[swiftp]

There have been many posts lately about OSX and the Pismo (particularly the 400). Let me throw in a final word on the topic (as if this will be the last!)...

1) Performance is OK. Not screaming but OK. Not as good as OS9 but OK. I can use mine all the time using Office, IE5, iPhoto, iMovie etc and its productive. I have CPU monitor running continuously and I have observed that most of the time the spinning cursor appears when the CPU is not maxed out and so the problem must be in the design of the OS. The other time the hold up is with the PPP dial up function, well documented in this board. All this tells me that the speed problems are solveable and I should wait for a new version of the OS rather then shelling out �500+ for a new processor (even IF it was available).

2) The power gap is not big enough yet. Ti books at 667 G4, iBooks at 600 G3. That is not enough to warrent �2000+ of my money. Lets see mid year or later. I was in a dealers the other day and saw a customer upgrade from a 1400 to a Ti. WOW is she going to see a difference! Bottom line: THAT is an upgrade! Pismo owners have a great machine that is only just off the pace. I have come to the conclusion that my Pismo is worth keeping.

3) You cannot miss that users are concerned about speed. Apple are not Microsoft, they do listen (OSX 10.0 from PB is a case in point). From 8 onwards, the processors got faster and the OS required fewer resources. Look at Windows, it is ALWAYS ahead of the hardware curve (a famous virtual circle for Intel and MS).

4) OSs and apps do not get assembled like cars. Programming takes a long time (I know, I have been a programmer). At the moment OSX is a teenager, Office is a toddler and Photoshop isn't born (not over here anyway). We all know the way things are going and are really only on phase 1 of the conversion (classic into carbon). The real power of UNIX will come out in the second generation.

5) In conclusion, my Pismo is fine for the moment, the problems I experience are generally with the software (Office is VERY buggy) and the base OS. At the end of this year I think we will see a better situation AND have some super new portables to spend our virtual or even real money on. Hold on. Your Pismo has loads of advantages (expansion bay, build quality, extra battery etc) that are worth keeping!

Paul

Pismo 400/320/20 + extra 20 in EB

[poocat]

you're so right.
you're so right, in fact, that i'm still in os9 and i agree with you.


solid pismo beauty takes the cake too.
pismos are still being used in ads all over japan...
why?
(with apple logos removed, to be sure)

because they're PRETTY.
with a capital r.

poocat.

[Spheric Harlot]

Originally posted by swiftp:
<STRONG>The other time the hold up is with the PPP dial up function, well documented in this board.</STRONG>

http://forums.macnn.com/cgi-bin/ulti...&f=46&t=004005

[C33]

Originally posted by swiftp:
<STRONG>There have been many posts lately about OSX and the Pismo (particularly the 400). Let me throw in a final word on the topic (as if this will be the last!)...


5) In conclusion, my Pismo is fine for the moment, the problems I experience are generally with the software (Office is VERY buggy) and the base OS. At the end of this year I think we will see a better situation AND have some super new portables to spend our virtual or even real money on. Hold on. Your Pismo has loads of advantages (expansion bay, build quality, extra battery etc) that are worth keeping!

Paul

Pismo 400/320/20 + extra 20 in EB</STRONG>

oh, i definitely agree with much of what you said. in fact, when i eventually do get a Ti i'm still going to keep my dependable little pismo instead of selling it.

[Chris Allbritton]

I'll chime in here and say my 400MHz pismo running OS X 10.1.3 is teriffic. I find the speed just fine, and don't really have much of a problem at all (except when iTunes and Office are running at the same time.) I love my pismo, but covet the TiBook. It's doubtful I'll get both though. My next computer purchase will likely be an iMac (the Pismo is my only machine at the moment) and then I'll upgrade the pismo to a G4 TiBook. (I have no need of the expansion bays, but they're nice to have.)

All in all, the Pismo is one of the great success stories of Apple.

[spb]

The pismo was arguably apple's last great portable.

The Ti looks ok.. a bit dull compared to the cool black beauty of the Pismo if u ask me..and lacks the pismo's versatility.

But expansion-wise ( real media bays ) , 2 x firewire ports etc its still a great mac - sheesh ! - i wish i'd bought one instead of the crappy ibook !!

[/LIST]

[Diggory Laycock]

You are right - However there are two big problems:

1 - Battery life
2 - Sleep of death (unplugging USB too close to sleep/wake)

[seanyepez]

I use OS X on my Pismo. It's not fast at all, but it's usable. Mac OS X is the future of the Mac operating systems, and I guess I'll get used to it.

[chris m.]

I think OS X runs quite nicely on my Pismo. Having 640MB of RAM helps!

One great utility that has been very useful to me is the PowerLogix Cache Control for OS X. I set my cache to a 3:2 ratio which seems to speed things up nicely and is just as stable (note: stability may be machine dependent, so no promises here).

Also, does disabling write thru caching help performance also? I was under the impression that it does.

The 'one thing' that I think really hampers the performance of my Pismo is the lowly video - 8MB Rage 128. Yech.

[RBattin]

My 500 MHz Pismo runs OS X 10.1.3 very well wth 384 MB RAM. I tried the PowerLogix Cache Control for OS X at 3:2 but it crashed. Seems happy at 2:1 which bumps backside cache speed from 200 to 250 MHz. Haven't noticed much difference though.