Recycled Computing

The Times They Are a-Changin'

- 2011.08.04

Popularity:

Short link: http://bit.ly/ohAZD4

Come gather 'round people
Wherever you roam
And admit that the waters
Around you have grown
And accept it that soon
You'll be drenched to the bone
If your time to you is worth savin'
Then you better start swimmin' or you'll sink like a stone
For the times they are a-changin'

- The Times They Are a-Changin', Bob Dylan

I've read Charles Moore's recent column about his iPad, and I noticed quite a bit of hubbub in Charles' recent Mailbag column. I'd like to add my two bits to the discussion. I don't intend to make more noise, just take a look at where Apple users are going - and whether we want to go there.

Apple hit a home run with the iPod, creating a whole new digital music market. Apple hit another home run with the iPhone, not creating the smartphone market, but setting the gold standard and soon dominating the market. iPad, whatever your opinion, is another home run, reinventing the tablet market and making other manufacturers pay catch-up. Driving this has been the development of a mobile interface known as iOS.

Now the other shoe has dropped. OS X 10.7 Lion is bringing features of iOS to OS X, and Apple appears to be embarking on a planned obsolescence business plan.

I can kind of see the logic of using elements of Apple's very successful mobile operating system in OS X. It makes for easier cross-platform training and makes it easier for Apple newbies to move from an Apple mobile device to an Apple computer.

I don't know if this is a great leap forward or not; I'm really not happy about OS X Lion requiring an Intel Core 2 Duo, Core i3, Core i5, Core i7, or Xeon processor. There goes my plan of picking up a first-generation Intel Mac and moving on past OS X 10.5.8 Leopard.

And, of course, Lion won't run PowerPC software. I suppose that I could put a Leopard partition on a Lion machine, but it still might not work. I don't want to have abandon my PPC software, but the times are changing.

Anyway, I think that Apple is not serving us old curmudgeons very well. Do they have to change so quickly? This is changing my future computer purchase plans. Things are getting just a little muddy.

Do I buy a brandy new MacBook Air and lose PPC software or buying the previous generation MacBook Air and retain my old software?

I'd have to get used to that gesture stuff in Lion, too.

Bob Dylan didn't know what he was talking about.

Join us on Facebook!, follow us on Twitter, use our Google+ page, or read our RSS news feed

Recent Recycled Computing Columns

Mountain Lion Obsoletes the MacBook I Just Bought, 2012.02.24. John Hatchett just got his first Intel Mac, a preowned MacBook, in December, and now it looks like it won't be able to run OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion.
Improving Tablets: Why Not a Slider Keyboard?, 2012.02.20. Perhaps the biggest drawback of the iPad and other tablets is lack of a buil-in physical keyboard. Many phones have slider keyboards....
Which Apple TV Is Right for You?, 2012.02.15. If you own an older TV set, the original Apple TV may be a better choice than Apple's current unit.
More in the Recycled Computing index.

Links for the Day

Mac of the Day: Unitron Mac512, introduced 1985. Unauthorized Brazilian clone of the Mac 512K.
May 24 in LEM history: 99: Mac sales up, iMac sales down? - 01: Speeding up digital photography - 02: The Internet, research, and plagiarism - 04: NewerTech TiBook battery - Optical mice from Contour - 06: Power Mac today or Intel tomorrow? - 07: G5: Apple's last fling with PowerPC - G3: From 233 MHz to 1.1 GHz
Support Low End Mac

Recent Deals

About LEM Support Usage Privacy Contact

Low End Mac is an independent publication and has not been authorized, sponsored, or otherwise approved by Apple Inc. Entire Low End Mac website copyright ©1997-2012 by Cobweb Publishing, Inc. unless otherwise noted. All rights reserved. Low End Mac, LowEndMac, and lowendmac.com are trademarks of Cobweb Publishing Inc. Apple, the Apple logo, Macintosh, iPad iPhone, iMac, iPod, MacBook, MagSafe, Mac Pro, Apple TV, and AirPort are registered trademarks of Apple Inc. Additional company and product names may be trademarks or registered trademarks and are hereby acknowledged.
Advice is presented in good faith, but what works for one may not work for all. Please report errors to .
LINKS: We allow and encourage links to any public page as long as the linked page does not appear within a frame that prevents bookmarking it.
Email may be published at our discretion unless marked "not for publication"; email addresses will not be published without permission, and we will encrypt them in hopes of avoiding spammers. Letters may be edited for length, context, and to match house style.
PRIVACY: We don't collect personal information unless you explicitly provide it. For more details, see our Terms of Use.

Custom Search

Follow Low End Mac on Twitter
Join Low End Mac on Facebook

Low End Mac Reader Specials

Don't install Parallels to play poker online! Macpokeronline.com will show you how to download and play Poker on a Mac natively on your Mac in just minutes.

Affiliates

Amazon.com
The iTunes Store
PC Connection Express
Parallels Desktop for Mac
eBay