I picked up my Powerbook G4 550 in the first part of 2001. I cranked up the RAM to 512, added an old style airport card I found on ebay (after Apple quit making them), and picked up an extra power supply after the wires frayed. The only other problem I've had with it is the screen had a loose connector. I take it apart every 6 months or so and re-seat the connector and it works fine for a while. I added a firewire external hard drive (160Gb) to suppliment the internal 18Gb. I also hooked up a firewire M-audio input box for my musical recording into GarageBand. The only reason I'd want to upgrade is that I can't burn my movies to DVD (iDVD requires 733Mhz and it only has a cd-rw) and iMovie has a hard time even exporting back to tape.
For a 5 year old machine, it runs like a dream and still runs 90% of the apps I need it to. As an added bonus, I can't remember the last time I re-booted it.
In the same time frame, I've re-built new machines for my daughter twice (probably due to just plain physical abuse and constant spyware downloading), my wife is on a PC laptop after her desktop couldn't cut it anymore (a virus that couldn't be eradicated), and I re-built my PIII 600 to be a dual P4 1Ghz that I run all non-mac stuff on it.
I could probably use a new G5 in the next year or so that will allow me to make DVDs from movies, but the P4 powerbook is still my main computer and probably will be for another year or so. I can't even imagine a 6+ year old PC running the same apps, without a virus checker.
The Dell desktop we bought at the same time as my powerbook is in the storage room in the basement as spare parts
I checked out the features of 10.2 on apple.com and it doesn't seem to be worth it for me. I just picked up my PowerBook G4 last March, and I've upgraded to 10.1.5. The new features just don't look all that enticing to me:
iChat: I don't chat, so I don't need it
Mail: This would be an improvement, but not for $129
Address Book: Don't need it
Sherlock3: I dont' even use Sherlock2 that often.
Quicktime 6: Already upgraded to that
Finder: I already have a finder that works fine
Rendezvous: I can already network no problem.
Quartz Extreme: Yeah looks cool, but so what.
Inkwell: I like this concept, but I'd probably never use it.
Power of Unix: got it with 10.1.5
Compatability: I could use this feature the most, but it's not worth my $129 right now. I can email my files to my PC just fine.
Universal Access: Don't need it
More fonts: Graphic artists care, not me
So, I think my powerbook is cool already, I don't need to spend another $129 on this. I can buy like 4 games for that. If it was a lot cheaper, yeah I'd get it. I'll wait till next year's upgrade to see what it has to offer. I'm still getting over the $2.5K I shelled out for the laptop just 6 months ago. I personally think it's too early to ask 10.1 users to pay for a 10.2 upgrade. If it was 11.0 with tons more features, sure.
Slashdot Mirror
I picked up my Powerbook G4 550 in the first part of 2001. I cranked up the RAM to 512, added an old style airport card I found on ebay (after Apple quit making them), and picked up an extra power supply after the wires frayed. The only other problem I've had with it is the screen had a loose connector. I take it apart every 6 months or so and re-seat the connector and it works fine for a while. I added a firewire external hard drive (160Gb) to suppliment the internal 18Gb. I also hooked up a firewire M-audio input box for my musical recording into GarageBand. The only reason I'd want to upgrade is that I can't burn my movies to DVD (iDVD requires 733Mhz and it only has a cd-rw) and iMovie has a hard time even exporting back to tape.
For a 5 year old machine, it runs like a dream and still runs 90% of the apps I need it to. As an added bonus, I can't remember the last time I re-booted it.
In the same time frame, I've re-built new machines for my daughter twice (probably due to just plain physical abuse and constant spyware downloading), my wife is on a PC laptop after her desktop couldn't cut it anymore (a virus that couldn't be eradicated), and I re-built my PIII 600 to be a dual P4 1Ghz that I run all non-mac stuff on it.
I could probably use a new G5 in the next year or so that will allow me to make DVDs from movies, but the P4 powerbook is still my main computer and probably will be for another year or so. I can't even imagine a 6+ year old PC running the same apps, without a virus checker.
The Dell desktop we bought at the same time as my powerbook is in the storage room in the basement as spare parts
Speaking of films, did anyone see that new movie "Breakback Mountain" starring Cowboy Kneel?
So, I think my powerbook is cool already, I don't need to spend another $129 on this. I can buy like 4 games for that. If it was a lot cheaper, yeah I'd get it. I'll wait till next year's upgrade to see what it has to offer. I'm still getting over the $2.5K I shelled out for the laptop just 6 months ago. I personally think it's too early to ask 10.1 users to pay for a 10.2 upgrade. If it was 11.0 with tons more features, sure.