Take That Vista!

Well, I haven't had much time to post lately, mostly due to the fact that I have been working so much and besides, outfitting with Leopard on my G4 and...my G5. Yep, found a guy that is an apple software developer who was upgrading to a brand new Mac Pro (my next machine, hopefully sometime next year) and the price was right.

Now you might ask why a G5? well, when they first came out, I was enamored. I know that the MP is a faster machine with intel processors and dual and quad cores, etc., but something about "G5" has always appealed to me. I love it but the interesting thing is, since I installed the replacement processor on my G4 (Victoria, as I called it), it just sings. The G4 is the Chevy engines of Mac as far as I am concerned. They will take all kinds of abuse (read:tinkering) and just go. My G4 runs really well right now and I know it's nothing against the new Mac Pro's and what have you, but for it's age, hey, it ain't no slouch.

I installed OS X Leopard (I read where someone said they disdained anyone calling OS X "OS EX", which I do, it has somewhat of a secret agent feel to it) and I figure he is 1) a windows user and 2) a snob or 3) a hardcore liberal or all of the above. But my trusty G4 just keeps on cranking. I also have to say, that while I really like Leopard, I find that Panther, 10.3.9, is perhaps to date, the best OS in the OSX series I have encountered. It's stable, never glitches and it's really harder to lock up than either Tiger (OS 10.4) or Leopard. Tiger seems to be a bastard child to me. I never really got into it, and it seemed that it got caught up in the Iphone release hysteria and the pre-Leopard release. But, all 3 versions are good, no doubt and Tiger does run well on both machines.

Now, to be fair, Leopard has just been released and so far I am impressed. I think that Leopard just crushes Vista. I installed on both machines and aside from a software glitch on the G5, it is solid. Looks good and what features I have worked with are really, really cool. Time machine is awesome, Ichat is going to revolutionize chat functions and networking is great. As an example, I connected my G5 to my G4 and I can actually look at the desktop on Victoria and open apps, move files, hell, it's eerie.

But there are other things that I haven't explored and only dabbled in, so I can't say I have gotten too far into it. But all in all, Leopard rocks. All my old software (other than good ole OS 9, retired by apple at this point) works and all peripherals work, printer, scanner, USB, firewire stuff, etc. I am very impressed with it and so far, I have heard the same thing from other "Mac heads". Otherwise, from my "wintel" friends, I have heard nothing but headaches and frustration.

I am sure windows is good for what you want it to be, but to me, buying windows Vista is a lot like buying a Volkswagen cos you couldn't afford a Mercedes (Apple). When you take into consideration how much more stable a mac is, how the OS is tailored to a mac and the expandability of a machine.

Most mac people don't have to buy a new computer every 2 or 3 years as the mac just grows with the changes. My G4 is what, 8 years old? and it still moves pretty fast (2 gig processor, 1.5 gbs of ram) and I have never been disappointed with it's performance. Since installing the new 7448 freescale 2 gb chip, I would almost say, it rivals the newer G5, but I have only 2gbs of ram in my G5 and it's a dual 2.0 processor. So, I imagine, once I install more memory, say another 2 or 4 gigs (8 gigs max), it will scream.

People say, oh you can't play games on mac, you can't find software or it's too expensive to buy a mac. Balderdash! I say. Sorry, a 19th century moment there! Mac's have become really affordable anymore. When you look at the prices of a new Mac now compared to a new wintel, they are competitive and mac offers so much more.

Most wintel vendors such at IBM, HP, Dell, Gateway and whatever, are really 3rd party vendors who have a license to install windows. That's where apple made a mistake, if you will, cos if they would have licensed computer manufactures to use their software, they would be as big or bigger than Microsoft.

But, old PowerPC architecture is different than x86 (windows) and now with Apple moving to the intel chip, you can now run windows (with some help and my question is, why?) on a mac. I still prefer a good old PowerPC, freescale, motorola chip. To me, buying a new mac with the intel chip is much like buying a new Mustang. They may be similiar to the old ones, but they are nothing compared to the original muscle cars. I know because I grew up building and driving those muscle cars, as did my older brother who had some of the most amazing cars in car history.

But, I am tired, I haven't had much time to do anything other than sleep and work. I am starting a long run here on Friday, 11 days with no day off, so I won't probably post much unless I run across something I absolutely have to post. So, off I go. Just gonna finish tweaking and exploring. Now, maybe I can get around to working on the new CD that I have been putting off.