On the software front, the Mac Mini server comes preloaded with a 64-bit implementation of OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard) with a number of add-on services and applications to turn it into a small. Snow Leopard, while requiring a Mac with an Intel processor, was the latest edition able to run the Rosetta translation utility, and thus launch PowerPC software. Na dude, you'd be suprised how well Snow leopard runs. And besides that, like tdg911 said, your going to compare a PPC mac with Leopard to a windows machine? Even my older 1.33ghz powerbook runs leopard like a champ, Its hard to compare it now that i have a macbook, but that was the first mac that i ever had, and i loved it, there's no way i could switch back to windows, Even if Windows 7 was really badass, i know for a fact that it STILL won't even compare to leopard. And snow leopard will blow Windows WAY out of the water. You can pick up macbooks on craigslist for 600-800. So if you really want to run snow leoard, consider putting your current mac on Ebay, and using some of that money to put towards a mac with an Intel processor. My 12in Powerbook goes for 550 with 1.25 gigs of ram, and leopard installed, not counting the the number of programs i have installed on it, like ilife iwork adobe cs4. Office pro 8600 driver for mac. So if you want. Go right ahead and buy a windows machine, its still going to be up in the 1000-1500 range AND up. But I know for a fact, that everytime you turn your windows computer on, your going to miss the apple logo with the little spinning wheel under it. And when you start getting viruses and spyware, trojans, adware, your system crashes all the time, Then your really really going to miss your old PPC. Apple is a company, and companies need to make money. Additionally, since Apple is also a hardware company, they make the bulk of their sales by selling Macs. The fact that they now have Intel chips makes no difference, because Apple also made a similar transition back in the 90s from 68K to PowerPC. While I'm sure that many of those that spent money on the ultimately last model of the Power Macintosh G5 in 2005-2006 aren't too happy, it's not as if those consumers didn't already know what they were getting themselves into. As it stands, Leopard is going to be well supported possibly even a little beyond the arrival of 10.7 (Tiger has had about 4 years of support already, and I'm sure will be going on 5 years before developers start moving away from it). So that said, I think your PowerPC Mac or even 32-bit Intel Mac would be supported quite well with Leopard for a good while. Personally, I have made preparations on my iMac G5 for the day where it is no longer supported by Apple or its developers. Most of the software I use on my Tiger installation (haven't moved to Leopard yet) is free/open source software. As it stands, they still support Tiger quite well so I really have no need to move to Leopard just yet. Additionally, I have also installed a PowerPC version of Ubuntu Linux that runs the most up-to-date versions of the free/open source software that I already use on the OS X side. ![]() The only issue I might have is with Adobe Flash, but with Gnash as a Flash alternative and the HTML5 support for audio/video with Ogg in Firefox 3.5, I don't think I would miss Adobe's Flash that much. Sure, it's not OS X, but it's good enough for my needs when that inevitable day comes along. Besides, I'm already running GNU/Linux on my PCs so the transition won't be so difficult. ![]() PowerPC was great in its time, and it still holds a place in my heart. But practically, it's not as good as what Intel (or even AMD for that matter) makes available on the x86 and x86_64 side and the G5 just cannot handle what the Core series of processors have been able to for some time now. You don't have to march to Apple's tune, though, especially with the viable alternatives available to you. But if you want what they're selling, then you better keep up with their tempo. There really isn't a problem here. The last PowerPC Macs were sold in 2006, so any PowerPC Mac will be at least 3 years old by the time 10.6 arrives. Since the changes are _mostly_ under the hood and we'll see application developers support both 10.5 and 10.6 for a while (and some even 10.4 still), you can still beat that dead horse for another year or two, although I seriously doubt you'll still consider the performance of a G4 Mac mini state of the art in mid 2011. Moving to a new Mac is also _much_ more expensive when you're talking PowerMac G5 -> Mac Pro! You're in the lucky position of having to replace a Mac mini somewhere down the road.
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