Wait for Leopard.
It does not matter how technologically you are inclned.
October is just next door
p
I'm on the verge of buying a Mac for the first time. What might be the practical differences between the Tiger and the Leopard? I'm not that techy.
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I'm on the verge of buying a Mac for the first time. What might be the practical differences between the Tiger and the Leopard? I'm not that techy.
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Wait for Leopard.
It does not matter how technologically you are inclned.
October is just next door
p
TimeMachine... but that is just my opinion.
http://www.apple.com/macosx/tiger/
http://www.apple.com/macosx/leopard/
They are both great.
Since you are admittedly "not that techy", it really does not matter. And if you have to ask, either is likely much better than your current environment.
I struggled with my PC while waiting for Leopard's earlier release,which was delayed until October. As I recall , it was boya84 who said, "Why wait?" I didn't. Tiger is a delight to use., and I find it more sensible. (And I'm not that techie, either.)
I notice that the "Tiger" iMacs now include iLife 08. (I have 06.) And all comes "packaged" in the new display design. (Mine is the previous generation.)
Regardless of your decision, the all-in-one design is remarkable. And so very quiet. The system lets me keep the screen neat and tidy rather than cluttered with icons, and everything is easy to find.
Angeline (not a moderator in the Mac forums, just a "newbie" who has found them to be very helpful)
If you need the machine, buy it now. The MacPro lap top is a good value and in mid run from time of release. So the kinks have been run out of that model and would be a good buy. Then again you may not need that power now. But you will later. So I always buy the most powerful machine I I can afford with the idea of holding on to it for a few years or more.
Look specifically at the amount of video RAM and the max RAM that the machine will hold, any machine less then 4 Gigs is going to be chugging in a few years. Max out the RAM. Just do not buy it at Apple. It usually is a customer installable part. Or take it to an Apple store and ask them to do it.
The difference between the 2 OS's will not be major factor in learning, although Leopard is the first OS to be written to really unleash the power of the Intel chip, the core operating system stays the same. I like to wait about 2 months before I upgrade to a new OS and see how the new software is doing. Sometimes it goes smooth, other times, it takes some months to get the bugs out.
Let the masses be the beta testers. Check the apple boards and other apple related sites, now people get a a little hostile when on Mac sites they say their having problems, then the genius answer comes, mine works fine. Just look for a trend and see how many upgrades that Apple comes out with.
When I got the computer, I would get the biggest Hard Drive available. I would erase the hard drive and divide it into 3 sections. Say the 7200 RPM 150 Gig drive. Make drive 1. 50 Megs drive 2. 75 megs and drive 3. 25 megs. Or some kind of combination, just keep one drive into pristine condition and keep it big as Leopard will probably need room to run.
Use your Restore software to and set up drive, it has all your software on it and will give you practice for upgrading to Leopard 1 as your current Tiger system, very easy and if any questions, just ask.
just load apple software on this drive 1, anything else should go on drive 3, save your files to drive 3 .
Keep drive 2 nice and clean, put nothing on it, so when you do buy Leopard you can do a clean install of the new software on drive 2.
You can still keep tiger on drive 1 , the computer will not care which operating system your using, you just select drive 1 or 2 as the start up disk.
Oh yes, buy an external drive to back up your files, you should have a combo deal. a small portable Hard Drive and use DVDs to back stuff up also. You should have a superdrive that reads and writes double sided DVDs giving you almost 9 Gigs of Back up. To rely on just one back up of very important files is asking for trouble.
So yes buy what you want. Your 3 months out from a stable version of Leopard and if it comes out earlier, I have seen them cut the price or give you the new operating system. Go into the Apple store and haggle a bit, your in the drivers seat, you want the Mac]. So now they have to please you, or go on the phone and see what you can do. They seem less flexible, but more willing to point out any promotion going on. to lower the point.
Be sure to read Apples Educational Discount policy, if you have kids in school or meet it's requirements, it can save you some money
Geoff