[gourmet833]

I'm a little concerned that my G5 powerpc in the future will become completely redundant, not even an old work horse, but completely useless. Because more and more I'm seeing stuff being only available for Intel macs eg Adobe After Effects CS4 is no longer compatible for powerpc's.

In the future will software only be available for intel macs? Should I bite the bullet and sell my powerpc before its worth plummets to $0? What are ur thoughts?
Thanks in advanced.

[zeddie2001]

Yes, it won't be too long before your machine is fully redundant. To be honest, you're not going to get very much for it on the market at the moment, you're probably best just to keep on using it as it is for the longest possible time. Just as you're realising how redundant it's becoming, so is the second hand market...

[NeoRicen]

Yes to everything. Snow Leopard (next OS, due in a few months) is apparently going to be Intel only. If you can afford it (by selling or whatever), getting an Intel mac is probably a good idea.

[Sebastianmonty]

I think G5s have been dead for years. They are sooo slow compared to Intel. I had one, it ded and apple gave me an intel iMac as was under warranty. I Love you powerpc(for failing at 2 years 10 months).

But dont sell it. It isnt worth much and I feel the person who buys it will be ripped off. They are buying a 1985 Subaru with only 20,000kms left til it costs more to fix than replace so to speak.

[wabbit]

Id hope PPC machines are redundant at some point. It makes sense really for Apple to only have to support and work on one type of system. I don't mean to sound harsh, it just doesn't make good business sense.

[byrnsie]

It will become redundant in the future but depending on how much you'd get for it you may be better off holding onto it.

[freefallgrue]

Know when to muck a hand: when it can't feasibly be won. Almost anything with a PowerPC at this point is a losing hand.

That having been said, I don't take my own advice. I refuse to give up my PowerBook G4/12", but that's just because I loathe every one of Apple's current laptops, so there's no suitable replacement. This obviously isn't the case with a desktop G5.

[anarchron]

Don't worry. Linux is still available and continuously update for PPC.

[alanthomasball]

Is it an iMac or PowerMac? And what processor type, RAM architecture?

iMac: Sell yesterday
PowerMac G5: I see a Leopard server in your future..

[Phase]

What do you mean will.

[tombull]

Gawd, you're worried about your G5 - makes my lil' ole dual 1.25 G4 feel mighty sad - I still use it for FCP studio 1 cutting SD and Adobe CS1... And I still love my 1.5 Ghz 12" powerbook - but that said, I will be upgrading hard and software as soon as I can, but I will hold on to my old Macs as a) I love them and b) there aint no monetary gain to be had selling them anyway. I'll prolly give them to family.

[alanthomasball]

Originally Posted by tombull

And I still love my 1.5 Ghz 12" powerbook

I still love your 12"

[NeoRicen]

It's not like G5s will become useless. Everything you do on it know you'll always be able too, eventually you just won't be able to get new software. Your current software won't stop working.

It will always have some value.

[gourmet833]

Thanks for the thoughts ppl!!!

I think my plan will be to hang onto it for as long as I can. I figure I will only get about $5-600 for it on eBay (as of today) and it has a 500GB HD and DL burning capabilities, not to mention everything else it can do. So even if I just use it in the future for burning and an over-the-top external hard drive, as dumb as it sounds, then technically it would be financially benificial for me to hang onto it. Right? I know I will have to upgrade in the future eventually, I'm in the Editing and Motion GFX game so I need the best I can afford. It could also be used as a secondary system for encoding (as well as hopefully distributed processing).

So I will probably upgrade to a superior model when my PowerPC limitiations become to much to bare and have it in the background doing what ever it is capable of doing in the future (which will eventually be burning and storage)

It also be handy to hang onto it if Apple decides to go back to PowerPC in the future. Apple disses Intel's Atom, buys PowerPC designer P.A. Semi - Ars Technica

OOOOhhhhhh! Did I just open a can of worms?????

[LCGuy]

Its only a matter of time until they do become redundant, sadly. The exact same thing happened with the 68k Macs back in the 1990's. The very first high end Power Macs went on sale in March 1994, followed by the consumer-level PowerPC Performas (the "consumer" Mac prior to the return of Steve Jobs, and the iMac) in 1995. 68k Macs were available brand new up until the end of 1996 (the last being the Macintosh LC/Performa 630, LC/Performa 580 and PowerBook 190). Then Mac OS 8.5 came out in 1998, which only supported PowerPC Macs, and had no 68k Mac support at all, though there was still a fair bit of 3rd party application support for 68ks up until 1999/2000.

Based on history, I have a theory that Snow Leopard will either not support PowerPC at all, or only support the very last of the G5s, while PowerPC support for 3rd party applications will probably last another couple of years.

At the end of the day though, as NeoRicen said, the machine will never become truly useless. Think about it, even an original 1977 Apple II, with all of its 4 kilobytes of RAM, can still perform all of the tasks today that it could do at the time of release, and then some.

[Lutze]

Originally Posted by gourmet833

It also be handy to hang onto it if Apple decides to go back to PowerPC in the future. Apple disses Intel's Atom, buys PowerPC designer P.A. Semi - Ars Technica

OOOOhhhhhh! Did I just open a can of worms?????

No, you didn't - P.A. Semi is being used for the ARM stuff that goes into iPod's / iPhones etc. Atom sucks balls at this currently. Intel CPU's for "computers" are the best you can get at a reasonable rate currently - so they won't change that.

I should add that my G4 Cube 450mhz is still doing it's stuff - it's a headless application server for some of my lesser used apps, and a storage bin for crap I still have, with some backup stuff thrown in.

[tombull]

Originally Posted by alanthomasball

I still love your 12"

I wish...

[halledise]

Originally Posted by gourmet833

I'm a little concerned that my G5 powerpc in the future will become completely redundant, not even an old work horse, but completely useless. Because more and more I'm seeing stuff being only available for Intel macs eg Adobe After Effects CS4 is no longer compatible for powerpc's.

In the future will software only be available for intel macs? Should I bite the bullet and sell my powerpc before its worth plummets to $0? What are ur thoughts?
Thanks in advanced.

oooooh yeah! to all questions.
Intel is the way to go
sell the fecker whilst it still has some value

[tombull]

Originally Posted by Lutze

I should add that my G4 Cube 450mhz is still doing it's stuff - it's a headless application server for some of my lesser used apps, and a storage bin for crap I still have, with some backup stuff thrown in.

But how could you let go of a cube anyway - they are so cute!

[freefallgrue]

Originally Posted by LCGuy

Based on history, I have a theory that Snow Leopard will either not support PowerPC at all, or only support the very last of the G5s, while PowerPC support for 3rd party applications will probably last another couple of years.

I suspect I speak for many when I say I do not want legacy code holding back my computer in the form of bloat. As far as I'm concerned they can cut support for the 32bit Core Duo, as well.

Leopard is fat slut of an OS, I'd like to see the skinny hyperactive chick make an appearance in the form of Snow Leopard.