“Still no official release announcement, but Apple has three weeks yet to get OS 10.5 Leopard out the door in time to meet their promise of Leopard availability by the end of October. It’s been a long wait. OS 10.4 Tiger was released way back on April 29, 2005, which means that if the rumor mills are correct and Leopard leaps at the end of October, it will have been 30 months (2 1/2 years) between major Mac OS version upgrades,” Charles W. Moore writes for PB Central.
“In my estimation, this has not been a bad thing. First, it allowed Apple to thoroughly debug OS 10.4 before moving on to the new System version. I found that the early release builds of Tiger had some rough edges, so to speak, although since about version 10.4.7, it has been a very smooth and dependable performer on my Macs. I’m anticipating that there will be one more Tiger ‘.4.xx’ update to version 10.4.11, probably before the Leopard release, and it will become the definitive Tiger final version, as 10.3.9 has been for Panther and 10.2.8 for Jaguar,” Moore writes.
Moore writes, “OS 10.4.11 will also be the last Mac OS version to support G3 and early-model G4 iBooks and PowerBooks, at least officially… Those G3s and early G4s have had a great run on Mac computers, but there comes a tipping point in the life of virtually all technologies that they shift from being current (or reasonably current) to obsolete.”
Full article, which takes “An Affectionate Look Back At 10 Years Of G3 Computing,” here.
Time to let go of my 2 Pismos and PowerMac Dual 1Ghz.
R.I.P., old friends.
I keep my 20th Anniversay Macintosh around to remind myself that to this day, no Mac has as nice sound system. The Bose speakers and subwoofer have never, ever been topped as built in sound. Ever.
Sadly, this appears to include the Cube.
People often overlook the fact that Apple shipped an Intel version of Mac OS X – nearly flawlessly – in January ’06. So really, it’s been less than two years since a new version of OS X.
It may have been the same operating system to us, but getting it to be identical was a huge feat for Apple.
I have 10.4 Tiger running on 500 & 600 MHz G3 imacs at our school. (It even runs with just 128 of memory) For what the students do – internet and Office – they work just fine. Also have a couple of labs with 350 mhz imacs running 8.6 and At Ease. Again – just because they are old doesn’t mean they don’t have value.
In some of the classrooms I even have Performa’s still loaded to the gills with educational software and running like champs. This constant need to continually upgrade to the next great thing is really foolish when it isn’t really needed..especially in schools where money is scarce.
Heck, i work at a newspaper and we’re still on 9.1 with 400 mhz G4’s. Who needs Leopard…
…. wait, I do.
Ed,
Umm yea try those 350mhz iMacs on newer sites like Scott Forsman math or even Yahooligans. They go boom pretty quickly.
*tear* I have to give up my old PowerMac G4 400MHz…It’ll be a sad day, it’s been a good computer to me. I guess I could always just upgrade the processor, but I also want a new Intel Mac. 😀
MDN word- “always” as in, my PowerMac’s always been there for me…
I have a TAM also. I love that thing, too bad it’s stuck at 12″ screen. It would be amazing if it was 24″. I think J. Ive work on the TAM was the best ever and you can tell from the interview on the disc that ships with it. Anyway, I’m pulling out my 512K Fat Mac and loading Leopard on it to see if its better than System 6.01 with multifinder. hehe
I won’t miss my dual 8OO… But it does makes a nice media server in my closet.
Dark Side,
I think you make an excellent point. The Intel transition is a major reason why it’s been so long between upgrades. The Intel/PPC feature parity (“Classic” notwithstanding) took a lot of guts and a lot of engineering. Even if they did have secret Intel builds for the whole run of the OS, we know nothing of the quality of those builds. The past couple years have all been about embracing the new platform and embracing it well.
Now that the processor growing pains are over, let’s hope to see some major improvements software-wise.
Dark Side,
OS X has supported Intel since day 1. Mac Intels shipped 2006.
I recall Avie Tevanian saying that time between major OS upgrades will continue to lengthen. I don’t remember why.
It looks like Mac OS X 10.6 Sweet Pussy might be a long way off.
I use my 500 DVSE imac exclusively for listening to music on my stereo at home. It’s running 10.4.2 with 1 gig mem. I just replace the CD-RW drive on it and the P-Ram battery. This was my first mac I bought back in 2000.
I’ll have to try Leopard on my Ti Book G4 500Mhz before I’ll decide if it’s time to retire it or not.
What static world of non-progression are you living in?!
Why is it that every time Apple progresses to the next level some dweebo has to bleat about what is being left behind?
What sort of inane statement is, “just because they are old doesn’t mean they don’t have value”? Who said old things don’t have value? Are you planning to load Leopard on your classroom G3??? Your old Mac will still run just fine!!!!!!
These old computers are not harmed because Apple just came out with the next big thing. It’s like saying the new math books harm the old ones because they have cg illustrations.
My 80Gb iPod still works, even with the new 160 Gb model now available.
For crying out loud, get a grip.
Intel is here…
Yes, bye G3s and G4s.
I am sorry to see my old pals go.
And I still use them. All four machines in my home.
So Oct 22 if Leopord is SOLD with iMac Aluminum I shall buy!
ppee
I want my Windows 3.11 PC from 1994 to run Windows Vista, but it ain’t going to happen (besides the fact that I don’t want to buy Windows Vista). Change happens. Leopard can’t support all Macs or else it becomes bogged down like Windows. If you want to upgrade a G3 Mac, buy a new one. Then you can have the best of both worlds.
MDN (not kidding) = three… weird.
I bet it will run fine on a dual 533MHz..
and will likely work on a single G4.. just isn’t going to be snappy, and you wont be able to call apple for support.
What I’d like to know is what happens to support for 10.3.9 once Leopard is out? Do security updates stop once 10.5 is released? I guess there’s always Linux PPC for my old silver 766 G4 machines.
For “Not Ed”
I guess you aren’t involved in K-12 education or you’d know that we can’t just go out and get the next new thing anytime we want. It’s called $$.
Don’t get me wrong, we upgrade to new, (i’m typing this on a new 24 inch imac), but that doesn’t mean we just trash anything previous when it has a use.
To Jonahan – you are right on some of the new high-fangled websites and that can be a problem at times. That is why we keep labs of old and new available depending on the needs of the teacher.
It’ll run on a Quicksilver. And I just happen to have one for sale, if anyone is interested!
I love my 1Ghz TiBook. Please, oh God of technology, please let Charle W. Moore be completely full of crap, and wrong about this, so I can keep using my PowerBook with Leopard a little longer. Otherwise, I’ll have to be happy with Tiger (which I am).
My old 1Ghz TiBook still purrs along as the “house” Mac. Checking IMDB while watching movies on the HDTV is fun! I just added an nQuicky 802.11n PC Card to connect with my Airport Extreme.
After 5 years, it’s still a pretty good performer! If it can run Leopard, good. If not… it runs Tiger just fine!
Well, it’s been about 5 years, and my iBook is just now beginning to become ‘obsolete’. I LOVE APPLE COMPUTERS! I figure I’ve got another good 2, maybe 3, years before I’ll have to completely retire it. 7 to 8 years is a GREAT run for any computer.