Operating Systems > macOS

First Mac; First Impressions

<< < (2/3) > >>

bedouin:

--- Quote from: WMD ---The default shell is tcsh, which has no such thing.  Type "bash" and it should start working.
--- End quote ---


The default shell has been bash since Panther (maybe Jaguar).

WMD:
At school I've done fresh installs of Panther that appear to use tcsh...I could be wrong, though.

Siplus:
The new news has haunted my computer techish mind for the last 2 hours.

I am faced with a hard decision that has to be made in the next 4 days.

I am enjoying my new 12" 1.5Ghz Powerbook G4, and finally put some games on here. They all run incredible well, even Doom3!

My problem is not with Apple/Intel right now, It is with Apple/Intel coming soon. I am wondering if this investment in this nice, and expensive, powerbook is worth it! I could get a more powerful AMD64 with a larger video card and run all the games I am running now in linux, _ A N D _ run OSX/x86.

I have only gathered a sliver of the information I am sure is spreading throughout the web right now, but no matter what kind of DRM apple puts on its intel hardware, there *will* be a way to run it on x86, expecially now that the PearPC project won't need to emulate the processor.

I know this is a year down the road, but I'm planning on keeping this laptop longer than a year. I am mostly worried about OSX/ppc game support. They mentioned ongoing application support (for how long??) but what about game developers who have been skttish about writting mac ports?

It usually took them longer to port due to porting to ppc, but with x86, perhaps this port-time will decrease (which is good for Mac/x86 users, but i fear support for Mac/ppc users will dwindle VERY quickly)

I am interested in your opinions; i have a few short days before my return-window closes (with a 10% open-box fee. end up costing me $150 if i return it. or $1400 if i keep it (after a $100 education rebate)).

Don't get me wrong; I'm loving this peice of machinery. a 12", sturdy laptop will fit along with my books next year in college much better than the 15" weak-plasic x86 laptop i had (newer x86 laptops don't seem as sturdy as this metalic pbook, either). I'm learning the keyboard shortcuts, and i'm getting ready to buy some mac-ports of the games i don't already have

Since I am too young to know the history first-hand, I would like your opinions and feedback on how long a brand new 12" 1.5hz Powerbook G4 w/ superdrive will last before becoming depreciated in value too much.

(I was originally planning on keeping this at least halfway through college... I kept my Toshiba laptop for 2 1/2 years of high school. I would like to be able to make more than $400 on this $1700 laptop 2 or 3 years down the line)

WMD:

--- Quote ---no matter what kind of DRM apple puts on its intel hardware, there *will* be a way to run it on x86, expecially now that the PearPC project won't need to emulate the processor.
--- End quote ---

It doesn't have to be DRM.  The computer could just be a different design.  Heck, Apple could take their current chipsets and stick a P4 on it, and that could run OS X, but other PCs couldn't.  x86 != PC.

Typical apps should have Universal Binaries for 3 years or so.  You say halfway through college...and you're how old?  18?  You could make it until then.

As for games...laptops just aren't for games.  Period.  They may run games for a while, but they get too weak for new stuff sooner than PPC suppport could be dropped.  And then you can't upgrade them.

bedouin:
Who buys laptops for gaming?  No matter what laptop you buy it's going to be obsolete for gaming in a year.  You do realize the last PPC machine is likely to be sold in like 2007 right?  That means cutting support for PPC is going to be unthinkable for a long time.  

And wipe the idea that there's going to be OS X on vanilla PCs out of your head.  If having the same CPU were enough for decent emulation I'd be playing Gamecube games on my PowerMac right now.

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page

[*] Previous page