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OK, I have spent all morning trying to find free applicationware on the net to play the ILE sound-bytes Graham has kindly made. I'm sure another hour or tree wd give me what I seek BUT I feel I'm trying kid myself my donkey is a jet-fighter.

I want an OS which will do MUSIC, the NET (primarily to read and find music) and EMAIL (obv) and WORDPROCESSING, pref. Word 5.1, the last non-irritating generation of this app. (An OS which is unable to play any kinds of games is a bonus, which actually I doubt exists.)

What are yr thts. How much wuill they cost me? 95% of my records are secondhand: as is my fridge and cooker. Shd my pooter be new, or pre-housebroken?

― mark s, Sunday, 26 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

(I am a mac hed, and doubt that will change. I am poor but honest, and on surprisingly good terms w. my bank manager, who is 12 and easily dazzled.)

― mark s, Sunday, 26 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Mark - do you have a lot of stuff on floppy disc that you need to keep? If not, I'd say go for an imac or even a G3, older models of which can be bought refurbished/'as new' from places like Mac Warehouse for less than £600 (they'll almost certainly do deals w/cd burners thrown in too, pretty much a necessity if you're doing w/out a floppy drive. Mac Warehouse advertise in all the Mac Mags.) At work I use an imac which can play quicktime and mp3s etc, and I also have Quark Express and Photoshop loaded onto it, without too much strain. Unless you're planning on playing Deep Blue at chess, you prob. won't need all the computing power of a modern G4...

― Andrew L, Sunday, 26 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

If you feel like stealing candy from a baby, go to The Apple Store, where you can get a brand new iMac for £800, or a tiny new iBook for £1100.

Or do what Andrew says and get something refurbished for cheap.

Alternatively go for something secondhand (Min specs: 120MHz Power Mac, 32MB+ Ram, 1Gig HD). I point you towards Low End Mac, and look at the Computer Profiles top right. Have a look on eBay. There's a bunch of Power Macs half way down Page 5: That 7600/132 is my pick, you can put a G3 upgrade in it if you want, and it should go for £100-£150. You'd be able to use your current mouse, keyboard and monitor, though you may want a new one.

It just depends how much you want to spend.

― Graham, Sunday, 26 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

The Mac may as well not be able to play games for all that's released on it.

― Greg, Sunday, 26 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

[actually it's my current mouse which tipped the decision: it was acting up, so I flipped it open to scalpel the grunge off the wheels — tech talk = so sexy, no? — to find that they were fine, except one of them is no longer in active regular physical contact with the rubber ball... probably I can bend something, but more likely I will break something , and my trusty mouse, thickly patina'd with the skingrease of five years' swirling mm-mm, will be no more]

― mark s, Sunday, 26 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Your mousing habits disgust me. Water can so easily be tea, etc.

― Tracer Hand, Sunday, 26 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Sinker + mouse = get a room.

― AP, Monday, 27 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I need to upgrade my system, too. After 10 years Mac OS I'm tempted to switch to Windows just cuz the $ goes much further (they throw in scanner, printer, software, modem, etc for less than cost of less-power iMac). Buuuuuut, I'm wanting to run DTP programs so, uhh, does anyone know about that stuff on Windows? Like, do Quark & Pagemaker even exist for Windows? And what's the main, most commercially used Windows DTP software (surely not MS Publisher — used that recently & it seemed kinda limited)?

― AP, Monday, 27 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

(look i had quite a rubbish "bank holiday" OK, while you toads were all off having fun so this is back on the table)

― mark s, Tuesday, 28 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

To answer my own questions (having sought expert advice): DTP on Windows = folly. Best solution for me = iMac, prolly model w/ 40GB HD. Best solution for Sinker = iMac, 20GB HD (CDRW version).

― AP, Thursday, 30 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I have upgraded!! New iMac — excellent deals to be had at the moment (prolly apply worldwide, oddly). Got 'em to add 512MB RAM for [converts currency] about 70 pounds.

― AP, Friday, 31 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Do what I'm doing: find a friend with an "obsolete" Powermac 7200 or some other beige Mac -- most will do the Internet and word-processing fine if you add some memory to them.

There really is no excuse for your mouse story, Mark. I personally have an extrememly low tolerance for squiffy mouse action. A little soap and water "down there" every couple of months wouldn't kill you you know :)

― Tracer Hand, Friday, 31 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

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