Dan Gillmor: One More Reason to Wait for My Next Mac

October 27 2005

Dan Gillmor (via Peter O'Kelly) captures a thought similar to my own:

I predict sales of the company's computers, especially laptops, are going to plummet in coming months. I know I'm going to wait for an Intel-based machine. Apple's made it clear that the current line is going absolutely nowhere.
I really want to get my daughter a Mac, specifically a Mac Mini.  I've talked about this before.  But I can't shake the feeling that buying it now means an obsolete investment.  Sure, the developmental / learning games she could play today are already available, but how quickly will they disappear once Intel-based units start shipping?  Feels like a risk.  I just don't know what to do, but letting her use my IBM Thinkpad to play "Dora the Explorer" is just not an option.

Ed Brill | Rose Hall/Montego Bay, Jamaica Category:  Machead  Add/View Comments [20]

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  1. 1  Bruce Elgort http://www.bruceelgort.com | 10/27/2005 11:01:12 PM

    My take on buying any technology (other than Notes of course) is that it will be obsolete the minute you take it home. Go out and get her a mac mini and enjoy TODAY the benefits of using Mac OS X. Granted the Intel macs will be nice but remember, they will be V1.0 hardware and I don't know if you want to be Apple's beta testers. Life is too short - go buy your daughter a Mac Mini this weekend :-).

  1. 2  tonyo  | 10/27/2005 11:23:42 PM

    get a mac. My wife has a G5 ( that I bought her for christmas)OS X is sleek, like a new BMW

  1. 3  Don Harbison  | 10/28/2005 12:09:50 AM

    Ed, c'mon, stop agonizing! By the time you've decided what to do, your daughter will be in grad school a North Western! What's Mac Mini in that equation?

  1. 4  Stig Sjöberg  | 10/28/2005 3:21:30 AM

    Just buy one!!

    I have wanted to buy a mac for a while and was jsut going to this summer when the Intel announcement was made.

    I waited a while but then i just said tomyself what Bruce said above and bought a iBook. The only regret I now have is that i should have done it years ago.

  1. 5  Arnd Layer  | 10/28/2005 5:42:02 AM

    The time, Apple has released the first Intel-based Mac, I might have migrated to Linux OS anyway because of the costly OS update necessara by then. The mini is a nice machine that hardly doesn't make any noise and I use it in the living room together with the LCD TV and the stereo.

    Take a Look at Ubuntu / Kubuntu Linux, if you need a stable OS in the future.

  1. 6  Ben Poole http://www.benpoole.com | 10/28/2005 6:37:17 AM

    Just buy it; the launch of the Intel-based Macs won't render your investment obsolete, nor will software "disappear" as you imply in your post. PowerPC-only software will still work on the Intel chipset thanks to Rosetta etc., and most new software will be in "universal binary" format which will work on both platforms. Remember, Apple have done the migration thing before -- from the 68x0 Motorola chipset to PowerPC -- and the "fat binary" they used then worked very well (and lasted a long time).

  1. 7  Ed Brill www.edbrill.com | 10/28/2005 6:44:56 AM

    Alright, alright, alright -- I'm going to do it.

    Todd Brackett, are you still reading?

  1. 8  Mike Schubert http://www.mikeschubert.com | 10/28/2005 7:42:35 AM

    "but letting her use my IBM Thinkpad to play "Dora the Explorer" is just not an option"

    Afraid of her beating your high score?

  1. 9  Chris Reckling www.lotus.com | 10/28/2005 8:08:48 AM

    My opinion - unless you already have a monitor, keyboard, and mouse, just buy an iMac G5 (17"). It has everythng already configured to go out of the box - cd/dvd burner, wireless, 512M, iLife, etc. $1221 with the IBM discount (don't forget). Hey, maybe I'll get another one!

    And, how often do you buy a new machine? You'll be using this one for the next 3 years at least.

    Chris

  1. 10  Bob Klass  | 10/28/2005 8:10:53 AM

    Just get her a computer - any computer, and quit waiting. You kid is getting older.

  1. 11  David Vasta david.davidandkelly.com | 10/28/2005 8:27:04 AM

    The new Macs with Intel are not really going to be out and about until this time next year. Go a get one Ed, you know Apple is not going to leave you holding your marbles, they are going to have to support them well into the next three of four years and most of the apps will work on Power until then too. Heck you can still buy apps and get stuff for MacOS9 and it's almost been 5 years since the first copy of X dropped so you knwo Apple is going to stand behind X on Power.

    I agree with 9 the iMac is such a better deal.

    -David

  1. 12  Volker Weber http://vowe.net | 10/28/2005 9:44:04 AM

    iMac or iBook, not Mac mini. The iMac will be more fun for the kid. When she spills a drink you only need to get new keyboard. And Photo Booth will be an instant hit: { Link }

  1. 13  Ed Maloney  | 10/28/2005 9:53:59 AM

    Go with the Mini - just don't load the Notes client on it and you'll be very happy ;-)

  1. 14  Simon Barratt http://apps.fmc.com/blog.nsf | 10/28/2005 10:06:03 AM

    I had the same dilemma for a while Ed. Then decided, that it doesn't matter, due to the speed that products become obsolete anyway. Just go for it!

    Just got my shipping confirmation from Apple yesterday. My iMac 20" is currently sitting in FedEx's facility in Shanghai!!!

    fingers drumming impatiently!

  1. 15  Alan Bell http://www.dominux.co.uk | 10/28/2005 10:06:58 AM

    Mac mini is about $499, a base model Thinkpad is about $700 and you get screen keyboard and 3 hour uninteruptable power supply. The Mac is cute, but once you plug a screen keyboard and mouse in the cute factor goes a bit. Of course step one with the Thinkpad is to install Linux and claim a refund on the legacy operating system that comes pre-installed.

  1. 16  Bill Geimer  | 10/28/2005 10:48:09 AM

    And when you get her the Nano to go with it, be sure to get here a package of Nanotubes with it. My son loves his iBook and would you believe it, he had few computer skills, but never needed a moment of help from me. He just uses it to do what he wants. Nothing like the daily drudge of patches, AV updates and "Send this report to Microsoft" questions I do most days. Yes, some of that happens on the Mac, but the kernel keeps it in the background.

  1. 17  Norm Van Bergen www.decisionlabs.com | 10/28/2005 12:29:18 PM

    I've been a Mac convert for almost 2 years now and also got my sister & her family on a Mac mini. We all love them. There is no shortage of speculation around Apple's public (and "internal") motiviations to move to Intel. The general 'jist (sp?) of them, though, seem to be that Apple has made the CPU jump before and it was well done with a preservation in existing software. Other posts in this thread have said as much, so I think you're safe buying now unless you have some specific reason to hold out for the Intel platform (faster CPUs - which is argueable).

    If only I could run Notes Admin/Designer "natively" on my Mac and I'd dump my otherwise beloved ThinkPad in a second. FYI, rumour has it that the Intel move will facilitate easier and faster Windows emulation on the Mac than you get now with Virtual PC. I'll probably get a PowerBook then.

    Several years after getting my first Mac, it's still a joy to sit down and use it. Guess I drank the Kool-Aid...

  1. 18  Ken Porter  | 10/28/2005 12:37:11 PM

    The 12" iBook is an incredible deal, but it may not be appropriate for your daughter depending upon her age. Young kids and laptops don't always mix.

    The problem I have with the Mac mini is its harware tends to be roughly equivalent to the previous version of the iBook ( i.e. CPU, Memory, Video etc ). If Dora the Explorer is the only intended use of the mini, then the $499 model may be appropriate.

    Personally I would only feel comfortable buying a fully loaded mini to help offset the older hardware inside it. But a fully loaded mini in my opinion doesn■t represent a very good deal for the money. At $700, it isn■t that much more to buy a 17■ iMac which includes the screen, keyboard, mouse, iSight camera, etc.

    The iMac G5s are wonderful machines, and the Notes client runs very well on them! :-) But they are more expensive than a mini or iBook. If you plan on using the machine as well as your daughter, then this may be a better option. If you start to use iTunes, iPhoto, and iMovie, you will get hooked and you may be disappointed with the performance of the mini.

  1. 19  Tim Rand  | 10/31/2005 4:48:57 PM

    So... Did you do it? Don't you love the platform?

  1. 20  Ed Brill www.edbrill.com | 10/31/2005 4:59:20 PM

    I have been travelling so haven't had time to put an order in yet. Once I get home, it's off to the Apple store I go.