[design, tools] The Fray, Overlooked: Yes, Mac Good!

In the last post I mentioned a series of epiphanies I had on my last job interview, I neglected to mention one, and it has to do with technology:

Apple PowerMac is the gift that keeps on giving.

I was pleased to see that the machine they were doing design on, running Mac OS X 10.4.7, was a Power Macintosh G4, not sure what the clock speed or the number of processors is (though if they're as smart as I think they are, it's a 2-brain G4 running at least at 1.25 GHz), but it was in the 2004 Mirrored Drive Door chassis. Their set up is very similar to mine, which just so happens to be a 2-brain 1.25 GHz G4 in the MDD case.

I've notice this again and again; those who acquire PowerMacs get years worth of work out of them. They seem to go obsolete just a bit slower than ISA machine and when they age they age gracefully; I have personally known of other designers and net-heads who have Quicksilver G4s and even blue'n'white G3s running well under 1.0 GHz that are still getting good, productive work out of them.

I'll be honest; I'd love to upgrade to a G5 or one of the hot new MacIntels–who wouldn't? But I'm getting another half-gig of memory on this set up of my own and she's still turning out the work I need, day after day.

Looks like I picked the right pony here.

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