New iMacs on the way
I’m seriously at risk now of being labeled an Apple fanboy but I suppose like most people who read any I.T. related news each day you could not have failed to notice that Apple have launched their new range of iMacs.
Out of curiosity I popped over to the Apple site to have a look and at first I instantly thought “I want one”. But then I got thinking “do I really?” My initial reactions were almost the same as Swiss. Not long after I remembered that I had an iMac before and was less than impressed with it. For a while it was great but after less than 2 years the monitor started acting strange. Normally a few reboots would fix it. Then the monitor failed completely, so I ended up having to run it on an external monitor.
So external monitors? I reckon these are probably the Achilles heel of iMacs past and present. Usually monitors last a lot longer than the machines that they are connected to. I have a 17in Compaq here that I have being using flawlessly since 1998. The old PII 350Mhz that came with it has long been consigned to the scrapheap. So despite having nice design, a nice display and a top class display, the entire thing would have to be thrown out if in a few years to come it were being replaced. Trying to get that point across to someone in charge of purchasing would fall on deaf ears in any I.T. department especially considering that there may already be a glut of suitable monitors and LCDs around.
Still and all though the design is truly desirable, as too is the operating system. The news that the forthcoming version of OS X codenamed Leopard has been awarded UNIX03 certification certainly raised my eyebrows. So along with HP-UX running on my HP9000, in a few months I can lay claim to having three bona fide UNIX operating systems running here at home. Solaris 10 being the third. I would quite happily buy Leopard to run on some of my machines here provided Apple would oblige but buying an iMac in order to do so is out of the question which is a pity.
Having said all that as regular readers already know; I love my MacBook, but the MacBook falls into a different category and fulfills a particular need. It is not intended to replace any of my desktops but merely to compliment them. If I had the money I would but a MacPro to replace one of my desktops but the things are staggeringly expensive. Apple seem to be missing something in the middle ground between the Mac Mini, iMac and MacPro and indeed this is something that is mentioned in an article that I came across today.
I was smiling to myself as I was reading it because they echo my own thought almost exactly. So I guess it proves that I’m not the only one having reservations.