PPC iBook now or later?

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syldorian

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I'm going to be going back to school (probably in the fall), and I'll need a laptop. I've pretty much decided on an iBook since I've fallen in love with the Mini I use at work. :D

I'm very much interested in just getting a G4 since I don't need anything fancy and I'm a bit wary of any bugs that may crop up with such a huge hardware change when the Intels come out.

My question is addressed to those of you who have seen Apple change hardware more than I have. Should I wait until the Intel iBooks come out (assuming they do in the near future) in the hopes that the PPC iBook prices will plummet? I'm kind of scared that the PPC ones will become instantly unavailable when the Intels come out. I just don't know. And I don't know if the price will drop enough to be worth the hassle.

So should I just go ahead and grab one, or wait for a while?

Thanks very much for your replies. And I apologize if I've posted this in the wrong forum.
 
my advice would be to at least wait until the end of January. Macworld Expo is on in mid-jan and there has been a lot of speculation that Apple will be releasing new hardware, such as new minis, new ipod shuffles, and perhaps new iBooks (though I've mainly heard about minis, ipods and software, not so much ibooks). Other people think there won't be any Intel macs at the expo tho...so who knows!

In any event, best to wait. If they don't release them at macworld, it won't be for at least a couple months after that, or later. You bring up a good point about not being able to get PPC iBooks if you wait until MacIntels arrive, always a risk with apple. hopefully someone else can offer some advice on the likelyhood of that.

I bought my iBook G3 second hand for $1,300. a week after I bought it the G4s came out and they were selling G3s new for less than I paid second hand. ugh!
 
It also depends on what applications your going to be using as well. The Intel-iBook might be slower than the PowerPC one at first because of Rosetta (The emulation software translating PowerPC to x86) and Emulation is not 100% and Apple & Intel being 6 Months ahead of Schedule, so many apps aren't ported yet.

But if Speed isn't important to you, then wait.
 
I think though syldorian is wanting to get a PPC no matter what, but wants to know if it is a good idea to wait for the Intels to come so that he can get a PPC iBook at a lower price.

Question is, will you still be able to buy PPC iBooks from Apple when Intels are out?
 
My opinion is, when your are ready to purchase your iBook, get what ever is available at the time. There is still going to be software and support for PPC products for the life of your purchase. I purchased my PB after the intel announcement, and expect to use this for a few more years::ha::
 
Thank The Cheese said:
I think though syldorian is wanting to get a PPC no matter what, but wants to know if it is a good idea to wait for the Intels to come so that he can get a PPC iBook at a lower price.

Question is, will you still be able to buy PPC iBooks from Apple when Intels are out?
Click to expand...

If you can't get them from Apple directly, I think other stores would still sell their surplus stock.
 
Thanks very much for all your replies. Thank the Cheese pretty much nailed it....I'm pretty much set on a PPC, so I'm just worried that those will all be gone as soon as the Intels are released.

Someone else mentioned just going ahead and getting one now, since it'll be supported for the life of the product. I'm thinking that's probably what I'll do. It's not like iBooks are exactly insanely expensive anyway. :D

Again, thanks for everyone's advice.
 
Personally, with the next expo so close, I don't see how anybody would buy anything right now (especially a laptop). If the expo comes and you don't like what you see, you'll be able to find a G4 laptop somewhere. And if the expo delivers something really worthwhile, that's a good thing. It seems like you only stand to lose by buying right now.

I've got an almost two year old iBook 800 mhz. Under Tiger I'd say it's barely tolerable. I use it pretty much only for surfing, word processing and that's about it. If someone puts a gun to my head, I'll launch Photoshop or Final Cut, but really it's just asking too much of the poor thing. Games? Yeah right. Admittedly, I'm pretty demanding of my computers. Other iBook users are probably just fine with them. If I were a student, it would be a great unit.
 
I don't think that converting software to the intel platform will be that difficult. It all depends on Apple, how soon will they have their tools (compilers) available for the platform. Applications are built to run under OS X and are more or less independent of the under lying hardware. Only when you write e.g. device drivers then you have to take a look at the hardware. So if Apple can supply the hardware (so they can test) and software tools to developers, it shouldn't take that long. This isn't the first OS which has to support more than one processor. Windows NT, Linux...
 
Adobe's president was on record as saying that the port (for Adobe's software) will take quite a while. He hinted that they would need every bit of the nearly two years to convert. Prepare to run Adobe apps under Rosetta until at least 2007. Course, don't ask me to dig up where I saw that. :) I also have no idea how they code for both platforms currently.

However, if history holds consistent, Adobe was fairly good about Carbonizing (if that's even accurate) their apps for OS X. Certainly relative to many other developers and a big part, IMO, of why nobody gives a crap about Quark anymore.
 
I heard rumors of CS3 floating around...probably finalizing the merger of Adobe & Macromedia, those are probably going to be Universal Binaries.

I hope to god Adobe removes GoLive! & Fireworks, Dreamweaver is the best web design tool IMO
 
Going a bit off topic (as everyone is):

I imagine Apple will have just about all their apps ready to go right off the bat, with the probable exception of the ever-neglected AppleWorks, which should run fine through emulation anyway. Third-party apps are another matter entirely, though.

If history is any indication, it will take the better part of a year, at least, before the full range of "big name" apps are ported. Adobe took a relatively long time to get Photoshop on OS X, despite it being "trivial" to tweak Classic apps for Carbon/OS X compatibility (and despite the fact that Adobe themselves sang about how easy it would be to port it at the MacWorld Expo where Steve Jobs first unveiled OS X; they even had a working version of Photoshop which they demoed on stage). And don't get me started on Quark...

And, of course, most third-party apps I use are not from big-name companies. I'm especially concerned about QuickTime codecs and system add-ons. I regularly use some programs that haven't been updated since 10.1.

The idea that all worthwhile apps will be quickly ported is just absurd. Heck, I'm STILL waiting for a decent replacement for Color It that can run on OS X! (The first person to say "Gimp" gets a coveted spot on my $#!^list ;) )

Personally, I doubt I'll hop onboard the Intel bandwagon until at least 2007. And even then I'll probably keep PPC systems hooked up for regular use. But of course it depends on what you do. I also might feel a little differently if I were in the market for a laptop, seeing as the best rumors paint Apple's Yonah-based iBooks in a very attractive light.

Edit: One more note: There's not all that much motivation for companies to port their pro apps quickly, since it will take longer for the high-end Apple systems to move to Intel. I doubt iBook users comprise a large percentage of Adobe's sales, for example.


NOW, getting back on topic.....

I've never had problems buying Apple products shortly after their discontinuation. You probably won't be able to get them from Apple (at least not for long), but you could probably get them somewhere. However, you do run the risk of getting bottom-of-the-barrel models that were returned or something. That happened to my brother when he bought his PowerCenter in '97 after all the Mac clones were killed.
 
mindbend said:
Prepare to run Adobe apps under Rosetta until at least 2007.
Click to expand...

2007! yikes! Steve made it sound so easy to convert a app to be x86 comptaible: just a drop-down box and an OK button (not a direct quote, but that's what was implied).

:confused:
 
I'd be really surprised if CS3 were around already given how fresh CS2 is. I'd say at LEAST another six months before Adobe crams in some questionable "features" into their bloatware. Sorry, did that sound sarcastic? I live and die with Adobe, so I love their apps overall, I just think the last couple of versions have been mostly bloat. Very little bang for the buck. Older versions ran much faster.

Yes, Dreamweaver is preferred over GoLive (by my company anyway). The only thing I preferred about GoLive was how integrated it was into the suite. Live Objects are GREAT! Hopefully DW will evolve into that integration.
 
I'll have (but not yet) two used G4 667's - ready to sell! Not that they aren't fast enough, or powerfull enough for what I do with them... because they are... but it's almost time to upgrade. Rumour has it the new PowerBooks are only 2.2kg! (about 4.5 lbs)

I can run all the Adobe CS Pro, Macromedia FreeHand MX, Dreamweaver MX, AppleWorks 6, OpenOffice, Virtural PC 6, and don't think I have had a system crash in over a year... I love my PowerBooks...
 
Thank The Cheese said:
2007! yikes! Steve made it sound so easy to convert a app to be x86 comptaible: just a drop-down box and an OK button (not a direct quote, but that's what was implied).

:confused:
Click to expand...
That was for Cocoa apps made with Xcode (and even then it's an bit of an over-simplification). Photoshop is Carbon, possibly not even made with Xcode. It also uses a lot of processor-specific optimizations. Hopefully Adobe will be able to reuse much of the Intel-specific code they use in their Windows products. I really can't say. In any case, I'm sure glad I'm not on the team porting Photoshop....

Edit: Wow, three people posting in the same minute! :)
 
mindbend said:
Adobe crams in some questionable "features" into their bloatware. Sorry, did that sound sarcastic? I live and die with Adobe, so I love their apps overall,
Click to expand...

If you're that thght with Adobe - what the hell were they thinking with Illustrator in CS2? Give me a break - I have 15 years of files that when opened in CS2 - I have to re-layout all of the text! It's a tough one to tell clients that the "re-print" on a project will cost them $500 because we had to re-set all of their text!

What a bunch of crap that one is...

If you don't know what I'm talking about, you haven't been using Illustrator long enough - and now Adobe owns Freehand - I can only imagine where that's going - perhaps we (loyal Freehand users) could pool some cash and make Adobe an offer before they trash it from competing with Illustrator...
 
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