@jeff5 thank you for your comment, it is very helpful. My situation with my MBP has been resolved slightly by my having taken @james.cutler comments on DropBox seriously and I removed the sensitive files to a separate hard drive, then providing a backup to those files on another hard drive. I then made sure all those previous files are stored online and not open on my computer. I have also done a Carbon Copy Clone of the MBP on two different external drives, alternating them as I go along. Of course the CCCs indicate an error in the cloning but my hope is that I can limp along a bit longer.
Again, thank you all for your great guidance! These actions above allow me to continue to deal with the multiple bills for the food program (and continue to work on conflict resolutions for a couple of churches lol) while waiting as long as I can. @jeff5 mention of avoiding the difficulties of the ARM processors getting settled in once they are installed is a good caution. I have been looking at a souped up 21" iMac as this will probably be my last Mac - not because I’m leaving them but more because I am getting old and living on a fixed income ha ha. I’ll let you know what I do because I know you are all waiting with baited breath to find out what this brilliant man does NOT
Just a few weeks after I bought my beloved 9600 Mac it was announced that the much anticipated, soon to be released OS X would only run on Intel Macs
Is it possible you’re confused about the timeline?
The Power Macintosh 9600 was introduced in early 1997, and discontinued before the end of the year.
Apple released, OS X 10.0 in 2001, four years after your 9600 was discontinued. And it only ran on PowerPC Macs. The first Intel version of OS X, 10.4.5,came out in 2006.
Nope. I bought the original beige 9600 that runs an IBM/Motorola 604e chip in the summer of 1997. Apple released the G3 blue & white model a few months later, that could run a few versions of OS X, before the Intel Macs hit the market.
Although I was wrong about the Intel chip, I was still heartbroken about being shut out of OS X by a few weeks. I wouldn’t have bought the beige box if I had known the blue & white would run OS X.
Well, promised I’d report back. My MBP is really close to giving up the ghost. I ordered an iMac 27" with Retina 5K. I’m very excited about it, especially because I will also help my poor eyes as well as allow me to do a number of things far better than I have been able to of late. Again, thank you all for your excellent guidance! I felt much more comfortable moving ahead. Sort of hoped it would last a few more months but it has been sputtering at me and I have been getting warnings for months that the batteries were causing trouble. Again, I thank you!
As I mentioned before, I bought the original beige 9600 that runs an IBM/Motorola 604e chip that was released in the summer of 1997. A few weeks after my purchase, Apple released the “Blue & White” 9600 model that had a Power PC G3 chip, and it could run the first few versions of OS X. The G3 chip was also used by the multicolored MacBooks that were released later and also ran OS X:
Although I didn’t correctly recall that it was the newer, more powerful, much speedier G3 IBM/Motorola running in Blue & White Mac, I still was unable to run OS X on a Mac model that was released just a few very few months after I spent a lot of money for what was briefly the most super powered and expensive Mac.
Whatever you decide, consider buying used from Mac of All Trades. For me that was the cheapest way to go while still getting a reliable machine. A couple years ago I bought a 2011 imac with an i7 and AMD Radeon for $500. I wouldn’t go lower for any computer. Some blemishes on the screen but otherwise excellent condition. I just upgraded to Sierra but am reluctant to upgrade to High Sierra due to all the problems. Sierra has some quirks and the Finder is a little sluggish compared to the past. Macs did seem to be faster in, say, 1995. Maxing the RAM didn’t speed things up. But if money isn’t a factor for you, buy a Mac anytime. Anything you buy will be “obsolete” quickly because that’s how Apple does business. Don’t try to outsmart them. You can’t.
The biggest drawback of imacs, of course, is you can’t upgrade them, not unless you are very careful and skilled. So that means, whatever you get, buy as powerful a cpu as you can afford. Look at the sites that talk about Mac benchmarks. Go to an Apple store and play with them. I would like to put an SSD into mine, but after watching a video…ugh, no thanks. These machines were not meant to be opened. But that’s become true of all Macs now, hasn’t it?
The other thing to be conscious of with an iMac is aspect ratio and font rendering. Anything less than a Retina screen gets the short end of the stick by Apple. You have to deal with adjusting font size to your preference. Monitors today seem to favor the default resolution and only the default resolution. That can be a problem if you are over 40 and wear glasses. Mac screens are usually glossy rather than matte, which means you will see your reflection every time you turn on the computer.
If I had the money, I would build my own. It costs more at first but perhaps not in the long run given that I will be able to choose my own parts, open the machine, tinker with it, and run Windows and Linux.
Obsolete is in the eye of the beholder. My Macs have remained quite functional long after Apple gave up on them.
My 2002 PowerMac G4 lasted nearly 10 years before I decided to replace it. It was still working great at the time, but a few critical apps (especially Firefox) dropped support for the PowerPC platform so I decided to upgrade. Ditto for my iBook G4 laptop.
My current systems are both 2011-era. A Mac mini server (two 750GB hard drives, quad-core CPU, upgraded to 16GB RAM) and an 11" MacBook Air. Both are unsupported by Apple. They can’t run any macOS newer than High Sierra (and I won’t upgrade them beyond Sierra, because of all the bad reports from people about HS). But they do everything I need them to do. They can run the latest Firefox. The versions of Microsoft Office, FileMaker and Photoshop Elements I’m running are no longer supported, but they work fine - I don’t care about security patches with them because I never open documents I didn’t create.
I’ll probably upgrade them later this year, if my budget allows. Probably to the latest model Mac mini and MacBook Air. I’ll probably need to buy a new copy of FileMaker and Photoshop Elements, because the versions I have are only 32-bit, but I’m not expecting any other problems from the transition. And based on my own experience and fairly light requirements, I can probably expect them to remain useful for another 7-10 years.
Of course, if you do stuff that requires a lot of horsepower, then you will probably need to upgrade before that. But I don’t. Which is why I’m probably going to end up getting another mini and another Air.
Just wanted to let you know that FM Pro 16 is 64 bit compatible and I was able to find a license on Amazon for just $60 (I see it’s $136 now). The license arrived very quickly and turned out to be 100% legit.
Well, @Simon, I followed the link and placed an order. I received 2 e-mails this morning essentially saying the same thing:
“Message from seller HHun:
Thank you for your purchase of FileMaker Pro 16. We want to inform you that this is the medialess version, which means there is no physical package. You will receive instructions to download the application. directly from the manufacturer official web site and a genuine license key code to activate the application.
Most software companies have already shifted to electronic distribution (i.e. download) as the primary way to distribute their products for the following obvious advantages. First, there is no risk of piracy or malware since downloading directly from the manufacturer is as secure as one can get. Second, there is no risk of damaged disc. You can save the downloaded installer file for your future use as well without having to worry about taking care of an actual disc. Third, buyers will get the product much faster.
Please kindly let me know whether you will accept the medialess version so that we can process your order. If you want to receive this order, please send me an email (see the attached file) and we will reply to provide you the information.”
I’m not sure what to make of it. Was your order a “medialess” version? I’m hesitant because I have never received a major program without a connection to the developer. I don’t want to do anything illegal or open myself to strange things on the computer (beyond the ones happening now anyway lol). Would appreciate your wisdom here. Thank you.
I got the exact same thing. Twice and from different resellers. They are essentially just telling you that you have bought the license key, but they will not send you a DVD. Along with the key you will get a link to https://www.filemaker.com/software/filemaker-pro-16 and the instruction to download the actual app there. Then when you launch it you enter your key and done. Worked for me just fine. But I do think it’s a good move by the sellers. They state this in their listing. With that message they are reminding people of this fact and giving them a last chance to cancel. Perhaps somebody missed it in the listing and if they don’t have sufficient broadband this would otherwise lead to quite some disappointment I’d imagine.
They didn’t mention what are probably the most important reasons…the costs of sourcing and pressing CDs, printing, packaging and shipping. Digital downloads are much more profitable.
Well, I finally received my Filemaker Pro 16. Turns out the seller was not getting my responses to his request for authorization. Far as I can tell it was because I responded but was not signed into my Amazon account. Soon as he received my inquiry he got right back to me and said he had not received any of my 4 previous responses! Lesson learned by me: sign in first lol.
Other than that everything went perfectly. It came directly from Filemaker. Installation was a breeze. I hope it is 64 bit - it looks like it is because the info says it works on 64 bit in windows.
Thanks for all your help here. Now I just have to remember how I worked with Filemaker!!
