Re-evaluating Tiger
I’m not happy with the fact that Tiger kills Quick Time Pro 6 registration keys. That makes the third negative impact an upgrade to Tiger will have. As I mentioned in this blog earlier, I also know it will not run the latest version of Virtual PC (7.01, which is on my PowerBook) and it also breaks the handheld synchronization feature of Office 2004 (and Office v.X, I bet). I didn’t realize that Tiger introduced file system changes until this morning. So, I’m re-thinking which machines I’m going to upgrade to Tiger when it arrives. The only one I’ll do for sure if my G5 PowerMac. More than likely, I’ll go ahead and also upgrade my 20 inch 1.8 Ghz G5; but that is the one I’m re-evaluating the most. The additional costs now total up to $29.99 for QuickTime Pro and probably close to $80 for a new copy of Tech Tool Pro, though I’d probably spend that money on Alsoft’s DiskWarrior instead. (That assumes DiskWarrior will be updated for Tiger fairly quickly.)
So, why am I upgrading to Tiger at all? The major reasons are for 64 bit memory addressing (even though I’m not sure I’m ever going to use more than 4GB of RAM in my G5 PowerMac), Core Video and H.264, iChat with 3 way video conferencing (my wife wants that), and Spotlight. As you can see, two of the features really have to do with my PowerMac G5 and video editing. Without G5’s in the house, I would certainly be waiting a while and perhaps not moving up at all. But once I decide I’m going to upgrade even one machine, moving to Apple’s Family Pack makes the most sense. Why spend $129 to upgrade only one machine when I can upgrade 5 for only $70 more? That (barely) covers every Mac I own.
On Sunday, I’ll synch up my Palm Tungsten E with Entourage 2004. I don’t synch up the two very often, so I’ll plan on that holding me until Microsoft comes out with a patch to fix what Tiger broke. When they also issue a patch for Virtual PC 7, then I’ll upgrade my PowerBook. I’ll have to talk to my wife about upgrading her iMac. More than likely, she’ll want to upgrade; she tends to like the newest, latest, or greatest. It will break her synchronization, too, not only with her Palm also with her university-issued iPaq, which she hasn’t installed anything on anyway. She does use EndNote, but its links with Microsoft Office were already broken when we upgraded to Office 2004. I’m just note sure if she bought EndNote 8, which is compatible with Office 2004, whether Tiger would break it again.
I’m sure over the next two weeks the Mac user community will be finding out the hard way just how many programs Tiger will break.
So, why am I upgrading to Tiger at all? The major reasons are for 64 bit memory addressing (even though I’m not sure I’m ever going to use more than 4GB of RAM in my G5 PowerMac), Core Video and H.264, iChat with 3 way video conferencing (my wife wants that), and Spotlight. As you can see, two of the features really have to do with my PowerMac G5 and video editing. Without G5’s in the house, I would certainly be waiting a while and perhaps not moving up at all. But once I decide I’m going to upgrade even one machine, moving to Apple’s Family Pack makes the most sense. Why spend $129 to upgrade only one machine when I can upgrade 5 for only $70 more? That (barely) covers every Mac I own.
On Sunday, I’ll synch up my Palm Tungsten E with Entourage 2004. I don’t synch up the two very often, so I’ll plan on that holding me until Microsoft comes out with a patch to fix what Tiger broke. When they also issue a patch for Virtual PC 7, then I’ll upgrade my PowerBook. I’ll have to talk to my wife about upgrading her iMac. More than likely, she’ll want to upgrade; she tends to like the newest, latest, or greatest. It will break her synchronization, too, not only with her Palm also with her university-issued iPaq, which she hasn’t installed anything on anyway. She does use EndNote, but its links with Microsoft Office were already broken when we upgraded to Office 2004. I’m just note sure if she bought EndNote 8, which is compatible with Office 2004, whether Tiger would break it again.
I’m sure over the next two weeks the Mac user community will be finding out the hard way just how many programs Tiger will break.
posted by Andy Foster at
3:28 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home