Will the future software be still working for G5?

M

mauve

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I am still thinking of buying iMac G5, especially now that many people who bought them recently are selling them cheap to buy the new intel model.
Do you think that for the next 2-3 years the new software is gonna be "digestible" by G5's?
Buying the Intell iMac seems silly right now because in a few months they with come up with a prosessor which would be, like, 3 times better.
If G5 can still be fine for most programs for at least 2 years I'd rather stick with G5.
 
Well I'm sorta in the same predicament. I have a 12" PowerBook G4 and I have had it for a LONG time now, but I'm not really concerned with compadability, due to Roseta. I plan on buying a MacBook in a cupple of years. Don't worry. The intel thing is brand new. I wouldn't break the bank just yet :D

EDIT: Wow, I'm sorry, I really didn't answer your question! How cheap are you geting the old G5's for? You can't be geting an EXTREAMLY good deal, can you?

If you are geting a great deal on the G5's than take it, still a great computer and like I said above. Roseta will resolve compadability issues for a cupple of years.

If your not geting a great deal than just buy a new Intel iMac. You will be one step above the electronic curve.
 
I bought an iMac G5 in September right beore the Rev C iMac G5 was released. I'm not planning on selling my iMac G5 anytime soonnnnn since I know that this CPU still has a lot of life in it. And even after OS X isn't supported anymore (which I'm sure will be a looong while from now), that iMac will live on as a Linux/ppc machine taking full advantage of the G5 (and this is hoping that desktop Linux will have advanced much further by that time). Of course, I'm sure that by the time this iMac is considered obsolete by Apple and OS X, I'll have enough to by one of the more established Intel Macs with a lot more applications being available than now.
 
bkaron: Rosetta only runs on the Intel Macs and provides backwards compatibility with PPC apps. If you're running a G5, you have nothing to worry about because Universal Binaries can be run on both PPC and Intel machines. Apple has started porting some of its apps to Universal now (iTunes and QuickTime mainly) and these run fine on my G4 and G5 (I didn't actually notice a difference).
 
Yeah,
I am in Canada and with tax 20" imac is $2300 CAD.
I see the latest used G5's sold for 1700-1900 CAD no tax. I think that's a deal.
If they are still good for the at least 2 more years, then fine...
 
Guess that depends on what 400-600 CAD are worth to you... ;) Certainly, the iMac G5 will be a nice computer for 2-3 years: No problem. But I'd agree that now is the time to maybe wait a month longer and save some more money and then get the _new_ iMac.
 
They're still selling for the same price at the Apple Store (US). Are you sure the ones being sold are the latest revision G5 models (PCI Express based video) and not an earlier revision. If they're the latest models, then go for it. It'll serve you well for many years to come without a doubt. If they're earlier models, I'd wait a bit and see if you can't find a deal on a current one.
 
Having read the discussions on this forum I came to beleive that the 32bit Intel
is hardly better than 64bit G5, for now.
 
To answer the original question: yes. As long as developers continue to use Universal Binaries, the G5 will be just fine.
 
Shookster said:
Surely Universal Binaries are slower than using something specifically optimised for the Intel Mac?
Click to expand...
Universal binaries contain native code for the PowerPC AND x86 processers all packaged into one file, so no it's not slower.
 
Hmmm. I'ma recent "switcher" and I find that my paltry, weaksauce Mac mini (1GB self-installed RAM with 80GB HDD and Airport Extreme) suit me just fine for everything I do. I do so want a nice Apple Mac OS X "laptop", but the pricing is out of my league for now (along with shipping overseas).
So far I have yet to find ANYTHING that a regular PC or "newer" Mac can do that I can't currently do right now, or even want to do.
I plan on using this one for years, even after I eventually get one those newfangled Intel MacBooks.
After being confined to the "upgrade-or-die" virustastic mentality of the PC world, this is refreshing. And it's so quiet.
Well, does anyone else think Apple was just a little "too good" with the Macs from the last 2 years and that will have people "putting off" purchasing a newer Intel-based Mac for at least another year after their introduction to the market?
To the OP: Just buy what works best for you. Apple knows that one thing it inspires in its users is fierce loyalty and they are not going to quickly anger their loyal userbase by "Microsofting" them so soon by killing off PowerPC-based Mac support in regards to new software, hardware, and operating systems. I think they learned a lot from the big OS9-to-OSX change. Besides, it's all basically "Linux-powered" anyway, so it should be a snap to compile the same source code against both types of processor architecture.
 
You will be fine if you get an imac g5. There's a ton of PowerPC software already, and when developers get their software ready for intel, you can rest assured the software will still run great on a g5. I'm still trying to penetrate the mac software market, and it wouldn't benefit me or any developer at all, if it was intel only. I have five programs i'm working on and they are all universal. Is it possible to make an intel-only app? sure. But developers want to hit the biggest market they can get, and by making their apps PowerPC and Intel executable, it is their best bet for more sales. Developers aren't going to abandon PowerPC for a long time. If the developer wants to make an intel app, it only takes one checkbox to make it PowerPC as well. Like Steve Jobs said, Apple has a very large installed base on the PowerPC, and a growing installed base on Intel that developers are going to want to sell their software to. So if a program runs on intel, chances are really good it will run great on PowerPC too, without rosetta. Apple is going to support the PowerPC processors for a long time in the future as well. So there is really nothing to worry about. I also heard that Doom 3 is almost ready for Intel as well, so it will run on both PowerPC and Intel with no hassle.
 
I strongly disagree with those wanting the new imac. Get the new imac if you want G3 only apps. Possibly even G3 performance (which is why microsoft office runs so well)
 
iball said:
After being confined to the "upgrade-or-die" virustastic mentality of the PC world, this is refreshing. And it's so quiet.
Well, does anyone else think Apple was just a little "too good" with the Macs from the last 2 years and that will have people "putting off" purchasing a newer Intel-based Mac for at least another year after their introduction to the market?
Click to expand...
That's always the way it's been on the Mac side. Mac users generally use their computers for about twice as long as PC users, according to my own personal experience and various statistics I've heard over the years (which, granted, are terribly old at this point). The turnaround for me has always been about four years. I don't think I'll be getting an Intel Mac until 2007 or maybe even 2008. Unless of course I come into a fat bit of disposable income, in which case getting a new Mac will be pretty near the top of my to-do list. :) (But rest assured my current Mac mini will be in service for at least a few more years regardless, if only as a replacement for my father's still-going-strong Power Mac 9600 that's going on nine years old now.)

To respond to the original question:
As others have said, most apps will probably be universal for at least a few years. The only programs I foresee being Intel-only in a short time frame are games and multimedia apps that require a lot of processor-specific optimizations. I wouldn't be at all surprised to see the next version of the Divx QuickTime codec be Intel-only, for example, since they'd probably be able to reuse a lot of the optimized code they use for their Windows version.

While I would personally go for the new Intel model, I certainly think a the iMac G5 would serve you well for 2-4 years.
 
Phluxy said:
I strongly disagree with those wanting the new imac. Get the new imac if you want G3 only apps. Possibly even G3 performance (which is why microsoft office runs so well)
Click to expand...

Rosetta also emulates G4 processors and AltiVec now. This was only a problem with the (not released) developer version of OS X, apparently. Even with Rosetta emulation, you'll still get enough speed for most applications. And I don't really expect any big player _not_ to provide univeral binaries soon (3-6 months, that is). Since you probably want to keep the iMac far _longer_ than 3 months, it absolutely makes sense to buy the _faster_ machine, i.e. the one with the intel chip.
 
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