Helping 2 switchers - intel now or wait?

karavite

karavite

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Actually, the post title is not quite true. Only one of these people I am helping is a true switcher, the other wants a new Mac. Both are my parents (divorced).

Dad wants to dump Windows and go to a Mac, but I am finding it very difficult to explain to him the new Mac processors and the fact that not much (native) software is available for it yet, not even Office (right?) which he wants and needs. It seems to me that switching now (for a very needy user who will surely pepper me with phone calls) is not a good idea - intel too new, G5's on the way out. This is frustrating because after years and years he is finally seeing the light! :)

Meanwhile Mom has an old Cube running OS X. She wants a new laptop for travel, presentations (again, needs Office). 2k for the new Mac Book Pro might be a little high for her. Again, is it too soon for intel and too late for G4's and G5's?

Gosh darn it, I am excited to help anyone buy a new Mac, but these transitional times are of course great for the long term, but a little tough and can help sour a newby and/or non-geek user like both my parents. I really don't know what to tell either one - one to five years ago this would have been a peice of cake!

Any help or suggestions would be appreciated.
 
as for your mom, the vast upgrade from a 500mhz Cube to a 2ghz dual core chip will probably completely knock out the performance hit that rosetta serves. so in this way, you want longevity, the fastest computer that will last the longest, the Intel. if you want to wait for the upgraded ibooks, that would be beneficial, and you have less than 8 months to wait for that.
 
All this fuss about Rosetta is really a bunch of hooey. I played with one of the MBPs at the local apple store and it ran office just as well as my 1.5 GHz Powerbook, it was really just the same if not better. Really, it only matters for the Photoshop users out there. Furthermore, if they were willing to us a G4 based powerbook then the basically equivalent performance under rosetta will be just fine and dandy. With the added bonus that the next version will be blazing fast.

There is no reason not too get one. (Unless you run Matlab or NeoOffice, there is a JNI issue that breaks those.) OK there might be another reason, but this is not the reason you are looking for!
 
You might want to wait for the intel-"iBook" for your mom, as it will be cheaper than the Macbook pro. As for rosetta, I tried office on an intel iMac (rosetta) next to a powerpc imac. No difference. It will be faster, if anything.
 
According to several boards, only games and Photoshop (or similar) see a slow down with Rosetta. Everything else is significantly boosted by the core duo.
 
Thanks! Very good points all! Office on Rosetta vs. Cube - no contest! I'm not sure she can wait 8 months, but the Mac Book Pro may be it.

So, what about Dad? New switcher, but will only want to buy software once, so Office on Rosetta may not be a good idea. I think he should just wait - heck, he has waited 10 years +. Funny thing is whenever he would call me with some Windows question (viruses, security updates, adware, adding hardware...) I would tell him, "Buy a Mac!" and then I will help you! :)
 
The thing to keep in mind with Rosetta is RAM really. Every PPC application is run with an additional thread (Rosetta) which takes quite a bit of RAM. So if you intend to run larger Excel sheets and Word documents as well as one or the other PowerPoint presentation all at once, I'd make sure that the machine has 1024 MB RAM as the _absolute_ minimum. Since having enough RAM on a Mac is _always_ a good idea, this is a good investment, anyway. I'd go with 1.5 or 2 GB of RAM if I'd buy a machine now.

The fact that if you're buying a new Mac now with a PPC Office license (it's cheap right now, or is that half-price offer dead already?) may seem illogical, but since the software will run "okay" to say the least, it's not really that bad. Once an intel-clean Office is out, you can still decide whether you want to upgrade or not. My guess is that Microsoft will have decent upgrade pricing then...

I can just say: People who don't live on the edge, i.e. they don't run the latest 3D games, don't have to handle 3D-rendering graphics packages or high-end photoshopping (I'm not talking about webgraphics here, rather about 200-400 MB PSD-files!) tend to buy their machines with a longer time in mind. They won't upgrade to another machine in half a year or a year, they'll keep them for 3-5 years. In this case, it makes no sense to buy a G4-notebook or Mac mini or used G5 now.
 
Okay, I think I got it. If Mom can pop for the Power Book Pro, it is hers or she can wait for an intel iBook. No G4's or G5's.

Dad should get an iMac and buy Office - I may not even mention that he is not running Office "native" and he'll never know the difference!

Thanks!
 
I'd be open with him about it. You can tell him that this version runs okay and that any next versions should run even better, so he might evaluate whether the performance is okay for him or whether he really needs something faster when the next Mac version of MS Office comes out...
 
It's now or never.

Don't expect Apple hardware to become stable and have no evolution anymore. Graphic card will change, RAM will change, CPU will change... and software will change. I buy a new computer every 3-4 years and I renew paid software every 5-10 years (faster for iLife and MacOS as its price/performance is better).
 
I would like to second that about the memory needed to accomodate Rosetta. With 1 gig of ram my iMac Dual Core runs all the Office apps quite well. Your dad has nothing to lose really. The only time I notice a lag is if I have two or more Office apps open at once. But then that was true on my G4 as well.

So if you start with 1 gig+ of memory, Office will run just fine.
 
Would a MacBook Pro or Intel iBook replacement even be necessary? The G4 PowerBook was good enough for Office before the Intel machines came out, and they don't sound like the sort of people who tax their machines too much. Heck, maybe even a G3 off eBay would do the job.
 
Shookster said:
Would a MacBook Pro or Intel iBook replacement even be necessary? The G4 PowerBook was good enough for Office before the Intel machines came out, and they don't sound like the sort of people who tax their machines too much. Heck, maybe even a G3 off eBay would do the job.
Click to expand...

Yea, but this will be the loooonnnng haul for my Mom - remember, she still has her Cube and before that I think she had an LC II!!! I don't like the idea of her buying a computer that is on the way out - especially in terms of software. I put this intel change up there with the PowerPC and OS X.
 
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