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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.
why wouldn't apple want the previewing?
to me, it seems like good advertising... for free, and you know how companies like free adverts
Apple Insider, Mac Rumors and a bunch of other sites have been reporting this for at least a week.
There seems to be either a huge heatsink or some kind of cover over it in this image Here looks cool.
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!
--
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.
This may be the picture you are looking for...
...
New G5 Picture
nick
Electronic Music Made Using Linux http://soundcloud.com/polyp
Unfortunately, you didn't seem to get a keyboard that has caps lock or shift keys.
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.
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
Not saying it isn't fast, but why all the fuss over pictures?
... 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.
...
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'
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. --
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.
NetInfo connection failed for server 127.0.0.1/local
You forget fans of automobiles, they obviously care how their products look!
GPL Deconstructed
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
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
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.
GPL Deconstructed
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)
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.
me too.
i'll never understand why people drive jaguars. my 70's chevy impala station wagon was way faster.
K.
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.'"
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
Like many things, you can get as much out of it as you are willing to.
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.
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!
--
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
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.
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
Because the pictures show a smaller motherboard, which indicates:
.9 fab process variety, and
A) that the G5 processors used will almost certainly be of the
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.
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.
Please remove parent post.
Love,
Apple.
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?)
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.
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.
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
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.
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
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)
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
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
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.
I'd like to see some benchmarks on performance there...
... $54
... $70
... $138
...$87
... $59
... $72
... $40
Here's what you're paying for on the mac:
mobo
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
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
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
Same as you get through Apple, but they mark it up.
hard drive
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
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
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.
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.
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!
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.
"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.
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.
My G4 iBook still has numlock
But I fail to see how it is useful
4 5 53 6 6 5 5 443.
Hence the popularity of case modding.
Oh, by the way: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
- 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
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
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?
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
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 ;-)
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.
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.
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
You sure 'bout that?
(tig)
Ignorance and prejudice and fear
Walk hand in hand
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
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.
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
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
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.
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.
I've got more mod points and GMail invi
Games
Adobe Photoshop
Adobe Illustrator
Macromedia Dreamweaver
MS Office
etc....
Jesus was a compassionate social conservative who called individuals to sin no more.
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.
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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.
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.
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.
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
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
I just ordered a Dual 2GHz G5 last week!
This always happens....
-- thinkyhead software and media
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.
Start a happiness pandemic