I wrote this at a brand new hotel and conference center at the
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. It was "Adobe Day," where
official reps from Adobe come out to present new features of Creative
Suite 4.
The Marketing Machine
I was surrounded by creative professionals of every skill level in
the birthplace of supercomputing, hearing about bleeding edge software
features, and I couldn't help but laugh. "1,700-person years went into
the upgrade from CS3 to CS4," according to the rep.
I laughed because, while the new suite is impressive, the clients I
normally deal with will probably never need any application from Adobe
(with the exception of Acrobat or possibly Elements), and watching the
parade of high-end features was so foreign to my everyday experience.
Note that I said my clients will probably not need CS4. That
doesn't stop people from wanting the latest version of Photoshop, even
if they'll only take 200 digital photos in their entire life and have
no other use for an image editor.
Adobe, like Microsoft, has become so dominant that it's filtered
down into the consciousness of even the most basic computer user.
Do I Need It?
That's where I usually step in, when someone is asking him or
herself, "What's right for me, and do I really have to spend
that much?"
More and more, thanks to open source software, the answer to the
latter question is "No!" But in addition to that is a resource that a
lot of people overlook: used computers.
My personal philosophy, which stems from a lifetime of recycling and
learning to make the most out of the least, is that every working
computer is useful to someone, and despite what the Marketing
Machine claims, any computer made in the last six-to-eight years will
be enough for most users.
For families struggling to balance the cost of gas, food, clothes,
textbooks, and the occasional toy for their kids, the $350 price tags
on the cheapest desktops available at Big Box stores is hard to
swallow, especially once purchasing a warranty and extra software
pushes that price way up. Nothing gives me more satisfaction than
showing them that they have other options, whether it be refurbs, used
machines, or upgrading a computer they already have.
Budget Macs
I especially love introducing families who have kids in
elementary school to the slot-loading, all-in-one iMac G3,
starting with the first FireWire
model. The selling points are compelling: for somewhere in the vicinity of $100
and with minimal upgrades to the stock configuration, you can have a
compact, fairly rugged machine capable of running Mac OS X.4.11 (and OS
9) that works with almost any printer, can go online wirelessly, can
play a wide variety of educational games made between 1995 and 2005,
and is virtually immune to viruses and other malware.
Combined with free apps like NeoOffice (or
Bean, AbiWord, or iText) and the GIMP, and not having to buy a new
monitor or printer, and it becomes a very easy sell. I offer lessons,
too, so that parents and kids who aren't familiar with anything but
Windows can start to feel at home with their Mac. In my experience to
date, thanks to the intuitive nature of OS X, it takes a
surprisingly short amount of time for them to feel like pros.
Then, when the kids get older, start high school, and maybe want
more power from their computer to learn image editing or to get more
out of the modern Web (especiallystreaming video), I offer a trade-in
program that allows them to move up to, say, a Power Mac G4 for not much more than
they paid for the iMac. The credit from the trade-in can go towards a
monitor, and the beautiful thing about the G4s is that they are very
upgradeable, meaning I can customize them for the family's needs and
budget.
Environmental Footprint
Say what you
will about energy requirements for older hardware, the negative
ecological footprint of a Power Mac G4 sitting in a high schooler's
room while he writes an essay or plays Runescape is much smaller that same
Power Mac corroding away in a dump. Keeping perfectly good machines in
service and out of the landfill is a significant goal for me.
Helping families find a good computer at an affordable price is very
satisfying. Watching a grandmother discover how easy it is to video
chat with her grandkids across the country is a joy. Seeing the
lightbulbs go on when people realize their Office files created on a
Windows PC will work on a Mac, and watching the disbelief cross the
face of a parent when you explain that the computer doesn't need to run
anti-virus software - these are the experiences that motivate me.
We're fortunate to live in a world where Macs and OS X exist, and
though they're not right for everyone, they fit the bill for a lot of
people.
My next article will cover the challenge of finding resources, both
hardware and software, for older Macs. Just a hint: Low End Mac is a
great place to start! 
About the Author
Allison Payne grew up in the 80s surrounded by computers and later
found herself troubleshooting the pesky things wherever she went. Just
before deciding to swear off of them completely, she was introduced to
Mac OS X. The rest, as they say, is history.
Her husband gave her his college PowerBook 1400 to play with, which led
to an obsession with vintage Macs of all varieties. It also led her to
Low End Mac. Now, when she's not fixing everything her users break at
her day job or herding her brain-cell-deficient cats, she owns and
operates Alliance Family Computers, designs bizarre video games with
her kid brother, participates in ill-advised month-long writing challenges, and
maintains a petting zoo of vintage Macs in her basement.
