I hope this departure from talk about CE will not be too
objectionable, but we did have a brief discussion recently about the
new Intel machine and its ability to run old software, and I thought
there might be others among you who get most of their Mac information
from this list.
Today's Wall Street Journal has an article by Walter Mossberg on his
test of the new machine. He set it up beside a Motorola machine just
a month old ran an assortment of software that had not yet been
rewritten for the Intel processor. Its a long article, but here are
some quotes that may be of particular interest.
************************
So, how did the brain transplant go? Is the new Intel iMac as good as
its predecessor? Does the machine's raw power offset the translation
slowdown?
For days, we ran a wide variety of software on the two iMacs, and
performed all of the common tasks mainstream consumers do -- surfing
the Web, emailing, instant messaging, word processing, using
spreadsheets, editing photos, playing music, managing personal
finances, playing simple games.
Our verdict: The brain transplant was a success. The two machines
behaved almost identically in our tests. Compatibility is excellent.
The new model easily handled all the major consumer software we threw
at it. We never noticed the translator software, called Rosetta, and
any slowdowns it imposed were so slight as to be indiscernible.
The new model was actually a little faster at a few of the tasks we
tried, but nothing like the two to three times as fast that Apple
claims. A mainstream user who didn't know what was under the hood
couldn't tell the difference between them, even after using them for
hours. It appears that the faster chip roughly balances out the
translation effect.
So, if the new model works only about as well as the old one, what's
the advantage for consumers? Well, the slight, scattered, speed gains
we saw should grow greater over time, as Apple and third-party
software makers tweak their applications to take full advantage of
the dual-core Intel chip. A year from now, an Intel iMac purchased
today will likely be notably faster, if you update your software to
newer versions.
But, even now, this is a terrific computer. It's still the best
consumer desktop on the market. It still runs crisply, still is free
of viruses and spyware, still has the best operating system and the
best built-in software of any desktop we've tested. Given how
smoothly the new machine works, and how likely it is to get even
better, we would prefer it today over the iMac G5, which Apple is
still selling for the same price until inventories are gone. The G5
is still a fine machine, but the Intel model has a brighter future,
and, based on our tests, it seems ready to go today.
There are a couple of caveats about our results. We tested only
common consumer software and tasks, not heavy-duty or professional
applications, like Adobe Photoshop, or professional music and video
programs, which tend to stress the processor. Some of these
nonconsumer products won't work right until they are rewritten.
Also, there are two drawbacks to the Intel-based iMac that we judged
relatively unimportant to most users, but which could be crucial to
some. It can't run old, pre-2001 Mac programs that were written for
the old Mac operating system, called "Classic." And, even though it
now uses the same processors that Windows machines do, the new iMac
can't run Virtual PC, the Microsoft program that allows Macs to run
Windows software. Microsoft is rewriting Virtual PC for the new Macs
but won't be done until 2007. Some other company may bring out a way
to run Windows stuff on the new Mac sooner than that. But, for now,
it can't run Windows programs.
On the other hand, the new iMac has a few advantages. It has a faster
video card than the old model and a digital video connector rather
than an analog connector.
For our tests, we copied all the third-party software and files from
our iMac G5 to the Intel iMac, so the machines were configured
comparably. Both had the same amount of memory, the same DVD drives
and the same Internet connections.
We ran a mix of Apple and third-party software. We weren't surprised
that all the Apple programs, like iTunes and iPhoto and the Safari
Web browser, ran perfectly and swiftly. Apple has already rewritten
them for the Intel chip.
But we were pleasantly surprised by the performance of non-Apple
programs. We tested Microsoft Office, Adobe Reader, the Firefox Web
browser, Skype, Google Earth, Quicken, the Eudora email program, Doom
3, Kodak EasyShare and others -- none of which had been rewritten.
All launched quickly and ran smoothly and well.
We did find one program that wouldn't run at all on the Intel iMac:
AOL for Mac OSX. But AOL's main features can all now be accessed from
its Web site, so you don't need this software in most cases.
Web pages loaded swiftly on the new iMac, though not markedly faster
than on the old model. We changed the font on a thousand-word
document in Microsoft Word and saw no lag at all. We created a chart
in Microsoft Excel, and it appeared almost instantly. Email worked
indistinguishably well.
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