It’s now going on five years old and has been great for Office, e-mail, Web surfing, watching DVDs, and other consumer applications. It doesn’t have the horsepower to handle Apple’s latest multimedia apps, and I’ve never expected it to. This little iBook may be antique but it is not obsolete. It allows me to do the work I want to do, the way I want to. Yes, I would be able to get rid of my Wintel tower if I upgraded to a MacBook Pro, but I don’t think that I would be that much more productive (and I’m sure that something else would manage to fill the void on my desk). Right now I just don’t need the extra horsepower or Leopard or anything that an Intel-based Mac provides, and so I’m willing to take the tradeoffs.

I think that is the heart of your question – tradeoffs. Not what are you missing out on, but is there something you’d like to do that your current Mac can’t? And you’ve made the answer obvious. There is some Intel-only software you’d like to use and you can’t do that on a G4. Of course, the difference between “would like to” and “need to” is an expensive one, but thinking different does often come with a price. ;-)

“Software keeps getting bigger and more bloated, why? Because software developers assume that people will go out and buy the latest hardware just to run the software. It’s a self-propegating cycle and everyone is guilty of it, Apple included.”

That is one of the many reasons why I left Microsoft for Apple. I feel Apple is also getting a little “too big”.

Consumerism is rampant everywhere we look in our society. As a consultant, I have dumbfounded many clients by telling them they didn’t need that software or such. I told them however, if they wanted to get it it was purely because they wanted it not because they needed it.

What I am also seeing more and more are people saying their old computers work just fine. It shouldn’t be understood as only hardware but software. Plenty of updated software just isn’t worth it. Some are only good for those who really use every bit of it. But how many of us use every bits and pieces of software? Probably not many.

Now for professional, that might be a different story. Overall, I agree with you. Did I come across otherwise?

Software keeps getting bigger and more bloated, why? Because software developers assume that people will go out and buy the latest hardware just to run the software. It’s a self-propegating cycle and everyone is guilty of it, Apple included.

The fact remains that a 603 still runs System 7 or OS 8 very quickly, but once you throw 9.2 on there things start to bog down and don’t even think of X. It all boils down to wasteful consumerism, if people could actually sit down and prioritize what they need a computer to do and be satisfied how it does it then these two year purchase cycles would decrease dramatically. If that were to happen software developers would be forced to trim the fat and optimize their code for specific systems once they realize people aren’t going to go buy the fastest computer out there just to run their software.

The market should respond to the consumer, not the other way around.

I am starting to hear more and more about people saying they have enough and don’t need more. A friend’s laptop was dropped. He bought a new one. He gasped when I told him he was buying another license for Windows he already owns from his other laptop. Things like that are making people think a little.

My DVD player is still good. I have old cars, out of passion mostly. I old speakers, an old stereo and have no need to upgrade anything as long as it all works. Which should scare the industry and explain why things break down more frequently at earlier stages.

Either that, or I’m part of a wave that is not the early adopters but the second wave…

I am starting to hear more and more about people saying they have enough and don’t need more. A friend’s laptop was dropped. He bought a new one. He gasped when I told him he was buying another license for Windows he already owns from his other laptop. Things like that are making people think a little.

Either that, or I’m part of a wave that is not the early adopters but the second wave…

http://www.wegenermedia.com/alum15.htm

I’ve purchased quite a few things from them and they are really good to deal with, they even offer 1 year extended warranties as an add on option. I’ve been seriously thinking about buying the 1.25GHz.. heck I might even go for the 1.5. Since I’ve been more than happy with my 500MHz G3 I feel there is more than enough room for another PowerPC upgrade before I make the switch to Intel, that fast G4 would problem suit my needs until say 2012 or so. Just imagine what kind of machines they’ll have out then, I’d probably be able to pick up a 16-core PowerBook by that time (I’m still hoping the change the name back!). Even G5s are coming down in price now so I even have room to do one more PowerPC desktop before I make that switch too.