what Macs to buy - I have specific needs

I have 2 pieces of software which I will probably need to be able to run for
the rest of my life, or at least for many-many years to come, and neither run
on intel Macs and one of them runs semi-perfectly only on G5s. Hence, I need
to stock up on some G4 Macs which would last me, say, 25 years, although G5
is also a possibility.

What would be the best strategy? I am thinking of buying a few eMacs. Do you
have any better suggestions? What and how many?

Thanks, PaulN

In article <e1lt1l$rp6$>,
wrote:

> I have 2 pieces of software which I will probably need to be able to run for
> the rest of my life, or at least for many-many years to come, and neither run
> on intel Macs and one of them runs semi-perfectly only on G5s. Hence, I need
> to stock up on some G4 Macs which would last me, say, 25 years, although G5
> is also a possibility.
>
> What would be the best strategy? I am thinking of buying a few eMacs. Do you
> have any better suggestions? What and how many?

Switch to other software that can do the job, because no hardware will
last more than a few years these days, nor will it in the future. :-)

What kind of software is this, that isn't updated, can only run on Mac's
G5's, can't be recompiled, nor run on Intel Macs under Rosetta emulation
mode?

--
Hans Aberg

On 2006-04-13, Paul Nevai <> wrote:
> I have 2 pieces of software which I will probably need to be able to run for
> the rest of my life, or at least for many-many years to come, and neither run
> on intel Macs and one of them runs semi-perfectly only on G5s. Hence, I need
> to stock up on some G4 Macs which would last me, say, 25 years, although G5
> is also a possibility.
>
> What would be the best strategy? I am thinking of buying a few eMacs. Do you
> have any better suggestions? What and how many?

25 years!!!

In that case, do not spend a single penny on hardware. Instead, save
your money to pay a developer to write applications for you which
provide the necessary functionality. Specify that the applications
should be written to use open standards and supplied to you as C
source code. Also ask for full documentation of the design (flow
charts etc) so that if C has fallen into disuse in 24 years they
can be easily recoded.

Ian

--
Ian Gregory
http://www.zenatode.org.uk/ian/

(Hans Aberg) aszonygya:
:In article <e1lt1l$rp6$>,
: wrote:
:
:> I have 2 pieces of software which I will probably need to be able to run for
:> the rest of my life, or at least for many-many years to come, and neither run
:> on intel Macs and one of them runs semi-perfectly only on G5s. Hence, I need
:> to stock up on some G4 Macs which would last me, say, 25 years, although G5
:> is also a possibility.
:>
:> What would be the best strategy? I am thinking of buying a few eMacs. Do you
:> have any better suggestions? What and how many?
:
:Switch to other software that can do the job, because no hardware will
:last more than a few years these days, nor will it in the future. :-)

I could switch but I won't. MYM runs only on classic and it is the perfect
financial software which I have been using for 15+ years. This has been
discussed before and the concensus was to keep a Mac just for MYM.

:What kind of software is this, that isn't updated, can only run on Mac's
:G5's, can't be recompiled, nor run on Intel Macs under Rosetta emulation
:mode?

The Palm version of MetroWerks [unless someone can recompile for me which is
most unlikely]. It runs on G3-G5.

/PaulN

Paul Nevai <> wrote:

> I have 2 pieces of software which I will probably need to be able to run for
> the rest of my life, or at least for many-many years to come, and neither run
> on intel Macs and one of them runs semi-perfectly only on G5s. Hence, I need
> to stock up on some G4 Macs which would last me, say, 25 years, although G5
> is also a possibility.
>
> What would be the best strategy? I am thinking of buying a few eMacs. Do you
> have any better suggestions? What and how many?

You will not be able to keep any current electronic device running for
25 years without at least some maintenance -- replacing capacitors, etc.
For a computer, which depends on rapidly changing technologies, this
will be even harder. In twenty (or even ten) years, will you be able to
find an ATA drive or a PCI card?

In any case, eMacs or any other models with built-in displays are a very
poor choice for what you want to do. I suggest you become an eBay
regular and start acquiring a stable of PowerMac G4s. You could store
them in your bomb shelter.

Paul Nevai wrote:

> I have 2 pieces of software which I will probably need to be able to run for
> the rest of my life, or at least for many-many years to come, and neither run
> on intel Macs and one of them runs semi-perfectly only on G5s. Hence, I need
> to stock up on some G4 Macs which would last me, say, 25 years, although G5
> is also a possibility.
>
> What would be the best strategy? I am thinking of buying a few eMacs. Do you
> have any better suggestions? What and how many?

Would it help us answer your questions if we knew the names of these
two pieces of software? 5-10 years is nothing in dog years, but 25 is a
lot of dog years.

Davoud

--
usenet *at* davidillig dawt com

Paul Russell <> wrote:

> 25 years sounds like a long time but it really isn't - there are plenty
> of > 25 year old systems which still run fine today (e.g. Apple ][).

Being able to find isolated individual systems that still run after that
long is worlds different from being able to count on a particular system
doing so. It is the difference between "it could happen in rare cases"
versus "it will very likely happen".

I actually happen to still have an Apple IIe (sold my II+ when I got the
IIe). It worked last time I powered it up, which was less than a year
ago. But I also invested in a copy of Virtual II, mostly for the
nostalgia value (and it prompted me to play with Bard's Tale a little,
as that's one game I recalled spending time on a few decades ago). With
Virtual II, I can run programs without putting strain on the old
hardware - particularly the floppy drives and my old floppy media.

> I'd suggest getting a few of the most recent G4 towers plus some spare
> parts (disk drives, keyboards, mice, monitors, etc) and mothball the
> spares and any machines that are not needed in the short term in a
> clean, dry environment where the temperature is stable.

Exceptions no doubt exist, but I would not expect hard disk drives to
take well to "mothballing". Spindles get stuck, etc. You actually do
better if you spin the thing up every so often - not enough to put a lot
of wear on it, but enough to spread the lubricants around and avoid
other stiction issues. A lot like an old car, and for much the same
reasons. It will probably be in better shape if that proverbial little
old lady from Pasadena did drive it to church once a month or so.

--
Richard Maine | Good judgment comes from experience;
email: my first.last at org.domain| experience comes from bad judgment.
org: nasa, domain: gov | -- Mark Twain

In article <e1m0bm$rv8$>,
(Paul Nevai) wrote:

> :Switch to other software that can do the job, because no hardware will
> :last more than a few years these days, nor will it in the future. :-)
>
> I could switch but I won't. MYM runs only on classic and it is the perfect
> financial software which I have been using for 15+ years. This has been
> discussed before and the concensus was to keep a Mac just for MYM.

I have encountered a similar situation, some scripting software, that a
lot of Hollywood people seemed to use, and*therefore others,
only*available for Mac OS 9. A*check of this software, seemed to suggest
that*development of it had been dropped. So I looked for other software,
and there was some much better ones for Mac OS X available.

So I suggest you to do the same: Software that isn't developed is not
worth having. Consider the migration problems. It could be that the
software you are looking for is not yet here. Then use the one you have,
until the right*software shows up. But if your current software isn't
developed anymore, it's time to drop it. There few exceptions of this for
commercial software, as such software is*usually hacked together, with a
lot of bugs and limitations. (A non-commercial program, that is not
developed anymore is TeX, which is a standard in some technical
typesetting, such as math, but its sources are open, and one can freely
develope ones own*version*of it, as folks also do. Commercial,
undeveloped, closed software, is moribund.)

--
Hans Aberg

In article <e1m0bm$rv8$>,
(Paul Nevai) wrote:

> (Hans Aberg) aszonygya:
> :
> :Switch to other software that can do the job, because no hardware will
> :last more than a few years these days, nor will it in the future. :-)
>
> I could switch but I won't. MYM runs only on classic and it is the perfect
> financial software which I have been using for 15+ years. This has been
> discussed before and the concensus was to keep a Mac just for MYM.

What does MYM say is the long term cost for such a decision? It's just
numbers, Paul, and other software running on newer hardware can feed up
the same numbers. Other than stubborn refusal, you make no case in
favor of MYM being a future noose around your neck.

> :What kind of software is this, that isn't updated, can only run on Mac's
> :G5's, can't be recompiled, nor run on Intel Macs under Rosetta emulation
> :mode?
>
> The Palm version of MetroWerks [unless someone can recompile for me which is
> most unlikely]. It runs on G3-G5.

So what is it you're really looking to do here? You need to get past
the software and say what problem you're trying to solve. If you want
to do Palm development, I'm sure that there are still plenty of
solutions, all best discussed in a Palm group (although a quick Google
search easily turns up <http://www.palmos.com/dev/tools/gcc/>).

--
My personal UDP list: 127.0.0.1, 4ax.com, buzzardnews.com, googlegroups.com,
heapnode.com, localhost, x-privat.org

In article <e1lt1l$rp6$>,
(Paul Nevai) wrote:

> What would be the best strategy? I am thinking of buying a few eMacs. Do you
> have any better suggestions? What and how many?

You're not going to find any hardware by anyone which will run for 25
years. Your best strategy is to make sure you have control of the apps
you need, assuming you're using them for a business.

--
We are the music makers, And we are the dreamers of dreams,
Wandering by lone sea-breakers, And sitting by desolate streams.
from "Ode", Arthur O'Shaughnessy