When the announcement was made that the entire iMac line would
move to the new Intel Core 2 Duo processor, I knew that a
life-changing event was on the horizon. For the first time in over
ten years, I would own a computer with an Intel processor. I have
owned some PCs in last ten years, but they all had AMD
processors.
I knew I would be returning to the Intel fold, because I also
knew from experience that as soon as the Core 2 Duo iMacs were released, the "old" Core Duo iMacs would be moved to the
Special Deals section of Apple's online store. And when that
happened, I knew they would be steeply discounted.
Just as I expected, it happened. And as soon as it happened, I
became the owner of a new "old" 20" iMac 2 GHz Intel Core Duo, and
at $500 discount from what it had sold for only the day before, and
with free shipping even!
The iMac was advertised as being refurbished, and it came in one
of the Apple brown boxes that all their refurb products are
packaged in. I have a sneaking suspicion that it is not really
refurbished, but was in fact a new iMac merely repackaged to
differentiate it from the current models. I base this conjecture on
absolutely no inside knowledge or hard facts whatsoever, merely a
gut feeling.
I have no need, and in fact not much desire, to be on the
bleeding edge. I have not purchased a truly new Mac since before
the PowerPC era began. I always buy factory refurbished or the
previous model once new models arrive. I suppose you could call
some of these purchases "new", because they had never been out of
the box - even though they weren't the current model - but you get
the idea.
The iMac replaced our 17" PowerBook
G4/1 GHz. The 20" iMac dwarfed the 17" PowerBook even more than
the PowerBook did when it replaced our previous 15" PowerBook Titanium G4/500.
I must admit, I was initially skeptical about Apple's move to
Intel. It seemed anathema to the idea of thinking different.
However, as soon as I fired up the iMac, I was a convert. The
boot-up was incredibly quick, undoubtedly owing in large part to
Intel's Extensible Firmware Interface (EFI), a replacement for the
old legacy BIOS still used in the Windows world.
The iMac was very responsive when running any Intel-native
program. Performance understandably slowed a bit when running
PowerPC apps through Apple's Rosetta translation program (which
really is seamless, by the way).
The display is crisp and bright, and the angle at which you can
still see the screen is noticeably better than the PowerBook. I
won't recite all the specifications (you can click on the link at
the beginning of the article to check them out for yourself), but
suffice to say I am very pleased with the standard features. I plan
on writing more in-depth on the features and accessories, such as
Mighty Mouse, built-in iSight, and Front Row, in a later column.
But I am already impressed.
The programs I use most are Mail, Word 2004, Safari, iTunes,
Pages, and Quicken 2004. Quicken and Word are not Intel-native, and
both are a bit slower to launch. However, once open, both of these
programs are more than acceptable in their responsiveness.
My wife, Kay, primarily uses Word and Entourage 2004, Safari,
iTunes, iPhoto, iWeb, and Quicken 2004. Entourage shares the same
sluggish startup as Word, but things move along well once it's
launched.
More programs are becoming available daily in Intel versions or
updates. Typically, they are released as a Universal Binary, which
contains both PowerPC and Intel versions of the program. If my
brief experience is a long-term indicator, as more programs run
natively on Intel, the speed problems should disappear.
I don't plan on using Boot Camp to install Windows. However, I
will definitely be trying out Parallels
Desktop for Mac
with Windows. I'm intrigued by this product's use of
Intel's virtualization technology to run Windows alongside Mac
OS X without having to reboot.
The only compatibility issue I've run into is from the ClamAV antivirus program. I had to
update the scan engine to run on Intel. However, the program told
me this as soon as it tried to launch it, and it provided a link to
download the update. This is exactly the way programs should handle
this situation; kudos to ClamAV.
Right now, the iMac is still in stock form. The only upgrade we
have planned is boosting the standard 512 MB of RAM to either 1 or
2 GB. That in itself should help speed up programs running
through Rosetta.
I'll post updates and observations periodically. For now, I am
looking forward to my Intel adventures!
