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January 30, 2006

Falling behind my peers

I find myself drooling over the Mac product line almost on a daily basis. And why not? Their products are cool, sleek and extremely functional. In addition, my friends have been purchasing them as well and I'm just a tad jealous.

Everyone has their reasons for wanting a Mac. I have mine too. After all, as a Web developer, I have a responsability to look at a design through multiple operating systems and Web browsers to make sure that a design looks and operates the same. I want a user who visits one of my sites to have the same experience despite their OS and browser of choice.

I have access to Windows and Linux ... that's never been a problem for me. I know that the pages that I create will work for these operating systems and the browsers that can be used on them. But access to a Mac, well, that's always been a little bit out of my reach. I don't have anything to make sure that my designs look right or are as functional on a Mac.

Now, I am aware that the Safari Web browser, which is the defacto standard of Web browsers in Mac OS, is based on the Konqueror Web browser core. But there are other variables that may or may not be available in Linux and Konqueror that are or are not available on a Mac. It's these variables that make my designs on a Mac unknown to me, and it's extremely frustrating.

With that said, I'm looking very very hard at aquiring a new Mac. What will I get? Well, I've been looking at a couple:

Intel iMac
* 1GB 667 DDR2 SDRAM - 2x512
* 250GB Serial ATA drive
* ATI Radeon X1600/256MB VRAM
* SuperDrive 8x (DVD+R DL/DVD+RW/CD-RW)
* Keyboard & Mighty Mouse + Mac OS X - U.S. English
* Accessory kit
* 20-inch widescreen LCD
* 2GHz Intel Core Duo
* AirPort Extreme
* Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR
Price: $1900.00 (without tax and shipping)

Mac Mini
* 1GB DDR333 SDRAM - 1 DIMM
* 100GB Ultra ATA drive
* 4x SuperDrive (DVD±RW/CD-RW)
* Internal Bluetooth + AirPort Extreme Card
* No modem
* Mac OS X - U.S. English
* 1.42GHz PowerPC G4
Price: $900.00 (without tax and shipping)

Now, I've discussed my desire to purchase a Mac with Kyle, who already owns two Mac machines (desktop and laptop). He's telling me that I should only go for the Intel chipset Macs, as I will get more bang for my hard earned buck. This is frustrating to me, because I'm really wanting to purchase a Mac Mini, but I don't know if I can wait for the Intel version of these machines to be released. Heck, they may not even make an Intel version of the Mac Mini for all I know.

I'm so screwed.

Ultimately, the main reason why I would like to get a Mac is simple: I can run Windows and Linux on it with no problem at all using emulators. This will give me access to three operating systems and multiple browsers without having to have three computers at my desk.

Not to mention that I may finally catch up with my peers.

Update - February 5th, 2006: According to Mac OS Rumors, there could be a Mac Mini with an Intel Core Duo chip by July:

"The Mac Mini will indeed transition to Intel in July, according to reliable sources responding to our inquiries about recent rumblings on the grapevine...."

~out...

Posted by ed at January 30, 2006 03:35 PM

Comments

Ed,
20 in. iMac. I think I want to get one too. But get your own memory. Cheaper, I think.
I was thinking about a mac mini, because I want something with more horsepower than my current eMac. I can still run OSX Panther, but I would like to get Tiger and iLife'06... A 700MHz G4 struggles with some of the things I want it to do. but then again, if I'm gonna spend 2G's on a computer, why not go ahead and get the powermac... a dual core (ok, quad) 2.5... But I need to wait for the intel? ok. Hey, wait... The intels are 32-bit. I want 64. Maybe I should wait. Or I could get the iMac. Would I be settling? It is the new hotness...

And YOU'RE screwed??? Tax time only comes once a year, my friend...

As for the wireless, I used a ubuntu 5.10 live cd, which recognized a linksys pci card, no problem. Click here, click there... online. Sweet. I think Linux users just want the hardware support to be right, which is why it takes a little longer to support our favorite devices. One thing about linux that I have found is that it just works. No BS. If that means I have to wait a little longer, then so be it. I have Suse10 on my server now, and I don't have ubuntu installed on any (active) machines, but I do like them both. Good to hear that wireless is no longer a problem.

Maybe Kyle will sell me his powermac when the intel versions hit the stand. Hey... my idea first.

Posted by: Troy Overton [TypeKey Profile Page] at January 31, 2006 09:52 AM

Tax time has never been friendly for me. I always end up paying...

I've already called first dibs on anything Kyle gets rid of. I've known him longer than anyone else. ;)

Posted by: eengelking [TypeKey Profile Page] at January 31, 2006 04:34 PM

OK, I'll ro-sham-bo ya for it. :)

Posted by: Troy Overton [TypeKey Profile Page] at February 1, 2006 04:37 PM

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