Brave G3-based PowerBook User in a New Intel-based/v10.5 World
| by Joe Leo, Columnist |
continued... from: previous page
We asked Kanhai, as a follow-up to the original interview (so that we could publish and make this story up-to-date), whether Leopard's release will affect his decision to upgrade sooner more than later.
"I am not an early adopter. I allow the early adopters to work out the wrinkles a new OS has when first released. However, both Panther and Tiger are excellent, very powerful and stable operating systems. It was not really that long ago when the Mac world was 'ga-ga' about Tiger."
April 29, 2005, to be exact. And roughly two years later?
"It is now an even better, even more stable 'tiger.' I am still learning about it. And it does everything I need to do. Meanwhile I will learn more about Leopard and will consider adopting it in about a year," he says.
Only thing is, Leopard isn't officially supported on G3 machines. That means he will have to upgrade to a newer machine. Not necessarily an Intel-based one, but at least an 867MHz-equipped G4 machine. Something his family members own.
"One of my daughters has a Pismo, like my wife's, except she bought hers new, about the time I bought mine. Another has a 14-inch iBook, as does one of my sons-in-law. A third daughter has a 12-inch G4 PowerBook and a G3 'dual USB' iBook, and my eldest grandson just bought a used 15-inch G4 1.67GHz PowerBook."
To which he says he helps them all maintain, and offers support on them too.
But the question here is, will he move to a newer machine like that which he offers his family members tech support for, and get rid of the old? Kanhai tells us that he will have to upgrade eventually. Will he ever give them up? He highly doubts it. He also says his Pismo is "almost perfect" and switches the interview around, asking, "what can anyone do to make it better?"
He admits that a G3-based machine in today's world--like his Pismo--aren't exactly feasible in order to run modern day (funny, since it was modern when it came out just a few years ago) applications and meeting consumer needs. But somewhere along the line?
"The G4s and PowerMacs are jazzier, and have faster processors, but somewhere along the way, something of the art of the Mac, was lost or discarded," comments Kanhai.
"I think when Apple made the Pismo they reached a high point in computer design and technology that they have found it hard to exceed. With the addition of Firewire, the Pismo rose above the earlier G3 PowerBook computers to become a modern Mac."
If Apple had a hit on their hands with the Pismo (and they did... try looking for one on eBay and see what people are paying for these old machines), then what about the idea of making the Pismo today, but with modern specs and better hardware?
"A faster processor and some of the other enhancements of newer portables would make the Pismo an unbeatable value. [However], it may well be that a modern Pismo would not be feasible."
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