Why don’t you have Intel Inside?
The announcement of the Intel switch sent us spinning. Developers rioted. The Mac devout were stunned. Then Steve said “It’s just a chip, and you can click these check boxes to build fat binaries” and things settled down a little.
Except a few things are still lacking on the Intel side of the house. I haven’t switched yet simply because I need a tower, which we know is coming and everyone seems to think it will come by year’s end. By that time there is a better chance that the apps I use every day will be offered up fat binary, which is another reason I’ve refrained from leaping over.
What about you? Why haven’t you got Intel Inside your Mac yet?
#1 Andrew Creek says:Because there are no choices. Personally I plan on using the next computer I get for pc/mac gaming so I want to get a pretty powerful setup.
#2 Eric says:I want to put my G4 Quicksilver tower out to grass, and replace it with a Mac mini dual-core. However, I need a home Mac that can double up as a development Mac if my laptop is stolen or breaks, and I need to have mySQL and other software running the same versions as on my clients’ Macs. I’m not sure about that compatibility right now, so it looks like I’m stuck for a while. It’s also nice to wait a short while to see if anything breaks.
#3 Jason Terhorst says:Why haven’t I bought an Intel Mac yet?
One word: money.
#4 Mahalis says:Because I can’t afford it. I’d buy one in an instant if I could sell my Powerbook. I know everyone’s heard horror stories about the Macbooks, but nobody I’ve talked to who has one has had any problems at all.
#5 tornsuits says:I already bought one
#6 Emory says:I am holding out for 12-13″ notebooks. I don’t want to carry 15″ laptops.
#7 Twist says:My reason is the same as some of the others: money. I would love to have either a tower or a MacBook Pro. I do tech support for a guy who bought the IiMac though and I have to say that it looks to be a pretty good machine but as someone who has to worry about accurate colors I am still not sure that I am ready to use an LCD as my main display (I connect a CRT to my iBook). But mainly I want something that is either portable or upgradable. I would really love to see a lower-end Core Duo (maybe with a Core Quad option) powered tower. Something not quite as beefy or expensive as the PowerMac’s are but something with some upgradability and internal expansion options.
#8 Erik says:Bought a MacBook to replace iBook for Photoshop and Dreamweaver development. It’s pretty slow on the Adobe suite. I’m dying for them to come out with the Universal editions.
#9 vanni says:Lets see. In june I bought a 12″ powerbook. Then in July I bought a dual G5 tower… do the math! It will three years before i get intel’d.
#10 Mike says:Money. Once I get enough cash I’ll be getting a mini
#11 33Nick says:Same thing here, I am waiting for a tower but my question was why Apple went with Intel especially for the lame excuse that Intel has a good “road map”. BS. Switchers like me know that Intel doesn’t have a great road map and that it is confusing at best. What about AMD? AMD has a definite and better road map UNLESS Apple knows something we don’t.
As far as boot camp, yawn yawn boring. When I can run an instance of Windows 2000 when I want simultaneously, I will be interested but not dual boot. Dual boot is a pain and not very productive. PLUS, it won’t switch people over. People are lazy and will stick to XP on their Macs…
#12 Patrick says:No need. My G4 pbook suits me just fine.
On a different note..
[soapbox]
As a developer I’m kinda of fascinated by the need for speed.. Honestly two perspectives come to mind: As consumers, are we really more productive with faster hardware? As developers haven’t we become lazier in our development for cleaner and optimized code relying more and more on hardware processing?
[/soapbox]
#13 Gareth Potter says:Dosh and, er, 15″ too big. Give me 12″ and I’ll be happy.
#14 'ju:femaiz says:Awaiting the G5 upgrade (and thus saving my pennies for it!)
Patrick: that’d be fine if people didn’t want the digital lifestyle available to us now. Examples include: RAW photograph files, Video Editing, Graphic Development, more realistic Gaming (though for that I’d personally spend the money on a console) etc etc
Same reason we want more efficient cars, more relaxing houses etc. We want to have a better lifestyle.
#15 Patrick says:‘ju:femaiz: interesting points about the digital lifestyle. You’re right in that sense that everyone is leaning more towards that digital lifestyle, myself included. But my question really is this:
Is our “contentment threshold” diminishing? No offense to the poster about not switching — a valid question. But there’s some truth to that Saturday Nigh Live skit about the “inviso ipod“.
#16 carl says:I waiting on the new mac os to come out late summer or fall.
#17 Limeybloke says:I would like a proper redesign of the powerbook.
The Macbook Pro is very nice but lacks a modem (at least without paying extra so it’s not space it’s penny pinching), FW800, SPDIF I/O (and even the Mini has that), a currently useful card slot, a CTRL-Click button (all the mice now have it) and has an inferior Superdrive.
I would guess this is because they rushed it to market to take advantage of the early chip availability and had to use stock boards with no FW 800 support etc and a quick re-spec of the Alu Powerbook.
I expect new designs in 6 months and by then there’ll be more native software and maybe even Leopard.
That’ll be when I succumb.
#18 justme says:I plan to get a MacBook Pro 15″ if they resolve some of the rev a shortcomings.
1. no built-in modem.. I can’t depend on a tiny dongle for connectivity that may (WILL) get lost when idiots at TSA rummage through my bag and stare at my laptop like it’s the monolith in 2001… Arriving in an overseas hotel, discovering they offer wifi, but it’s down, and that the modem is missing would cost me allot of money not being able to communicate with clients. Built-in modem is *needed* for laptop users for the foreseeable future.
2. No DL DVD burning. I hope rev b will fix this, even if it requires the rev b to be .1″ thicker…
3. ExpressCard /54: /34 profile cards offer fewer options.. Right now, only esata cards are /54, same with FireWire 800… /34 is too narrow for use as a memory card adaptor for my Canon… Hell there are tuner cards in the /54 format.. Dumb limitation I hope will be resolved in rev b.
So, that and the fact that I never buy rev a of any computer hardware…
Also hope to get a mini rev b if they add a BTO option for better graphics… (will never buy any computer with Intel Integrated crap)
#19 howard says:I got my MacBook Pro on Friday and am loving it. Parallels works great for those rare occasions when I need Windows. Cinema4D screams on it and 1080p movie trailers are amazing. It gets real warm, but there’s hardly a need for a desktop with the power this thing has. CS2 will complete things nicely.
#20 Jan Garcia says:My 4 year old powerbook is getting pretty slow so I plan on getting an Intel version of the Powermac when it comes out. Now that Final Cut Studio is available in Universal Binary, I have nothing to wait for…I can wait for Adobe CS3, whenever that comes out.
#21 Garry says:I bought a G5 iMac last year. I don’t need a new computer.
I don’t play games, I use my mac for productive things. Maybe a year after all the software I use becomes universal, then I’ll get a new computer.
What’s amusing to me is everyone is basing their opinions on Boot camp with version ONE of PREVIEW software. No one knows what boot camp will look like once leopard is demoed in August.
#22 Curt says:Because Apple needs to build a TRULY full featured intel laptop that doesn’t weigh four pounds is too big.
If Sony, Panasonic, Toshiba, and others can build a 2lb portable, there’s no reason Apple cannot.
#23 Marksy says:yeah… prolly the same as most peeps… money and i dont really wanna cart around a 15″. i find the 12″ super portable… i dunno.. perhaps if i hadda play with one in the reals, then perhaps i could be convinced.
im definately going to go the portables range though. im gunna be travelling a lot this year so dont want to have to ship a tower, mini or imac around.
i think i will wait for news after the WWDC in August.. Fingers crossed they will have a broader range of intellimacs in the wlld.
definately done with the PPC… thanks, it was a fun ride… but now its time to move on. Really glad we can now install Windows because i bought HL2 for Windows just before my old PC died. That will prolly be the only reason for installing windows… maybe for some css testing.. but mainly for HL2… and perhaps those virus and malwares i SO miss…
#24 Eric says:My 17″ PowerBook 1GHz is ONLY a little over 3 years old. I expect it will run another 3 without much trouble. Damn Adobe abandoned FrameMaker support for Mac instead of porting to it Mac OS X — so I need Classic (Mac OS 9) just for FrameMaker. However, I might just buy another PowerPC PowerBook while I still can.
#25 Bill Schutt says:One more hold off for financial reasons. Also I would wait until the next generation, always good to let someone else find the bugs first.
#26 Jeffrey says:I am going to Afghanistan in January for a year and I wouldn’t want to risk having my Apple break. So when I get back I’ll probably get one to replace the 800mhz Imac G4 that I have now.
#27 Andy Hume says:Why don’t *you* have full text feeds?
#28 Doc says:But I do have a MacBook Pro- replaced a 4 year old PB Titanium- what an upgrade- the best of the 5 Mac books I have owned- the only down side was waiting for 8 months for the product to ship after the Intel switch was announced.
#29 DeMYSTiFieD says:(Q) Why don’t I have Intel inside?
(A) Because AMD is better?
Seriously, the iMac Core Duo (Early 2006 edition) has frightening birth defects. Its foibles — like cooling fans spinning wildly, comatose peripherals, and a schizophrenic operating system — suggest that the printed circuit board is to blame.
#30 lseven says:Unless the prices drop, I’m waiting for a black iMac or the new PowerMacs.
#31 Yeroc says:Uh… because my iBook is only 1.5 yrs old. We don’t all feel obligated buy new hardware just because something new has come out y’know…
#32 vanni says:Patrick: I have stoped chasing “faster” and “newer” for some time now. I always keep my computer for 3-4 years. i have never missed a thing becasue of this (except the one time i *had* to make an iDVD…my machine, G3, was way to slow to burn the Movie.. so i ziped the project, moved it to the network, went to a friend’s house, downloaded and while we enjoyed a bottle of zinf and cab sav we burned the movie. And two years later i upgraded). I have made two movies since then. So, kiddies save yor pennies and don’t chase all that glitters and promises speed. Slow down and enjoy the wine, your girlfriend’s thighs, and smell the roses.
#33 jpipitone says:I’m waiting for the Intel tower - like a G5 shell with a crazy Intel setup inside. It just seems like too many Intel products are being released right now - they’re bound to surprise us again with a tower. You can imagine how frustrating it would be to drop $2500 on a MacBook Pro to find out that a week later the new towers are out.
#34 alan says:I have a MacBook Pro and it is amazingly fast… yes, the Adobe Creative Suite doesn’t run very fast, but I’ll live for now. I’ve had a few little quirks, but a friend has a newer model and all the issues have been taken care of - whining noise, fan issues, screen brightness issues, sleep problems, etc. Definitely eats my PowerBook 1Ghz for lunch any day. The magnetic power cord and the remote are great add-ons too.
#35 Justin says:Well because I have a new powermac quad core that I bought this past december. I could go buy a macbook pro or intel mini but I dont need it. I am interested to see what the intel version of the powermac will be though
#36 Karuel says:Yeah, I am saving up my money, and see if apple makes any moves this fall. I am doing as much research as possible to figure out how long I need to wait to catch the best MBP out there. If new hardware and an OS is coming this fall. I might as well wait if figure. I have always been a fan of mac, just never had the means (money) to switch over, I am the guy who uses his $400 PC to do all of his work. Sad, I know, but it gets me through. I REALLY want a MBP.
#37 vanni says:I’ts not current mac users who are rushing to by the new intel-macs but switchers:
No. To me, the most compelling figure nestled among comments by CFO Peter Oppenheimer was that 50% of people buying Macs in Apple (AAPL) retail stores are classified as “new to Mac,” meaning they have not owned a Mac before, and to at least some sizable extent may be switching over from Windows.
http://www.businessweek.com/techn…420_719591.htm
#38 random8r says:I bought a MacBook Pro. They’re awesome. I love it. Best Mac I’ve ever owned, and I’ve been using ‘em since the SE/30 days.
#39 rich says:Q: Why don’t I switch to Intel?
A: Because I don’t need to, my current machine does everything it needs to nicely and I’m comfortable with it.
A new ‘MacBook Pro’ (ugh) is too much of an expense to buy simply because it’s new and shiny, and keeping up with the Joneses is a bit of a mugs game really.
At the very least I’ll wait for Apple to fix some of the issues they seem to have, but baring a catastrophic hardware failure I suspect I’ll be using my Powerbook until software stops being developed for it.
#40 weisheng says:I’ll probably consider getting an Intel Mac after Leopard’s released, there seem to be quite a few hardware issues on the MacBook Pro that need to be sorted out.
#41 The_Chef says:Why haven’t I gotten an Intel Mac? Because the God’s hate me. A month before they were released, my wife bought me a 20″ G5. I cry daily into my pot of soup. It adds salt.
#42 Nick says:Very simple, Intel makes no sense to me yet.
I am a switcher and have alwyas favor innovation over monopolies. That’s one of the reasons I love my PowerBook. Most PC tweakers are AMD fans because they were not only innovative but affordable. Intel offered very little incentives and only bettered AMD at Excel number crushing in some cases.
Why didn’t Apple go with AMD? Does Apple know something we don’t? Intel hasn’t innovated i a long time and sat on its laurel leaves. I am also waiting for a tower and probably the second generations and also to win the lottory
Jobs never ceases to amaze and woo us, now make sense to me also, please.
#43 lseven says:Nick,
Isn’t AMD just tops for desktop systems? I think Intel has a better rep with the mobile chips, which are needed in most of Apple’s line (i.e. everything except the PowerMacs).