Yes, it's true my 5-year-old hi-res PowerBook and Power Mac G5 Quad. I'm afraid
it's so, my friends still running Leopard and Tiger, there will be no more iLife
support for us (excuse the pun). With the announcement of iLife 11 with
no PowerPC support, we are officially obsolete in this age of Intel
Macs.
It was a sad day when Leopard arrived, leaving all G3 Macs and many
G4s high and dry and eliminating Classic Mode, but it was a much sadder
day when Snow Leopard pulled
an ambush and slammed the door shut on even the most powerful G5s,
marking the beginning of the end of support for PowerPCs.
Then came the non-PowerPC Adobe CS5, followed by that nifty Magic
Trackpad, which is only supported under Snow Leopard. The writing was
always on the wall, and the buzzards have been circling for quite some
time.
The final deathblow has been dealt, with Apple killing off support
altogether for PowerPC machines under the latest version of iLife (not
to mention FaceTime and the forthcoming Mac App Store). Say it ain't so
Apple!
It just doesn't seem right, but the end was nigh and had to come
sooner or later.
Apple could have at least kept Universal Binary versions of iPhoto
and iMovie available, but progress is progress, and it may be the final
push that PowerPC holdouts, including myself and many others,
needed.
Still Useful
My PowerPC Macs will always serve a purpose and will work to do many
productive (and nonproductive) tasks, but if you want to enjoy some of
the latest hardware and some of the newest software, upgrading is
inevitable. At least Apple gave PowerPC users five full years from the
release of the final PowerPC Macs before pulling the plug. Those same
Macs, all introduced over five years ago, running Tiger or Leopard
still have iLife '08 and iLife '09 to fall back on.
You can still can easily edit and share on Facebook. You can still
shoot HD video and edit it using iMovie HD '06 on a 1 GHz or
better G4. Many possibilities still exist to get the most out of our
older Macs, but the PowerPC generation is about to fall two or three
steps further behind, depending on whether you are running Leopard or
Tiger. Each new Snow Leopard-only application released or updated adds
compelling new features that can only be accessed with the latest
version of Mac OS.
The Intel Only Future
With the release of Mac OS X 10.7 Lion coming next summer and an
exclusive Mac App Store that will only be available to Snow Leopard
users, it appears that Steve Jobs has finally given PowerPC users an
ultimatum: Go Intel or be left behind.
It also would appear that the "free" section on Craigslist, along with computer recycling
centers, will be a bit busier in the foreseeable future as perfectly
functional, aging PowerPC machines hit the junk heaps. I've already
seen iMac G3s for $10 and eMacs for as low as $30 on my local
Craigslist. That's just a step away from someone literally placing no
salvage value whatsoever on these machines.
As for earlier Intel Macs that will run the latest OS - expect
continued premium resale values until another line is drawn in the
sand. The eventual exclusion of "Core Duo" Macs as everything moves to
64-bit is not so far fetched a thought.
Dan Bashur lives in central Ohio with his wife and children. He uses various PowerPC G3 and G4 Macs running Tiger and Leopard. Besides finding new uses for Macs and other tech, Dan enjoys writing (fantasy novel series in the works), is an avid gamer, and a member of Sony's Gamer Advisor Panel. You can read more of Dan Bashur's work on ProjectGamers.com, where he contributes regular articles about the PSP, classic gaming, and ways you can use Sony gaming hardware with your Mac.
