[X4U] End of the line for PPC support from Apple

[Zane H. Healy]

At 1:28 PM -0500 6/15/08, Linda wrote:
>My husband and I don't have cell phones. My parents in law don't own any,
>nor do my parents. I have four friends who do not own cell phones and are
>not in a significant relationship with someone who owns a cell phone,
>either.
>
>Just anecdotal, but true. :)

My wife and I have one cell phone, I got the first one before we got 
married as my truck is a '72 Dodge that at the time wasn't very 
reliable.  It was just replaced after 9 years due to Sprint forcing 
me to upgrade.  We share the cell phone, whoever has the car, has the 
phone, and at least when I have it, it is normally turned off.  We 
carry it for safety in case the car breaks down.  With three small 
children I feel it is an important, though annoying safety device.  I 
would love to go through life without a cell phone or pager.  I carry 
a pager for work, in part because I wrote and support the paging 
software that we use.

At 1:52 PM -0500 6/15/08, Linda wrote:
>On 6/15/08 12:03 PM, Ed Gould wrote:
>
>>  The Macbook Air *MIGHT* be OK for CEO's and the like.
>
>It's okay for anyone who wants one, who understands the features and will
>use it.

As a want-to-be writer, I'd love one.  As a father of three small 
children, I'll make do with an Asus eee PC, even though the keyboard 
on the eee PC is a bit to small for me.  I was originally part the 
"only a rich idiot would buy this" crowd, but after having looked at 
one in person, and tried the keyboard, I'd love to have one for 
writing, as well as light web, and viewing of PDF files.

Realistically I need a Mac Pro more than I need a Mac Air, and the 
Asus eee PC is a better value for what I need (miniature portable 
typewriter).  Realistically I could break out my PowerBook 540c and 
use it running System 7.5.3 and MS Word 5.1, if I could get new 
batteries.

>Life is full of choices that people make that they upgrade for "no good
>reason". Some people will buy a Camry instead of a Corolla, when a Corolla

We have a '92 Camry LE, because we got one used, and it was a 
*really* good deal.  Plus I'm not sure we could fit 3 car seats in 
the back of a Corolla, it's all we can do to fit one in a Camry.

>will fill their needs. Some people will buy Ben & Jerry's ice cream, when
>the store brand at 1/3 price will fill their needs (then again, who NEEDS
>ice cream?).

Actually there is a real good reason to buy something other than the 
store brand, the store brands are largely artificial flavorings.  The 
Ben & Jerry's is actually "healthier" for you.  Still for about the 
cost of a pint of Ben & Jerry's you can find other brands on sale 
that don't use all those artifical flavorings, that get you 1.5 
Quarts (I'm so PO'd that they've gone from half a gallon to 1.75 
Quarts, and now to 1.5 Quarts).

>Some people will buy New Balance or Asics rather than the store
>brand sneaker.

Guilty, if I was still buying Sneakers, as I'll only buy Nike's, but 
a their Headquarters is here, I prefer to support a "local" company.

>Some people will buy an iPod Video rather than a less
>expensive Nano...

You lost me on this example, as I want to take all of my music 
library with me, and with what I so far have in iTunes I have over 
20GB of legal music.  I received a 30GB iPod Video as a Christmas 
present a couple years ago, I was never sure if I'd use one enough to 
warrant purchasing one (I previously had a 32MB Diamond Rio).  I've 
found the iPod to be invaluable at work for shutting out the world 
when I'm busy programming.  Nothing like Mountain Dew and Heavy Metal 
(I don't even like Heavy Metal) to put you in the right state of mind 
to write software!

>So why the hostility toward people who chose to upgrade
>their purchase to a more expensive MacBook Air?
>
>Help me understand, please?

I'm not sure the hostility is intentionally directed at the people 
that choose to buy a Mac Air, my hostility was directed more at Apple.

Here is another example, we could just as easily be running Linux on 
a $300 PC, but we choose to use Macs, and a lot of us run rather 
expensive commercial software, rather than Freeware or Open Source 
apps that are freely available.

Zane


-- 
| Zane H. Healy                    | UNIX Systems Administrator |
| healyzh at aracnet.com (primary)    | OpenVMS Enthusiast         |
| MONK::HEALYZH (DECnet)           | Classic Computer Collector |
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