iBook 900

Hi!

I'm in the process of buying an iBook G3/900 under the University
Promotion discount (for 1360 euro you get the 12.1" model with 640 Mb
RAM, 40 Gb HD, and AirPort card). I'd started the appliance the week
before the G5 was announced by Apple.

Now I'm afraid that my shiny new notebook will be prematurely obsoleted:
from the posts I've read in Usenet, the G5 is a 64-bit processor, while
the G3 isn't. Does it mean that all apps will have to be
rewritten/recompiled for it? Also, knowing Apple's support policy, I see
the laptop in two years with the OS which came originally with no
chances of upgrade, just because everything will be developed for (say)
MacOS 12.3/64bit.

Is it all as dramatic as I depict it here?

Thanks in advance!
David.

David Vidal Rodríguez wrote in message ...
 > Hi!
 >
 > I'm in the process of buying an iBook G3/900 under the University
 > Promotion discount (for 1360 euro you get the 12.1" model with 640 Mb
 > RAM, 40 Gb HD, and AirPort card). I'd started the appliance the week
 > before the G5 was announced by Apple.
 >
 > Now I'm afraid that my shiny new notebook will be prematurely obsoleted:
 > from the posts I've read in Usenet, the G5 is a 64-bit processor, while
 > the G3 isn't.

Nor is the G4. Apple has not announced a G5 notebook computer.

 > Does it mean that all apps will have to be
 > rewritten/recompiled for it?

The existing 32 bit applications run just fine on the 64 bit G5. Both
the 32 bit and 64 bit applicaions run at the same speed on the G5.
Unless the applications needs higher percision arithmetic or more
memory, I'd not expect a lot of application to be re-compiled for the
G5.

 > Also, knowing Apple's support policy, I see
 > the laptop in two years with the OS which came originally with no
 > chances of upgrade, just because everything will be developed for (say)
 > MacOS 12.3/64bit.

Apple announced that they have 7 million machines running MacOS X.
All the machines are of the 32bit variety.

Apple has a long history of supporting hardware they sell. MacOS X
runs on all G3 processors that Apple started selling in 1997. See:
<a rel="nofollow" style='text-decoration: none;' href="http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=112428" target="_blank">http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=112428</a>

With nine fans in the tower model, I got to assume the machine
produces a little heat, so it may be awhile before the G5 makes it to
the laptop scene. Most people keep their Mac for five years. I
think you are safe on the software side. On the hardware side,
machines always get faster.

I have a copy of Binhex 5.0 on my system dated Mar 21, 1985. This
program does the Unix to Unix Encoding/decoding. It still runs fine
in classic mode using 68k emulation. The last Mac using the 68k
processor was shipped in 1995 or 1996.

Panther, 10.3, is slatted to run on your machine. Apple provides
hardware support for machines for seven years after they ship. MacOS
8.1 was the last MacOS to support the 68k machine. I am not sure of
the release date, but was probably 1997/8. Where the last 68k machine
was probably announced in 1994.

I have know way of knowing how long new releases of MacOS X will
support the G3. I think it will be 3 to 5 years. Three years would be
the absolute minimum based on historical data. Five years is more
likely since
1) Hardware architecture is all PPC
2) Apple makes money selling new releases of MacOS X
3) Keeps customers happy
4) Machines can still run new MacOS with good speed.
5) Hardware architecture supports all features needed by OS. This
wasn't true of 68k machines. The G3 doesn't have altvec support, but
his can be emulated.

People keep Mac for Five years on the average, so you will be in good
shape.
 >
 > Is it all as dramatic as I depict it here?
 >
 > Thanks in advance!
 > David.