Buying Mac: Now or Wait?
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- bedenken
I am not asking for a rant for or againt Apple here.
I have been asked to purchase a Mac for work. It needs to run the Adobe/Macromedia Suite for use creating websites.
Should I tell my employer to wait 6-12 months until the Intel transition settles down, or is a 15" G4 a strong computer/wise decision at this point?
I have never purchased a Mac so feedback from users is appriciated.
- Luckypp0
You have two choices.
#1 buy a PowerPC mac, (not intel) and work with software that is designed for the platform.
#2 but an intel Mac and have Rosetta emulate the software for you.
Rosetta will emulate all the Adobe and Macromedia software, but it will run slower. And Adobe has stated that Photoshop may not run Ubiversal Binary (native on intel macs) until quarter 4 of 06 or even Q1 of 07.
I would suggest getting a PowerPC mac right now.
- rasko40
you should wait until adobe has updated the CS suite to run natively, Rosetta is very slow apparently.
Probably worth waiting for a non version 1 product too.
- Dancer0
I hear that a full Intel product lineup should be available within the year. Adobe will be foolish not to bring out an updated suite as well
- bedenken0
So, perhaps the G4 is the best purchase right now, as things will be in transition for the next 6-12 months (or more) anyhow.
That way, in 18-24 months we could purchase new hardware after the transition has settled and applications are running native on the Intel platform.
- rasko40
if you need a book then yes, otherwise get some kind of g5, be it tower or imac
- Luckypp0
I hear that a full Intel product lineup should be available within the year. Adobe will be foolish not to bring out an updated suite as well
Dancer
(Jan 24 06, 05:04)Actually Dancer, the CEO of Adobe gave a rather angry interview - talking about how Jobs made it sound easier than it is to switch the code base over to Universal Binary, and Adobe can hold out - so I would expect Adobe's products to be late to the game.
- Bullitt0
You should buy a G5 dual core tower. Remember these have not switched over to intel....yet. Its obvious their using the Imacs and books as a test bed for sales and functionallity with the intel chip, which they cant take that same risk with the towers, because their too expensive and all the designers use them ( adobe ).
- jpea0
the dual dual-core g5's right now are pretty fast even if something new from intel comes out in a few months IMO. for using the MM/Adobe suite, you probably won't see much of a diff between that and an intel chipset.
- fr0st0
how much slower is it in Rosetta?
im going from a g3 ibook to the new intels....i hope it's not the same speed?!
- Bullitt0
It's meant to be like when you run Mac Classic to run older appz, total slow down of entire system.
- fr0st0
hmm...so if its slow down the whole system...isn't the new OS upgrade going to fix that? or am i still screwed for Adobe Creative suits?
wonder which one will come out first....
- bedenken0
After researching this, pretty sure I am going with the G4 Powerbook and consider upgrading in 12-24 months.
- tkmeister0
if it's company's money, buy it now. then upgrade again in a year.
- auricom0
rosetta isn't that slow. one thing you have to consider is Photoshop for Mac is optimized to run on the G5, the rest of the suite really isn't that way. my friend has an iMac and has CS2 on it, it really wasn't that bad.
i do a lot of large format design so i'm holding out, but if you're doing web or even print, you should be fine. my stuff can be 2 - 4GB's a file so nothing out there is super fast for that type of work. i'm working on one of the first 2GHz towers with 3GB's of RAM and it works great.
- jaylarson0
get the g5 dual core ( i speak pc). dual core is fahreel. you are wise to question, but that is a pretty dandy machine. i heard it can make ice too.
- determinedmoth0
I was clueless that the intel macs required new software. That's a bit crap really isn't it? Especialy when they're selling two types of macs.
- mnix210
they don't require new software on your part. they just have "emulation" software built in that still upgrades the 2005 macs to faster 2006 G5s the equivalent of basic dual G5 towers. put some extra RAM, a big HD, and 256 of video memory and these MacTels are sweet machines... When Adobe does release a "crossgrade" version of CS2 or AE 7, it will be glorious.
- determinedmoth0
So, buy a brand new mac, and upgrade it?
That's pure magic that is.