed after weeks of use), and I don't quickly forget stuff like that. There have been a number of other large scale fuckups like the iPod-mini headphone jack thing. My impression now is that they spend too much time making things look sexy and not enough time making them robust.

    "Repair, replace, refund!" is not the motto of a company that gets my business.

    If they get their act together, I will take them off the list in a few years.

    --
    I rarely criticize things I don't care about.
  105. Re:apple is overated by Graff · · Score: 1
    If you -really- get a kernel panic once a week and aren't just trolling, there's something wrong with your girlfriend's hardware---probably bad RAM.

    Yep, absolutely. There must be something wrong with that machine. I have used Mac OS X heavily since it came out and I've had a grand total of TWO kernel panics. This includes the four PowerMac G4s, 20 iMacs, 3 eMacs, and a 15" Ti PowerBook that I administrate at work as well as my home PowerMac G5.

    TWO kernel panics. 29 Macintoshes. Four years.

    I'd say that's a pretty good record.

    I have also had some total lockups and instabilities, those were a bit more frequent but I'd estimate they come out to no more than once a month per machine. Most of those problems were quickly solved by a simple reboot. Some of these machines have uptimes of a couple of months so an occasional reboot is to be expected. I have one machine that has only been down in the past 3 years for the occasional security update.

    RAM is the number one reason for kernel panics without a doubt. Lockups and other annoying little problems are usually a bad preference file, misset file or folder privileges, or a corrupted disk. Most of these problems are fixed easily with a few simple troubleshooting steps.

    Overall Mac OS X is very stable. I hear that Windows XP is also, but I have little experience with it. Mac OS X works just fine for me and I have no need for Windows.
  106. Re:apple is overated by drsmithy · · Score: 1
    If you -really- get a kernel panic once a week and aren't just trolling, there's something wrong with your girlfriend's hardware---probably bad RAM.

    The same applies to his XP box if it's -really- crashing once a month.

  107. Big heatsink, no front fans?? by RemiT · · Score: 1

    It doesn't look that different, heatsink-wise, from my current G5 dual (size about right, but the new heatsink enclosure appears to be one instead of two boxes). The old picture is for a single processor model.

    However, looking closely, there doesn't seem to be a set of front fans in the processor air path of the new dual....

  108. Re:QUAD G5 by MarcQuadra · · Score: 1

    Well the 'G5' is used in IBM's blade servers, so this part of the market has already been filled by a somewhat more reputable vendor in the field.

    I'd like to see Apple do that stuff, but I think it might be best to leave the 'big metal' to IBM so they feel like more of a 'partner' than a part supplier.

    --
    "Sometimes, I think Trent just needs a cup of hot chocolate and a blankie." -Tori Amos on Nine Inch Nails
  109. Re:Only apple... by Moocowsia · · Score: 1

    They havent. People mod their cases all the time. Also look at all the cases which come stock with different paint jobs and such. There are many good looking pc cases out there, but as with most good looking things they are at a premium and a lot of people dont find it worth the extra money.

    --
    Moo!
  110. Re:QUAD G5 by midifarm · · Score: 1
    I thought the Blades used Intel's Xeon processor, at least that's what they advertise on TV. If they do contain G5 processors, can you run OSX on it? And if so why is that not advertised?

    Peace

  111. Re:apple is overated by PsychoSid · · Score: 2, Insightful

    OS X is the best for what I do for a living (Solaris, RedHat admin) and personally - e-mail, web , games (not many but UT2004, and C&C Generals), MAME.

    Throw in the free dev tools, and iLife, Macromedia, and Adobe product suites.

    I don't need to go anywhere else thankyou.

  112. Off-topic by The+Infamous+Grimace · · Score: 1

    Nice sig.

    (tig)

    --
    Ignorance and prejudice and fear
    Walk hand in hand
  113. Re:Go APPLE !! by Too+Much+Noise · · Score: 1

    I believe his point was about unmodified hardware. The original amount of RAM would not have been enough for XP.

    But that's not the main point anyway. He was making an unfair comparison - "the PC is cheaper, so it must be rubbish". That argument was plain wrong.

  114. Re:Go APPLE !! by ImpTech · · Score: 1

    Bah, faulty logic. First, the monitor difference alone accounts for about $100. Second, Compaqs are crap, even from that era. Third, supply and demand. There is a vastly higher supply of old Intel machines than old Apple machines. Is that because people don't get rid of their Apples? Not necessarily. More likely its just because there were a hell of a lot more PII machines sold 6 or so years ago than Macs. For THAT matter, I'm fairly confident the 333MHz iMac came out substantially later than the 350MHz PII, so we're not even necessarily talking the same lifecycle.

  115. Re:Only apple... by Graff · · Score: 1
    Excuse me? Who puts graphics cards with blinkenlights an colorful fans on them into their computers? Mac users?

    Er...yeah actually they do!

    Actually, with the grid on the front of the case and the clear interior side panel the G5 makes even modding your mac simple!
  116. Re:apple is overated by Fulcrum+of+Evil · · Score: 1

    I'd rather have a house than a Ferrari; yet I would have a Mac rather than a PC.

    I'd rather be able to buy a house for what a Ferrari costs. Around here, houses cost an Enzo at least.

    --
    "We returned the General to El Salvador, or maybe Guatemala, it's difficult to tell from 10,000 feet"
  117. Re:Go APPLE !! by The+Infamous+Grimace · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Contrast this to the PB 667 with 1GB RAM I had less than *2* years ago that was so slow running 10.3 I eventually sold it in disgust.

    Let me know next time. I'm looking to replace my circa 1998 PowerBook G3 - 300MHz, 320MB, original 8GB HDD, OS X.3.4 via XPostFacto, loaded to the hilt with Fink, dev tools, Office vX, Virtual PC 6, and more.
    There is some lag during some tasks, and when I boot into OS 9 I'm reminded how much of a performance hit OS X incurs, but it's gotten faster with each OS upgrade.

    (tig)
    --
    Ignorance and prejudice and fear
    Walk hand in hand
  118. Re:comparison Athlon64, G5 by derubergeek · · Score: 1

    Oops. My mistake. I thought it was the same scenario as the G4s...

    --
    Trust me. This is an inactive account. Regardless of what the /. bean counters might report.
  119. Re:comparison Athlon64, G5 by derubergeek · · Score: 1
    Your[sic] implying that Linux is not an OS.

    No I wasn't.

    Besides, I've been running Linux since the 0.99.x kernels. And I run Gnome on my Sun desktop at work everday. The Linux desktops available lack the power & ease of use of OS X's GUI [not to mention a polished development environment], but that wasn't even a point in my response.

    --
    Trust me. This is an inactive account. Regardless of what the /. bean counters might report.
  120. Re:Only apple... by jreilly · · Score: 2, Informative

    umm...the size of the cpu has absolutely nothing to do with the size of the board. Do you really think the ram controller, ata controller, etc, etc are all going to shrink too, along with all the wires connecting them?

    --

    Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose
  121. Re:Only apple... by SmittyTheBold · · Score: 1

    That really does extend the automobile analogy quite well.

    You don't see many tricked-out BMWs on the road, but there sure are quite a few tweaked Fords and Hondas. The typical Mac user buys a computer that looks good and works fairly well out-of-the-box, while the PC user either wants to have a machine that they can customize to death, or just wants a computer at the lowest possible cost/highest perceived value.

    --
    ± 29 dB
  122. Re:It's demand and supply law, not quality. by at_slashdot · · Score: 1

    How many old PCs are and how many old Macs? It's demand and supply law, not quality.

    --
    "It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities." -- Prof. Dumbledore
  123. Re:Go APPLE !! by luckylindy · · Score: 1

    I have a 7 year old 100 Mhz 6320 with 16g drive running 8.6 and an ibook 500 running 9.2. Both thru smc wireless barricade router and dsl. I have friends with 230 Mhz imac running OS9.2 and completely happy. For the money you spend on computers they should last 10 years. Otherwise you are getting screwed. I still have not switched over to OSX and wont until I can justify getting another laptop. I really dont consider OSX to be well adjusted to the consumer yet and I never want to dig into the innerd of os's. Total waste of my lifes time. My main reason for staying in OS8,9 is that I have had zero viruses etc. My router shows an average of 200 attacks a day. I have never owned a winpc and have no intention of ever starting. Everybody I know who owns one has had theirs taken out by viruses and worms. There should be a class action taken against MS for selling such trash.

  124. Re:Go APPLE !! by Ohreally_factor · · Score: 1

    The Sonnet Crescendo/PCI G4/700MHz with 1MB 3.5:1 L3 Cache goes for around $260. Maybe you could buy a new PC for that amount of money, but the sad fact is that it would still be a PC.

    --
    It's not offtopic, dumbass. It's orthogonal.
  125. Oh crap! by Slur · · Score: 2, Funny

    I just ordered a Dual 2GHz G5 last week!
    This always happens....

    --
    -- thinkyhead software and media
  126. Re:Only apple... by prockcore · · Score: 1

    i'll never understand why people drive jaguars. my 70's chevy impala station wagon was way faster.

    The sad thing is, you totally missed the irony of using a jaguar in your analogy. Jaguars were forced to cut back to 8 cylinders and then most recently to 6 because people wanted something that got better that 15 mpg.

    Jaguar is so not Apple.. Apple would never make significant changes to their product in the name of "economy".

  127. FUD vs HSD by gbulmash · · Score: 2, Insightful
    If Microsoft's marketing strategy is FUD (Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt), I'd say Mac's is HSD (Hope, Speculation, and Disappointment). Their new top-of-the-line product revisions are so few and far between that the perceived speed gap almost always falls in x86's favor.

    The last time Apple announced a top-end speed bump was when they announced the G5, a year ago. Since then, AMD and Intel have announced a plethora of new chips. The average (not always on schedule, but usually) is 3-4 months between top-end speed bumps for the x86/Wintel crowd. There's a constant perception that they're making the fastest faster and they keep inertia from setting in with the regular bumps. Look at how much delaying Prescott and going with the EE chip hurt Intel vs. AMD.

    For all Apple tries to claim "FAST", their speed bumps come at a snail's pace. And then, when they announce it, it's still 4-6 weeks (or more) until the first ships to consumers. On top of that, because it's so far between bumps, you're dealing with huge pent-up demand by the time they finally announce a bump. It ensures the newest hot Apple processor will be so backordered, you'll wait another 6-8 weeks for it.

    By the time it's on your desk, whatever was the hot new Pentium when you ordered your hot new Apple will already be a generation old. Plus you'll have to show a LOT of patience, waiting 12-14 weeks for your new Mac, when Dell can get you the best Pentium possible in 12-14 days.

    Forget about pricing and relative tech merits, Microsoft vs. the world, whatever. If Apple wants to compete with Wintel, IMO, Apple needs to update their top-of-the-line hardware more often, announce it closer to the ship date, and get it out the door in a reasonable time.

    1. Re:FUD vs HSD by tf23 · · Score: 1

      For all Apple tries to claim "FAST", their speed bumps come at a snail's pace. And then, when they announce it, it's still 4-6 weeks (or more) until the first ships to consumers.

      That's what I find the most annoying. I'd rather they either 1) delayed the annoucement till they could ship the damn things when I call to order or 2) get off their asses and move the schedule up so that they can ship out when announced.

  128. Frustrating... by bpatterson · · Score: 1

    Don't get me wrong, I'm totally stoked if Apple rolls out new models, faster processors, etc. but the irony of my $2500 upgrade coming with another non-scrolling mouse just pisses me off. When is Apple going to stop forcing us to purchase basic peripherals? Great design, fabulous interface..... and 3 years too late on the scrolling mouse bandwagon.

    1. Re:Frustrating... by pwiringa · · Score: 1
      once Apple arrives at the understanding that a chimp can pick up on the use of a scrollwheel and right mouse button, maybe they'll see the light.

      if it were just the scroll wheel that was the problem I might be OK but it's the whole design of the pro mouse. I've never found so many people who have trouble using their mouse before, it's just awkward to click, as well. at least they weren't round as they were with the early iMacs...

      summation: when Apple decides to put the rest of us above chimp status we'll get better input devices from them. and when their sales people figure out that $69 or $79 or whatever they want for their Apple Pro Mouse is too much, that'll be a happy day, too

  129. Re:apple is overated by Udo+Schmitz · · Score: 1
    because [Apple] wouldn't allow clones, and IBM did

    Uhm, no, IBM didn't allow clones. In fact they tried to stop them but weren't able to do so. IIRC Compaq reverse engineered the IBM PC BIOS. In that pre-DMCA era IBM lost the process that followed.

  130. Re:Go APPLE !! by HRH+King+Lerxst · · Score: 1

    Maybe the BMW acted this way because you were insulting it by using 'beemer' as it's nickname.

    'Bimmer' = BMW Automobile
    'Beemer' = BMW Motorcycle

    Just wanted to clear that up, thanks.

    --
    No one got beat up more often than the mimes of the old west!
  131. Re:Go APPLE !! by dubiousmike · · Score: 1

    I have a 7 year old Gateway (PII 300) with XP running on it and it works fine with the RAM maxed out at 3 hundred and something. I added an LCD and a new keyboard and mouse and everyone thinks I bought a kick ass computer for my wife and kid.

    7 years old. My mother has one of the IMacs that is a neon color running OS 8.X and I can not find a new printer that will hook up to it.

  132. Re:comparison Athlon64, G5 by 10Ghz · · Score: 1

    Well, the PowerMac you mention is still alot more expensive than the A64-machine is, if you compare the performance. Let's see:

    1.6Ghz G5 vs. 2GHz A64 (2.2Ghz if newer revision)
    512MB of DDR333 RAM vs. 1GB of DDR400 RAM.
    80GB HD vs. 160GB HD.
    GeForce 5200 Ultra vs. Ati 9800Pro

    So, let's see.... You have a slower CPU, half the RAM (and it's slower as well), half the HD-space and crappier vid-card, yet your computer costs more (even with a special discount!)??? And you call that a good deal? I would say that in this case, it IS "mind-blowingly more expensive".

    And I just checked the Apple store. Does a DVD-writer REALLY cost 200 bucks??? And it only burns DVD-R's! I can get multiformat (as in -R, -RW, +R, +RW) burner for under 100 bucks these days! Can you say "rip-off"?

    Now, Apple laptops are more reasonably priced and they are pretty good value for the money. But your example does not help dispel the "myth" that Apple desktops are expenvice, because they are expensive.

    --
    Lesbian Nazi Hookers Abducted by UFOs and Forced Into Weight Loss Programs - -all next week on Town Talk.
  133. Re:Only apple... by Walkiry · · Score: 1

    That's because the average PC is, for its user, merely a tool to be used in their daily work. Tell me, how shiny and flamboyant is your tin opener? Or your hammer? Hell, what about your broom?

    It's a shame most Slashdot users don't speak spanish, Ortega & Gasset made a very interesting essay about the "satisfied Spaniard rich boys" (one of his favourite phrases, calling them "señoritos") who complained loudly about how ugly and badly treated cars were in France, as opposed to how shiny they were in Spain, forgetting that people in France actually used their cars for working and not merely as a status symbol.

    --
    ---- Take the Space Quiz!
  134. Re:Go APPLE !! by weileong · · Score: 1

    Go to any center the collect used PC, and you can proably find 10 to 12 year old PC's that will boot. Stilldoing what it was designed to do.


    not always. I don't think of this as a PC-vs-Mac divide, but a "build it to last" mentality that is being replaced by "shave off every last cent, and then some" modern design seems to worship. Look around and I think you'll agree that the products being manufactured today seem almost calculated to choke right after the warranty period. I remember the PCs of old - solid construction, tough materials. The plasticky crap in comparison nowadays? No contest.

    10-12 year old PCs that still boot today? I'm not surprised. I'd be surprised 10-12 years down the road that anything made TODAY would boot, though.

  135. Re:Technically... by geoffspear · · Score: 1
    profane
    adj.

    4. Vulgar; coarse.

    It's vulgar, but "most certainly" not profane? Shall I provide a definition of "certainly" too?

    If you're going to be a pedant, at least get your definitions correct.

    --
    Don't blame me; I'm never given mod points.
  136. Re:Glanced at the link. by NatasRevol · · Score: 1

    Really??

    Did you go through ALL 13 pages??

    Doubt it. That's what a glance will get you - ignorance.

    --
    There are two types of people in the world: Those who crave closure
  137. Re:Go APPLE !! by mdwh2 · · Score: 1

    Yes, the 9500 has been upgraded. G4 700, 1.5 gigs of ram, Firewire/USB/IDE card.

    Yes, I'm still using my 1999 "450MHz K6-2 PC" by that logic.. I upgraded it with a new motherboard, AthlonXP 1700 and more RAM, and I imagine it was no more expensive than your G4/RAM/Firewire/USB/IDE upgrade, and certainly cheaper than a new computer.

  138. Re:QUAD G5 by MarcQuadra · · Score: 1
    Well IBM does make x86 blades, and that's what they're advertising, but in the same bladecenter you can install their PowerPC 970-based blades.

    http://www-132.ibm.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet /CategoryDisplay?categoryId=2586156&storeId=1&cata logId=-840&langId=-1

    And I suppose you could run Mac OS X under Mac-On-Linux on them, but Apple's OS license specifically prevents you from running Mac OS on non-apple hardware, so you couldn't use it in production. It would make a nice 'virtualized' server platform for OS X though.

    It's not advertised because the PHBs don't know what a PowerPC is, all they know is 'Intel' and 'Xeon' so that's all they say on TV. TV time is too expensive to advertise all the options.

    You can run Mac OS under MOL and even natively on several IBM machines. I recall hearing that OS 8.1 booted on IBM PREP boxes, and I've taken apart RS-6000s that I'm sure could run Mac OS under MOL.

    --
    "Sometimes, I think Trent just needs a cup of hot chocolate and a blankie." -Tori Amos on Nine Inch Nails
  139. Re:RAID. Right. by dasmegabyte · · Score: 1

    Shit no. But a RAID 0 setup will result in greatly reduced query times and thus a much faster overall database machine. Even a software RAID will result in faster read/write times...and since you can get a second hard drive for less than half the cost of that $250 graphics card the grandparent was touting, which would you suggest for "database studies?"

    --
    Hey freaks: now you're ju
  140. Re:Go APPLE !! by NatasRevol · · Score: 1

    Is that the magical missing step??

    --
    There are two types of people in the world: Those who crave closure
  141. Re:Go APPLE !! by sugar+and+acid · · Score: 1

    "Maybe the BMW acted this way because you were insulting it by using 'beemer' as it's nickname."

    Please, since when has slang had hard defined language rules. It's a beemer or a bimmer, and you understand what that means, live with it. Frankly bimmer sounds pretty stupid.

  142. Re:Only apple... by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

    I think you're a little confused; the processors called "hammer" are AMD's 64 bit chips, and are x86-64s; the PowerMac uses IBM's 64 bit chips, which are PPCs.

    I think you're more than a little confused. Please reread the following line from my post:

    Arguably they reached that point with the dual G4, and equally arguably with the existence of some of the nice shiny hammer-core processors available now they don't have it at this moment, either, but this is my personal perception :P

    I didn't say "with their use of", I said "with the existence of". In other words, now that we have high clock rate Hammer processors with dual channel memory controllers, Apple may not have technical superiority. It will be interesting to see what happens with the new G5 which we've seen the rumors of recently.

    --
    "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  143. Re:Only apple... by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

    I can't believe you call the G5 case "functional". You can't put more than 3 hard drives in there, or add even a single externally accessible drive. What the hell! As if it weren't big enough already..

    The G5 has 800Mbps Firewire which is a bus capable of transferring a peak 100MB/sec. I'd guess it has at least two connectors. Your average 7200 RPM hard drive can only spit out a sustained bandwidth of about 20MB/sec. You should be able to put at least three drives on one bus and get more than sufficient throughput. In addition, it appears that the system has three 64 bit PCI slots, any of which could be used to add further expansion, like Ultra320 SCSI (or some slower flavor) or fiberchannel.

    In other words, it's not necessary to expand the system internally. Sure it costs more to add external drives, but if you're buying a mac, you've already made a statement that cost is not a concern.

    --
    "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  144. Re:FUD vs HSD- The short answer is... by Enrique1218 · · Score: 1
    your right. It would be nice if apple would churn out faster systems more frequentlyThough. the long answer is that Apple is highly glorified OEM. This means that if IBM or Motorola has trouble producing faster processors or keeping production up, then it means Apple can't produce faster macs. Basically, Apple is at the mercy of forces it can't influence.However, the macintosh will perform well thoughout its lifetime with little maintenance. In contrast, the Wintel PC will slow to a crawl if expense and time are not put into maintenance (defragging, getting a virus scan, cleaning the hard disk, etc.). Maybe that knowledge will bring a little comfort to our long wait.

    --
    You don't have to be smart to use a Mac, you just have to be smart enough to buy one
  145. Re:Go APPLE !! by HRH+King+Lerxst · · Score: 1

    By his comment I understand him to mean he had a BMW motorcycle, retrofitted with a 320i motor with bad valve guides...

    --
    No one got beat up more often than the mimes of the old west!
  146. Re:Only apple... by sugar+and+acid · · Score: 1

    That and the old jag 12 cylinders were notoriously unreliable and really needed a good redesign. 8 cylinders increases reliability simply by having fewer moving parts, and is the standard for high power luxury sedans anyway so it was a little bit of follow the herd as well.

  147. Re:Go APPLE !! by shotfeel · · Score: 1

    But, just out of curiosity, is it running Win XP?

  148. Re:Only apple... by drinkypoo · · Score: 1
    BSD is UNIX. It's BSD UNIX, to be specific. Apple didn't invent BSD but they did make it usable by slapping Aqua on the front of it.

    They didn't invent PCI-X or PCI-Express or whatever but that's irrelevant. If they're even using one or the other now (in the G5 pictures it looked more like 64 bit PCI) then they're the first people to do so in a big way, or more to the point to standardize on it.

    --
    "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  149. Re:Go APPLE !! by drsmithy · · Score: 1
    I believe his point was about unmodified hardware. The original amount of RAM would not have been enough for XP.

    Well, unmodified the situation is even worse. Compared to XP, OS X requires much more RAM *and* a decent video card to work well.

  150. Re:Go APPLE !! by dubiousmike · · Score: 1

    you wont bother to read this, spineless greaseball, but you can't upgrade the candy imacs to osx

    if you are going to be a real zealot, then know what you are talking about

  151. Re:Go APPLE !! by mdwh2 · · Score: 1

    No, I'm on Windows 2000 - this is entirely through choice (I am used to it, and I don't see any advantage to upgrade). I don't think it affects my point, since (a) my machine is capable of running XP, and (b) if anything, the fact that I am happy running an older version of the operating system works in favour of the argument that older PCs are still useable.

  152. Re:comparison Athlon64, G5 by wembley · · Score: 1

    All the Mac users I know (me included) drive stick.

    --

    Share and Enjoy!

  153. Re:Go APPLE !! by mdwh2 · · Score: 1

    And even if that money doesn't stretch to a whole new PC, you can certainly get a replacement motherboard with P4/Athlon for that price. And the good fact is that it would still be a PC.

  154. Re:Go APPLE !! by RedBear · · Score: 1

    Contrast this to the PB 667 with 1GB RAM I had less than *2* years ago that was so slow running 10.3 I eventually sold it in disgust.

    I think something went wrong with your install of Panther. Seriously. I'm running Panther (10.3.3) on a dual-proc 867MHz with 768MB RAM and a 350MHz slot-loading iMac with 320MHz RAM and a couple of G3 iBooks at 700MHz with 128MB and 256MB of RAM, respectively. Most of the time I can't tell any difference besides the one with 128MB being a little slower. They're both snappy and very usable. Before you threw that machine away you probably should have tried a few more things beyond repairing permissions, like forcing a system-wide prebinding update, clearing out some caches with a tool like OnyX, and if that didn't work an Archive & Reinstall of the OS (which is a lot simpler than I ever thought it would be). Granted I only have a year of experience now with 11 old and new Macs, but by now I can tell you with some certainty that Panther should have been perfectly good on that machine. I'm sure someone else is very happy now with their new PowerBook with 1GB RAM.

    I was a Mac hater until last year when I experienced OS X Jaguar. Since then I've learned a lot and found that in general Macs have good hardware (there are exceptions, but not as many as on the PC side in my experience) and OS X is an outstanding OS that just keeps improving, getting faster and more stable. And the best part is that just by knowing a small set of rules you can in most cases keep a Mac running smoothly forever just by performing a few routine maintenance tasks, and if something does go horribly wrong it can be fixed much more easily than for instance a Windows computer. There simply is no comparison. I can still get into the guts of my Linux laptop at home more easily than I can on OS X, but the hardware quality and ease of use of OS X more than make up the difference. As soon as I can afford a Mac laptop I won't be paying much attention to Linux for a while.

  155. Re:Still only 4 RAM slots? by stephentyrone · · Score: 1

    that is some of the worst logic I've ever read. Tiger might not be 64 bit. The new mobos might have only 4 slots. Far as I can tell, these two events are damn near uncorollated.

  156. Re:Go APPLE !! by Blastrogath · · Score: 1

    Exactly my reasoning. Also: 7 I can be more sure the manufacturer doesn't put in un-removeable backdoors if I'm the manufacturer

    --
    "The price good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men." -Plato
  157. Re:Go APPLE !! by drsmithy · · Score: 1
    I think something went wrong with your install of Panther. Seriously. I'm running Panther (10.3.3) on a dual-proc 867MHz with 768MB RAM and a 350MHz slot-loading iMac with 320MHz RAM and a couple of G3 iBooks at 700MHz with 128MB and 256MB of RAM, respectively. Most of the time I can't tell any difference besides the one with 128MB being a little slower. They're both snappy and very usable. Before you threw that machine away you probably should have tried a few more things beyond repairing permissions, like forcing a system-wide prebinding update, clearing out some caches with a tool like OnyX, and if that didn't work an Archive & Reinstall of the OS (which is a lot simpler than I ever thought it would be). Granted I only have a year of experience now with 11 old and new Macs, but by now I can tell you with some certainty that Panther should have been perfectly good on that machine. I'm sure someone else is very happy now with their new PowerBook with 1GB RAM.

    This might have been a possibility, except not only was the OS reinstalled more than once, I've seen the exact same behaviour on a whole range of Macs, from iMacs to dual CPU G4s.

    After having this discussion numerous times, I have come to the conclusion that the average Mac user and I have vastly different ideas of what constitutes "responsive". IME, anything short of a 1Ghz+ G4 is required to get OS X even *close* to usable.

    I didn't throw the machine, I sold it (and lost a lot of money because it was just after the first big price drop that the G4 PBs had).

    I was a Mac hater until last year when I experienced OS X Jaguar.

    I've liked and used OS X since the public beta. It's very nice to use, just frustratingly slow.

  158. Re:Go APPLE !! by RedBear · · Score: 1

    That's totally bizarre. I sympathize with you. But I also have experience with a whole range of Macs, from 350MHz to my dual G4 867 (which is I think the slowest dual CPU G4). The only slowdowns I've seen came from the one iBook that only has 128MB of memory. Its identical twin with 256MB is definitely more responsive.

    I can't imagine where your expectations for responsiveness come from if Panther doesn't meet them. My recent experience with XP on brand spanking new computers showed me it isn't any more responsive than OS X, and usually less. But I did boot up BeOS Max on an older PC the other day and was depressed for hours afterward after being reminded of how responsive it was compared to anything else. It seems to react before you can finish telling it what to do. You wouldn't happen to be a fellow BeOS refugee, would you? ;)

    Personally I'm still looking forward to Linux improving enough on the desktop to rival OS X, but I don't see that coming for another couple of years. Otherwise even if OS X was slow for me I would still prefer it over the biggest security hole known to man (XP). The one caveat is the Mac is still a mysterious beast in some ways, and I'd prefer to know what's going on under the hood.

    I'm curious now as to what does meet your expectations for responsiveness. Surely not XP.

  159. Re:Go APPLE !! by Scudsucker · · Score: 1

    I started having the usual logic board problems with my 900 G3 iBook: flaky video, then no video. So I called up Apple and they Airborned me a box. I sent if off on a Tuesday, and get it back on Friday. I'm thinking, "hot damn, Apple is awesome, they have just made an evangelist out of me" as I open the package. Problem was, they sent me the wrong iBook. I live in North Dakota, and they sent me a school's laptop from Main. And it wasn't an upgrade, either; I had the maxed out 12" model, whereas they had the bare-bones configuration, except for the addition of an Airport card. I called Apple, and I called the school in Main (their number was engraved on the bottom), and I had mine back on Monday.