Mac Spectrum

Snow Leopard Macs: The New Low End

- 2012.02.20 - Tip Jar

Follow Simon Royal on Twitter.

Popularity:

Short link: http://bit.ly/wVa2Iw

I spent all day arguing with my fellow local Mac group members about Apple's decision to release another version of OS X less than twelve months after Lion - and the rapid pace at which Apple is making Macs outdated.

Then it suddenly struck me: Why am I bothered? I'm not going to be in the market for a brand new Mac unless I win the lottery, just keeping in the Mac world is hard enough for me at the moment - hence me using 6- to 10-year-old Macs.

OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion To put another spin on it, Apple's rapid pace is a good thing for us low-end users. All those rich people who snub their noses at any Mac older than a year will be shedding their castoffs for the new Mountain Lion laden shiny beasts when OS X 10.8 is released this summer.

PowerPC's Days Are Numbered

As much as I love my gorgeous new addition, a 12" PowerBook G4, it is still PowerPC-based, and it's days are numbered. The latest version of Mac OS X it will run is 10.5 Leopard, and Leopard isn't necessarily the biggest problem, as Intel Macs using Leopard can still run the latest Firefox and Chrome. The problem is the architecture. The PowerPC platform is dead. There are a handful of developers still supporting it, but the majority have dropped it.

Apple has dropped it, bar a few iTunes updates recently. Mozilla has dropped it, releasing no more versions of Firefox as of version 4, release almost a year ago. Adobe has dropped, it releasing no more PPC versions of the Flash plugin starting with version 11 in Late 2011. And Google never released Chrome for it.

OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard So wind it back a few paragraphs to the bit about "castoffs", and what do we have - a new category to add to the Low End Mac package: Low End Intel. Yes, Intel Macs that will not run Mountain Lion (and those that will not run OS X 10.7 Lion) are stuck on OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard.

We are now in to our sixth year of Intel Macs, and some of these won't run the latest version of OS X or future versions. There will be people with Lion machines all over the world crying themselves to sleep at the news that their Mac will not run Mountain Lion.

Early Intels Become More Affordable

Second-user Macs command a high price; even my G4 wasn't cheap. However, with the progression of the Intel machines, the prices for PowerPC Macs have fallen through the floor. I paid a mere £65 for my 12" 1 GHz PowerBook G4; twelve months ago this would have cost around £100. The same is beginning to happen with early Intel machines, partly due to the increasing hardware specifications of newer Intel Macs - faster processors, better chip technologies etc. - but mainly due to Apple deciding to not to allow Lion to run on them.

Some people will be reading this, thinking, "Why would you want a machine you know is already outdated?"

In short, cost.

I just bought a G4 and think it is great speed-wise. It copes with my needs, which range from web browsing, emailing, tweeting, and writing to heavier tasks such as light video and music editing.

Buying an Intel Mac that runs Snow Leopard - namely any Core Duo Mac - will give me a newer operating system (than Leopard on my PowerBook), a massive increase in processor speed, a higher RAM ceiling, better drive technology, and the holy grail of Mac, Intel architecture, opening me up to a whole new breed of software.

Even a first generation Intel would be considerably more powerful than the G4 I would be replacing.

Snow Leopard Still Has Legs Going Forward

The general consensus is that software developers - and even Apple to a degree - will treat Snow Leopard like the Windows XP of the Mac world, the base ground for lower-end users, while Lion and Mountain Lion be the higher end. Snow Leopard will continue to be supported for a few years to come.

I say, "Bring it on." In the next six to twelve months I will be making the leap to Intel, and it will be a low-end one, running Snow Leopard - or Lion at most.

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

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.