Slab & G5...thanx NeXT for taking over Apple
on
10 Years of OpenStep
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· Score: 1
IlovemyNeXT. And praise Steve and the NeXT crew for taking over Apple and giving me the latest NEXTSTEP/OpenStep (Mac OS X) on blazing hardware...namely, my dual G5 2.5.
I have been using dual screen since the days of my B&W G3 400 Macintosh back in '99. The my dual G4 800 sported dual CRTs. Then I replaced those with dual 20" Cinema displays. Then it was time to replace the G4, with a dual 2.5GHz G5, using the same LCD's.
So it's been 6 years now with dual screens at home, and I could never go back. I even took one of my spare CRT's from home in to the office to give my WinXP dev workstation two screens (dual 19" CRT's). You really can never go back...
Indeed - looking at your specs, a second optical drive, which I lack, may well be nice - I haven't copied a CD or DVD in a couple years though so I don't have the pain of that process fresh in my mind to cause me to lust for one.
It's funny - you miss the Apple slider game and I miss that Blue Screen of Death game. I've not been able to find anything close to a port of that to Mac OS X. Seems it takes alot to get that running under *NIX....
The day the G5 arrived at my home I installed 2GB of Crucial PC3200 RAM (four 512MB DIMMs), bringing the total system RAM up to 2.5GB. I also installed a 74GB WD Raptor 10,000 RPM SATA HD, delegating the existing 250GB Maxtor for use as a "data" drive while the Ratpor takes on the boot / application storage role. I plugged my trusty external, FireWire 250GB Maxtor in to use as a backup drive.
A few weeks later I added a 3.3v PCI FireWire board with 3 ports. I've got a couple iPods, an iSight web cam, an external FireWire HD, and my DV cam to mate with the G5 from time to time. The extra ports make things a little easier.
Right now the machine has a Radeon 9600XT in the AGP 8x slot, as I'd mentioned in the original post. In the next few weeks I should be getting a GeForce 6800 Ultra which I will swap in for the Radeon. There's another upgrade.
I am trying to think what else I might wish to upgrade but will be unable, due to the difficulty you cite in upgrading Macs. I've got a 1250MHz CPU bus, and so I probably won't be wishing I could upgrade my motherboard anytime soon - but that would be a hard thing to do, granted. The two 2.5GHz, liquid-cooled CPU's are on a large daughterboard that connectst with the motherboard through dual CPU jacks. This would seem to allow 3rd parties to offer CPU upgrades down the road. They've certainly done so for the G3's and G4's in the past. I guess we'll have to wait and see. And it would be difficult to add another internal optical drive, I'll grant you. Given that this is a DVD writer capable of burning CD's, I've not go a great need for an additional unit that I can see. I suppose copying a DVD or CD would require caching to disk with just one drive, but I can probably squeeze that data somewhere amongst the G5's 575GB of on-line storage.
So I've got bluetooth, integrated modem, GHz ethernet, 5 FireWire 400 ports, 1 FireWire 800 port, 2 USB 2.0 ports, analog audio in/out, digital (optical) audio in/out, an additional headphone jack, AirPort 802.11g as an option, dual screen support via digital outputs, and 2 empty PCI-X slots. How am I held back again?
So where is DOOM 3 for OS X? My new dual G5 2.5 is just itching for something to challenge it. Of course...until Apple ships the GeForce 6800 Ultra I ordered as part of the bundle, I'm using the interrim Radeon 9600XT - not sure how well that will push DOOM 3 at high resolution....
Ever heard of Pen Computing magazine?? Even the earliest copies I've got on my shelf, dating back to 1997, have several rugged, vertical-market PDA's per issue that can withstand "the great outdoors."
Well the thing about using a disk notcher to write to the other side of disks is: on true "double sided" drives, such as those used by IBM PC's, data is written to both sides of the disk at the same time. When you notch a disk and make it a flippy disk, after flipping, the media is spinning in the opposite direction from that which was intended. Some disks employ "cleaning" arrangements for the cotton that contacts the disks that had a particular rotation direction in mind. So it was supposedly a risky thing using both sides like that. But then using "double sided" disks would not have helped the rotiation issue.
Let me clarify though - I've seen almost no data loss in 20 years on my 5.25" floppies, all of which are "flippy" disks. So...seems I made a wise choice in going down that road.
I've still got my Discwasher brand disk-notcher. And I still use it. (Moving those old.DO and.DSK disk images over from my emulator to actual Apple II floppies.)
Finding new, blank 5.25" disks today - now there's a challenge...
I have a couple boxes of Apple II games on 5.25" floppies from 1984/5. 20 years old. I think one of maybe 125 or so (and there's data on both sides of these single-sided floppy disks) has gone bad. I still use them in my Apple IIgs.
On a related note, I've known data written to some recent 1.44MB 3.5" floppies to give up the ghost after a period of 1 week or more...
Yea... it was the first link that had the "meat" of my argument. The 2nd I really wanted to post just to show some of his amusing comments on the topic of that story. But yes for ammunition, your point is valid.
I have a dual G5 2.5GHz PowerMac w/ GeForce 6800 Ultra on order. I assume this will be "up to spec..." The question is when will the Mac version be delivered?
Almost every version of Windows CE, starting with its initial release back in '96, runs on a RISC processor. Very few Windows CE devices use x86 processors - I can recall maybe one HPC Pro that is of such an architecture.
Qute a few core UI elements of Windows 95 were very clearly ripped from NeXTSTEP. And for those that don't know, as the framed, promotional poster on my wall reminds me, the first NeXT machines which featured the NeXTSTEP OS was released on October 12, 1988.
I won't even get into listing the number of innovations that the fabled Longhorn is pulling from OS X.
The move to UNIX through OS X and Mac was the upgrade from Windows.
I imagine my dual 2.5GHz liquid-cooled G5 with GeForce 6800 Ultra will do a passable job of playing DOOM III. Especially looking at how much Quake 3 benefits from dual processors.
Thought I have been throuhg many machines indeed, The Apple II has a special place in my heart. That said, while the C64 definitely had better sound than the Apple II (or 8-bit Atari), the 128K Apple IIe/c with "double high-res" graphics (DHR) surpassed the C64 in highest resolution and came fairly close when it came to game/color modes.
The C64's highest res is 320x200 while the highest Apple II DHR res is 560x129 - in black & white. DHR also allowed 140x192 in 16 colors. The C64 may have allowed all 16 colors to be displayed in its highest res mode, 320x200, but I am not certain.
The C128 graphically surpassed DHR though, offering full 640x200 res and an interlaced 640x400 on C128D's I beleive. The Apple IIgs was graphically more in the class of the Atari ST / Amiga, and surpassed the 8-bit Commodore, easily on this front, as well as on the audio front. There is no computer with 8-bit sound that has audio mode advanced than the Apple IIGS with its 32-oscillator Ensoniq DOC chip (the precursor of the GF-1 audio processor used in the famed, 16-bit Gravis UltraSound).
It is part of the elegance of the Apple solution to offer as the standard solution a combination CD/CD-RW/DVD/DVD-RW drive, the SuperDrive. There is no elegance in splitting this across two optical drives. Yes, doing so will allow you the user the absolute fastest CD writer and the seldom-used speed advantage in a disc-to-disc copy scenario, but for the VAST majority of users, there is zero benefit to two optical drives.
As for the removal of a PCI slot, how is even the rather above-average user held back by this? The G5 has on-board optical in/out, FireWire 400 & 800, USB 2.0, Serial ATA, GHz ethernet, modem, bluetooth (opt), 802.11g wireless (opt), and all AGP vidcards can drive two screens. What, exactly, does even the hardcore Mac user need in the missing 4th PCI slot? 3 PCI-X slots seems not even remotely a limitation.
There is and always has been a distinctly superior "feel" to Macintosh hardware. It is a fortunate thing that now that feel is matched by unmatched stability, functionality, and performance.
My liquid-cooled, dual 2.5GHz G5 Mac with Raden 9800XT should be here in time to smack down some goodness with DOOM 3. I imagine it will be up to the task of smoothly playing DOOM 3.
My god, yes. I was watching that video for the first time - I recall it vividly - when one of the faces started to slightly distort. I felt the icy cold of horror move down my spine - it just totally horrified me. I have often wondered why it had such an effect. So subtle, the changes were - more dramatic would have been less horrifying. Ugh, scary to think about it still.
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Apples are outselling oranges.
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So it's been 6 years now with dual screens at home, and I could never go back. I even took one of my spare CRT's from home in to the office to give my WinXP dev workstation two screens (dual 19" CRT's). You really can never go back...
blakespot
It's funny - you miss the Apple slider game and I miss that Blue Screen of Death game. I've not been able to find anything close to a port of that to Mac OS X. Seems it takes alot to get that running under *NIX....
blakespot
The day the G5 arrived at my home I installed 2GB of Crucial PC3200 RAM (four 512MB DIMMs), bringing the total system RAM up to 2.5GB. I also installed a 74GB WD Raptor 10,000 RPM SATA HD, delegating the existing 250GB Maxtor for use as a "data" drive while the Ratpor takes on the boot / application storage role. I plugged my trusty external, FireWire 250GB Maxtor in to use as a backup drive.
A few weeks later I added a 3.3v PCI FireWire board with 3 ports. I've got a couple iPods, an iSight web cam, an external FireWire HD, and my DV cam to mate with the G5 from time to time. The extra ports make things a little easier.
Right now the machine has a Radeon 9600XT in the AGP 8x slot, as I'd mentioned in the original post. In the next few weeks I should be getting a GeForce 6800 Ultra which I will swap in for the Radeon. There's another upgrade.
I am trying to think what else I might wish to upgrade but will be unable, due to the difficulty you cite in upgrading Macs. I've got a 1250MHz CPU bus, and so I probably won't be wishing I could upgrade my motherboard anytime soon - but that would be a hard thing to do, granted. The two 2.5GHz, liquid-cooled CPU's are on a large daughterboard that connectst with the motherboard through dual CPU jacks. This would seem to allow 3rd parties to offer CPU upgrades down the road. They've certainly done so for the G3's and G4's in the past. I guess we'll have to wait and see. And it would be difficult to add another internal optical drive, I'll grant you. Given that this is a DVD writer capable of burning CD's, I've not go a great need for an additional unit that I can see. I suppose copying a DVD or CD would require caching to disk with just one drive, but I can probably squeeze that data somewhere amongst the G5's 575GB of on-line storage.
So I've got bluetooth, integrated modem, GHz ethernet, 5 FireWire 400 ports, 1 FireWire 800 port, 2 USB 2.0 ports, analog audio in/out, digital (optical) audio in/out, an additional headphone jack, AirPort 802.11g as an option, dual screen support via digital outputs, and 2 empty PCI-X slots. How am I held back again?
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Nothing to see here folks, move along...
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http://www.digiserve.com/eescape/atari/misc/Last-S tarfighter.html
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Well the thing about using a disk notcher to write to the other side of disks is: on true "double sided" drives, such as those used by IBM PC's, data is written to both sides of the disk at the same time. When you notch a disk and make it a flippy disk, after flipping, the media is spinning in the opposite direction from that which was intended. Some disks employ "cleaning" arrangements for the cotton that contacts the disks that had a particular rotation direction in mind. So it was supposedly a risky thing using both sides like that. But then using "double sided" disks would not have helped the rotiation issue.
.DO and .DSK disk images over from my emulator to actual Apple II floppies.)
Let me clarify though - I've seen almost no data loss in 20 years on my 5.25" floppies, all of which are "flippy" disks. So...seems I made a wise choice in going down that road.
I've still got my Discwasher brand disk-notcher. And I still use it. (Moving those old
Finding new, blank 5.25" disks today - now there's a challenge...
blakespot
I have a couple boxes of Apple II games on 5.25" floppies from 1984/5. 20 years old. I think one of maybe 125 or so (and there's data on both sides of these single-sided floppy disks) has gone bad. I still use them in my Apple IIgs.
On a related note, I've known data written to some recent 1.44MB 3.5" floppies to give up the ghost after a period of 1 week or more...
blakespot
Yea ... it was the first link that had the "meat" of my argument. The 2nd I really wanted to post just to show some of his amusing comments on the topic of that story. But yes for ammunition, your point is valid.
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:-(
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I have a dual G5 2.5GHz PowerMac w/ GeForce 6800 Ultra on order. I assume this will be "up to spec..." The question is when will the Mac version be delivered?
blakespot
Almost every version of Windows CE, starting with its initial release back in '96, runs on a RISC processor. Very few Windows CE devices use x86 processors - I can recall maybe one HPC Pro that is of such an architecture.
blakespot
I won't even get into listing the number of innovations that the fabled Longhorn is pulling from OS X.
blakespot
I imagine my dual 2.5GHz liquid-cooled G5 with GeForce 6800 Ultra will do a passable job of playing DOOM III. Especially looking at how much Quake 3 benefits from dual processors.
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ATTEMPT NO LANDINGS THERE.
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Thought I have been throuhg many machines indeed, The Apple II has a special place in my heart. That said, while the C64 definitely had better sound than the Apple II (or 8-bit Atari), the 128K Apple IIe/c with "double high-res" graphics (DHR) surpassed the C64 in highest resolution and came fairly close when it came to game/color modes.
The C64's highest res is 320x200 while the highest Apple II DHR res is 560x129 - in black & white. DHR also allowed 140x192 in 16 colors. The C64 may have allowed all 16 colors to be displayed in its highest res mode, 320x200, but I am not certain.
The C128 graphically surpassed DHR though, offering full 640x200 res and an interlaced 640x400 on C128D's I beleive. The Apple IIgs was graphically more in the class of the Atari ST / Amiga, and surpassed the 8-bit Commodore, easily on this front, as well as on the audio front. There is no computer with 8-bit sound that has audio mode advanced than the Apple IIGS with its 32-oscillator Ensoniq DOC chip (the precursor of the GF-1 audio processor used in the famed, 16-bit Gravis UltraSound).
Ok...enough about all that.
blakespot
As for the removal of a PCI slot, how is even the rather above-average user held back by this? The G5 has on-board optical in/out, FireWire 400 & 800, USB 2.0, Serial ATA, GHz ethernet, modem, bluetooth (opt), 802.11g wireless (opt), and all AGP vidcards can drive two screens. What, exactly, does even the hardcore Mac user need in the missing 4th PCI slot? 3 PCI-X slots seems not even remotely a limitation.
There is and always has been a distinctly superior "feel" to Macintosh hardware. It is a fortunate thing that now that feel is matched by unmatched stability, functionality, and performance.
blakespot
My liquid-cooled, dual 2.5GHz G5 Mac with Raden 9800XT should be here in time to smack down some goodness with DOOM 3. I imagine it will be up to the task of smoothly playing DOOM 3.
blakespot
My god, yes. I was watching that video for the first time - I recall it vividly - when one of the faces started to slightly distort. I felt the icy cold of horror move down my spine - it just totally horrified me. I have often wondered why it had such an effect. So subtle, the changes were - more dramatic would have been less horrifying. Ugh, scary to think about it still.
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