> And then there's the shiny, revamped logo

The reflection on the new chrome logo is nothing but Steve Job's receding hairline. Gotta get with the times, ya know?

Apple continues to kick ass. There isn't enough good I can say about the company and their technology. I get things done with their equipment and enjoy the process. I just placed an order for a 12". And look at what they are doing for Virginia Tech. Fucking amazing.

Adobe continues to kick ass. I use all their applications, don't care for Quark or Macromedia at all. PDF technology ceases to amaze me. I LOVE the new box designs and well as their site.

As for the logo. I trust Apple.

> I just placed an order for a 12"

Don't mean to brag -- just sharing the joy. I'm the new owner of one of the new 15" Powerbooks. It's amazing -- faster and more powerful than my almost-new office G4 desktop.

I hear that Apple changed the housing to aluminum because it was a more conductive metal than titanium. Better Airport reception and heat dissipation.

I love their technology because it's seamlessly, transparently woven in with good design. Just brilliant.

The new Adobe boxes are indeed nice. Very straightforward and elegant, unlike some other crap... I was going to link Macromedia under the word crap, but I see they cleaned up their MX boxes. That whole crystal ball with rays and lightning they had when it came out was just terrible.

My TiBook will have to do for a little while longer...but I love my 10 gig iPod! There aren't many places I go where it's not with me.

As far as the new adobe apps go, I, too, love the new box designs. I wonder if ol' venus on the halfshell is still lurking around there somewhere. If not, that will be as radical a departure as when Apple nixed the happy mac from the startup screen.

I will wait six months to buy so they have time to get all the bugs fixed.

Macromedi'as only good product is Dreamweaver;although now that I have converted to CSS, I hardly use it!

I got my 12" this weekend. I'm in love.

This is all just further cementing my plans that in 6-8 months, I'll do a full system upgrade - new G5, OS X (finally...), and all the big apps. I'll even learn InDesign and make that switch. But like Rick, I'm waiting for the bugs to get worked out, as always. (And I don't have the cash now!)

As for that chrome logo...I'm not overly enamored of it if they really have built in a swoosh to it. I'm guessing it's the highlight and will look better when they unveil it. If it's conceptually meant to be a "horizon", then I'm horrified, because Apple doesn't go for the tired cliche in product design and they shouldn't in identity design either.

What would really impress me, though, is to see an optimized Office suite and some other business programs to be launched. Market share is razor thin these days and I'm dying for them to make a big concerted push back into the business realm. Yes, I'm dreaming.

I have been trying to get to Adobe's download section to try out the latest versions of Photoshop and Illustrator, but to no avail. From the new feature descriptions, though, I am not sure whether the improvements are significant enough for me to really make a business case for upgrading. Has anyone here been able to try out the new versions yet? I would love to hear what people think of the upgrade.

Apparently Apple has been doing quite well with their laptop sales:

Apple laptop marketshare up

Mmmm, yummy laptops.

This is a weird thread, because I can't see anyone taking a negative stance regarding any of Apple's moves -- except the logo maybe.

In Seattle, there was also a new Apple Store opening this weekend. Band and everything. Throngs of people, as usual.

Oh...ok, I do have one gripe about the Apple Store. It's their customer repair/service counter at the stores -- their so-called "Genius Bar". I've had to go twice for small, minor hardware exchanges -- and it wasn't a positive experience. The service personnels were anything but geniuses, and the whole concept was pretentious and stupid. I don't want a "consultant" or "service associate" talking to me like this is my first mac. I would've been really impressed with a competent 20 year-old technician hell-bent on getting me out of there as quickly and efficiently as possible. It didn't happen.

Small gripe, but it slurred my impression of the Apple Store. Anyone have a different experience?

It's hard to take a negative stance on smart decisions... goodness knows they've been a long time coming.

Nevertheless, I'd still have to sell a kidney to own a G5 and monitor that I'd be proud to call my own. Not to mention the mere software costs involved in a switch.

The packaging was done by Meta Design in SF. It is very nice, if not a little outdated (since Saville was doing the exact same thing in 1987 for Yohji Yamamoto), but I suppose it takes a little while for corporations to catch up to the fashion world. But kudos to Meta for being able to move Adobe that far in one shot.

My only real criticism of the packaging is that everything revealed in the silhouettes are either flora or fauna, except in the Dreamweaver package which is a shot of the constellations. I understand the metaphor, I just wish they had broken the rules elsewhere so that I wouldn't think that there were rules set up in the first place.

But they sure do look nice!

I meant GoLive, not Dreamweaver (brain fart), sorry about the confusion.

genius bar

My only experience with them was over my first iPod. Over the phone, Apple tech support insisted that I'd need to pay nearly the list price to have the unit fixed after I dropped it all of 2 feet and it stopped working. The "genius" who helped me in the store, though, went through a whole checklist of things and figured out that they could replace mine for free. So, in that instance, she was a true genius, and I am still a happy iPodder.

Jonsel, the thing with the iPod is that Apparently Apple doesn't do much in the way of fixing them. They pretty much just replace them if something goes wrong.

Like having a crap battery.

Seriously. Shortly after they came out, I came across a writeup from some guy who got a unit that died on him; can't remember whether he killed the battery or what. But anyway, Apple service basically refused to crack the thing open and put a new battery in. They insisted all they could do was trade it out and, like you said, charge him nearly full price for the "repair." I'm hoping this policy has since changed.

Don't mean to brag -- just sharing the joy. I'm the new owner of one of the new 15" Powerbooks. It's amazing -- faster and more powerful than my almost-new office G4 desktop.

i don't think so...but i think a 17" for presentations will be great. i had a 12" that i tested on a trip and it was sure a great machine for travel.

Macromedi'as only good product is Dreamweaver

freehand still rules over illustrator, plus flash is pretty amazing as well.

but i guess that is not the point. apple seems to be shifting from a computer company into something else. the new logo, if that really will be it, does not seem to have much punch. but it might work great for "little apple gadgets" such as ipod and others on the horizon.

as for adobe. they sure rip us users off with all their million updates. its all about getting a few hundred bucks out of us every year and not about really improving the products. its always about "let's hold a few things back" and we'll bring these out in 8 month. the other part i hate is that they sell a product, we all upgrade and then they come out with a package deal, basically giving everyone that already purchased the standalong upgrade the big "fuck you.. didn't we screw you over... ha,ha"

anyway,

ps

But this is listed as a full product upgrade first... ? One could argue that PS 8 isn't much different than 7, but the file management alone is worth a good chunk of money.

freehand still rules over illustrator

Let's not get this started. This is totally subjective and is based on what you started with in my experience.

Apple, however, is the only system in the game as far as I can tell. I don't understand why some web developers subject themselves to working on a Wintel system. The efficiency deficit alone drives me up the wall when I have to switch to the ubiquitous beige box running XP on my desk.

the great thing about the Creative Suite is this:

I own Photoshop.

I own Illustrator.

I don't own InDesign. (Yet.)

If I upgrade each product separately, I spend:

$169 for PS

$169 for AI

$699 for InDesign.

Or, thanks to the new upgrade scheme, I get all three for $549. Adobe has finally gotten generous, and is basicall giving InDesign away to those of us that have not yet made the switch. Thanks, Adobe!

adobe's new suite isn't causing much excitement here - i'm not seeing a real reason to upgrade yet.

i put in a call to adobe this morning to see what my pricing would be to upgrade, since i just bought upgrades to photoshop7.0.1, illustrator 10.0.3, acrobat 6, and indesign 2.02 just two weeks ago. my answer: the usual upgrade price. nice customer service, guys.

as for apple...whatever. my dual 1gig g4 is fine. i don't need one of the new space heaters. my faith in them is actually waning. their system update (10.2.8) from last week was so buggy that they pulled it after two days of being online. unfortunately, my system had upgraded itself before it got pulled. so much for suitcase running smoothly. feh.

>Adobe has finally gotten generous, and is basicall giving InDesign away to those of us that have not yet made the switch.

Particularly to new users. Look at it this way:

~$1000 will get you a copy of Quark.

Or a copy of InDesign, Photoshop, Illustrator, Acrobat and GoLive.

What would you choose?

---

ps: freehand still rules over illustrator

Steven: Let's not get this started. This is totally subjective and is based on what you started with in my experience.

Apple, however, is the only system in the game as far as I can tell. I don't understand why some web developers subject themselves to working on a Wintel system.

---

I generally consider it in poor taste to use someone's own words against them, but come on...

But to actually respond:

1> I use a Windows machine because for starters I love Homesite and I really hate BBEdit. But then, I used Homesite first. I used Windows first, for that matter. Hmmm.

2> Are you aware of a Mac version of IIS?

3>"Subjecting" and "not having the money to throw at buying a new computer*, software/font licences, and accesories" are very different things.

...and so on. I'm of the opinion that you should use the tool that does what you want, the way you want it to. I'm used to Windows, but there are some things I do find Macs do a bit better; luckily I now have access to both. There are also plenty of things I find ridiculous about Macs, beginning with the arcane, cramp-inducing keyboard shortcuts which I've yet to find a good explanation for.

*And expensive. I can get a very nice new** PC system for $600. With a Mac, I start at $1999, with the only step-down option being to accept an LCD screen(already a negative) with a likely maximum resolution of 1024x768.

**"New" is a real consideration for me in this argument, given how aggresively Apple is closing out legacy users right now.

Apple, however, is the only system in the game as far as I can tell. I don't understand why some web developers subject themselves to working on a Wintel system. The efficiency deficit alone drives me up the wall when I have to switch to the ubiquitous beige box running XP on my desk.

Come on - it's not that bad! I admit to drooling over most things Mac, but frankly XP works exceedingly well and my trusty beige box still has more oomph than most G4 towers. Besides, it cost me less than half what a comparable Mac system would bite me for. It's all a matter of what works for you.

Sorry, but it just bugs me that I keep getting sneered at for using a Wintel machine in a Mac-centric design world - it works better for me since most of my clients are Windows folk - and for my wallet!

I'll never argue that Macs are more elegant and epitomize good design, but there are alternatives.

Oi, I have read enough flame wars on platform preference, and lots of misinformation on both sides. It is a preference. Period. I want to hear about what everyone thinks about the new Adobe products, and about the Apple branding.

I don't understand why some web developers subject themselves to working on a Wintel system.

That comment is as subjective as you state the debate over FH and AI is.

(I think both FH and AI suck these days...anyone using Corel or Stone Studio?)

OK, now to chastise SU:

*And expensive. I can get a very nice new** PC system for $600. With a Mac, I start at $1999

I use a Mac, Windows, and Linux boxes, so I'm not taking any subjective sides to the argument, but I'll play along.

You can get a usable PC for around $600. A nice, usable Mac can be had for $800/$900. So, your price spread is a little exaggerated there.

"not having the money to throw at buying a new computer*, software/font licences, and accesories"

Oops. My reply got cut off.

To continue...

FYI, all your PC fonts will work fine in OSX. And most common USB/FW peripherals will work just fine as well.

Are you aware of a Mac version of IIS?

No. Thank goodness. ;o)

I actually love the ease of config'ing IIS with the GUI front end. I wish somone would write a GUI for Apache like that.

Anyways, the platforms debate is usually silly. It can be debated with objective observations, but everything I've heard in this thread is rather subjective and, at times, inaccurate. Granted, it makes for a fun argument...

I'm pretty excited about the new Photoshop - particularly about Camera RAW being integrated, along with the other features for messing with digital photos (in 16 bit colour no less!).

I'm also looking forward to the new InDesign - I switched from Quark when ID2 came out and haven't looked back. As far as I'm concerned, it can only get better from here.

I'll be upgrading as soon as I can scrape together the cash.

I also think it's interesting that GoLive is getting bundled with the Premium package.... It might make it worth my while to learn it.

I'm curious about the Adobe upgrades. Photoshop usually adds some nice goodies, while Illustrator just keeps getting stranger, while forgetting all sorts of basic little things(Why can't I drag a layer from one doc to another?). I'm still confused by that lens flare tool. Can't wait to see what happens next.

I await their postings on Usenet with baited breath.

It's been a very long time since I've used GoLive. I might take a peek at it out of morbid curiosity. I found it hellish to use then. There was this huge bank of buttons with meaningless, unlabelled icons on them. It took three palettes and two toolbars to define a CSS selector. Just bizarre. Pagemill was like Duplo blocks, but at least the thing was usable.

Darrel: Sorry, but I specified "new" and gave reason. My price spread holds. Aftermarket/used products are another matter.

Darrel: Sorry, but I specified "new" and gave reason. My price spread holds. Aftermarket/used products are another matter.

SU...you can get a new new eMac for $799. I found a roughly similiar Dell for $499. Certainly a price difference, but not quite to the extent that you were inferring.

As for the higher-end machines, I tried to configure a Dell with roughly the same specs at the $2,999 Dual 2Ghz G5. I came to a price of $3,030 on the Dell. Which actually surprised me in how close they are.

Really now, what else do you want from Adobe & Photoshop? I'd like you to make a list of things you need and can't do with PS7 and that fall reasonably within the duties of a bitmap graphics editor. If you don't feel the need to upgrade - don't! What else is there? Were you expecting a 3D interface and the ability to turn a regular monitor into a touchscreen?

And did someone really mention Stone software in the same sentence as Adobe? Ugh.

Personally I don't think Illustrator has added anything useful since v.8 (except bloat), but I'm happy to hear that performance is increased across the board. Also a friend of mine got his hands on Indesign CS and can only say good things.

Now how about Streamline CS? ;)

PS. You probably won't be able to download trials until All-that-is-CS is released in November.

PSS. Flash MX 2004 is a joy to work with! Macromedia really has been quite brilliant lately.

And did someone really mention Stone software in the same sentence as Adobe? Ugh.

Yes. I did. I was asking for opinions. Hopefully a bit more detailed than 'ugh' ;o)

I've been pretty much a Macromedia user these past 5 years or so. The products that MM now releases are increasingly buggy, increasingly slower, and increasingly bloated. Add to that activation schemes and I'm getting a little weary of the product line. Adobe isn't a whole lot different, though they do seem to be focusing a bit more on the quality of their software.

Stone design intrigues me because it is cheaper, and they offer free upgrades for life. A compelling sales strategy. Again, though, I've never used the products to any great extent.

If/when I get around to updating my personal software, I'll probably take a look at both Stone's offerings and Corel.

Personally I don't think Illustrator has added anything useful since v.8 (except bloat)

Agreed. IMHO, right around version 6-8, a product becomes mature. It's done. Of course, that's bad for business, so you either need to introduce a lot of bugs in that version that need fixing in the 'upgrade' or hope that a major OS developer decides to completely overhaul their OS and then be able to re-sell your software to the consumer to run on the new OS. ;o)

Flash MX 2004 is a joy to work with! Macromedia really has been quite brilliant lately.

They've done great things with Flash. They've all but killed Freehand. DW is a bloated, cumbersome, overweight, semi-retired behemoth of a product these days. Sigh.

Illustrator 8:

Best version ever. Perfect. I didn't even need the stupid transparency effects they added in 9. Version 10? I have to live with it.

Freehand:

No comment.

Flash:

Definitely getting better and better.

Dreamweaver:

Agree with Darrel, it's wanting to do all things at once. I liked it better when it was more down and dirty.

InDesign:

I'm itchy to switch.

Photoshop:

I never use Photoshop for lame tricks or anything like that, I use it to correct color, enhance brightness, maybe do a little blur here and there so I don't care how much shit they put on it, I would still be using version 5.5 if it weren't for multiple undos in 7.

I really wish Adobe wouldn't feel so forced (like Darrel said) to make umpteen little "enhancements" to their software. They are still my favorite (Flash, Dreamweaver and Quark excluded) applications and I'll continue using them, but I do wish for the old, simpler days.

I think I'm getting old...

i think the last time i saw a major improvement in illustrator was version 5.5...but then again, i learned vector tools on freehand 2 or thereabouts and stuck with 3.3 forever. a full copy fit on two floppy disks, which was great for the young type designer with no machine.

since adobe's switch to OS X, i've been wary of their upgrades. illustrator 10 was a total nightmare—crashed six ways freom sunday if you looked at it harshly. then their indesign updaters never worked correctly...and photoshop 7 was a dog on a single-processor machine until the update.

i did manage to get my filthy paws on a beta of ID3 and took a quick look. one nice thing they did was a good step forward in cleaning up all the interface clutter from the palettes: added vertical tabs that snap to the right side of the screen. i assume you could move them around, but i didn't play with it much.

acrobat has gotten freakishly large. a standard install is somewhere around 250MB and it feels about as over-helpful as a crappy microsoft application. why!?

all things considered, i'd assume ID3 is probably the real reason to make any sort of upgrade. i have a cracked copy of quark 6 i got from a friend...the program still sucks. been using ID since version 1.01 and never had to read the manual once. i'd recommend it to anyone.

I agree with Su. I'm a Windows machine girl, and although I love Macs (and have used them and do wish for one someday), PCs ARE much cheaper than Macs. And I know how to use Windows like the back of my hand.

Darrell, you use Dell comparisons, but I find them ridiculously overpriced. Meanwhile, I have friends who work at computer stores and I had my PC custom-built. And got myself a nifty NEC flat-screen monitor at a deal. I could have souped it up even more if I had the money, and it would have been far, far less than what the high-end Macs cost.

And as a Canadian, I balk at the prices again. Because with conversion rates PLUS our GST, a high-end Apple machine would be ~ $5000. *cries*

In the end, even if you are given the most expensive and useful toys in the world, it means jack-shit if you don't use it properly. :)

been using ID since version 1.01 and never had to read the manual once. i'd recommend it to anyone.

I totally agree. InDesign had my heart from day one. I'm stuck in a Quark environment at work and am not happy about it, especially since I got version 6. It's filled with web publishing nonsense that I don't need in a page layout program. What I really don't get is Quark's push to make XPress more of a web publishing application. Version 5 had more than I needed and 6 is just ridiculous. It almost seems to be morphing into Microsoft Word.

PCs ARE much cheaper than Macs.

Umm...broadly speaking, they aren't. I could care less about which platform a person wants to use, and there's no arguing that you can find some really cheap windows machines, but the reality is that Wintel machines aren't *much* cheaper than Macs anymore as a general rule.

Darrell, you use Dell comparisons, but I find them ridiculously overpriced.

Dell tends to be the cheaper option of the Wintel big-brands.

Meanwhile, I have friends who work at computer stores and I had my PC custom-built.

Sure, I can't deny that. A friend that can custom build you a PC is probably the cheapest way to get a machine. And neither Dell nor Apple can really compete with that. If you're into building your own box, then that is where Apple is certainly written off as an option.

Again, I'm all for people using whichever platform they want. I'm just surprised that religious rants on both sides tend to focus on rather speculous, subjective opinions rather than any hard analysis of each product. It's interesting that both 'sides' tend to be able to sell their wares using outmoded public opinions of their products (ie, Macs are easy to use and PCs are so much cheaper...neither of which is all that true anymore).

And as a Canadian, I balk at the prices again. Because with conversion rates PLUS our GST, a high-end Apple machine would be ~ $5000. *cries*

Yea...that's probably one of the few drawbacks of being Canadian. ;o)

BTW, who else believes that the only reason software is updated is so that our machines seem slower, thereby hooking us into the perpetual 'upgrade software, now machine is too slow, upgrade hardware, now I can get new software, upgrade software, now machine is too slow...' cycle. ;o)

The "similarly equipped-much cheaper PC" argument is hogwash. Try checking for the DVD/CD burner drive price, or actually using an LCD of the same quality. If you spec the equipment to the same quality/functionality standards, prices usually end up being very close between Macs and PC's (this is high end equipment). You can get a Crappy PC much cheaper, that is true.

For the ones who love Homesite: Aardvark (the company that made it) was bought by Macromedia, and Homesite was integrated into Dreamweaver MX as its text editor component. It works quite nicely and lost very few features.

Actually, HomeSite was created by Bradsoft/Bradbury Software (i.e. Nick Bradbury, also creator of TopStyle Pro CSS/XHTML/HTML editor) who then sold his popular coding software to etc. and so forth. ;P

HomeSite 5.5 apparently is a great update because what it did was keep the same functionality -- the update was all about making the program leaner, faster, and more efficient.

If only people decided to do that with the Adobe CS and other Macromedia products. Update with less frills and gimmicks and MORE leaner, faster, and less-buggy tweaks. That, I'd pay money for.

And Darrell, yah I think we get hooked into the trap thinking that we NEED faster machines/expensive machines because the damn programmers (purposely?) bloat their software to only work with more pumped up hardware. I personally think it's ridiculous the sizes and amount of resources a program tends to use these days. They need to spend more money optimizing their software. But I guess that's not in a computer hardware person's best interest, hm?

Re Dreamweaver eating Homesite: Thereby effectively making Homesite go from $99 to $399 and giving me all sorts of crap I don't want. As far as I'm concerned, they should just come out and say they're killing it. It's been fairly obvious for a long time.

That said, I've been interested in actually using TopStyle's relatively new editing abilities. Nick does good work. I've just been dreading learning new key combos or having to customize them all again.

who else believes that the only reason software is updated is so that our machines seem slower, thereby hooking us into the perpetual 'upgrade software, now machine is too slow, upgrade hardware, now I can get new software, upgrade software, now machine is too slow...' cycle.

i totally believe this. i think i've hit something i can stick with for a while with my secondhand G4 dual 1gig. i actually had to buy it (a year after the model was discontinued) because the best 3D package i could find for OS X is Cinema 4D, which is, how fabulous is this, dual-processor aware. if anyone's seriously thinking about doing any dimensional work, i recommend this software immensely. it gives a lovely painterly quality to its light so that objects look more naturalistic.

as for macs being overpriced, hell yes they are! go to small dog electronics and buy a refurb. much cheaper if you can buy something quickly (i.e. the moment you see it).

they also sell dog treats and toys, which i think is completely left-field (besides, i'm a cat person)...but they're good people. good customer service. there are discounts for shoppers prone to spending mucho buckage at a time.

I guess the more memory issue comes from it being so cheap these days. They seem to think that we'll just shove more RAM in our computers if they don't run fast enough. I remember seeing a purchase order for a new PowerMac 8100 back in the day with maxed RAM and it cost more than the machine itself.

Since RAM came down in price programs that use it efficently have been really scarce. Adobe's apps are bad, Macromedia's are worse and I have to keep my IE partition at 40MB to keep it running well. Remember when 40MB was 8 more than you had in your whole machine? I do.

Refurbs.

My current computer was bought from a reseller seven years ago and it works (in some cases) better than my G4/533 at work. (It's now G3/500) One thing about Apple hardware is it will last you a long time if you've the knowledge on how to upgrade it well and the resources to find parts.

I built myself a PC in college too, it lasted all of about two years and couldn't be upgraded at all. I don't know how current PC architecture adapts to change/upgrades but I'm sure glad I'm not on an NT box anymore.

As one of those "Software people", I'll second the opinion that the current state of affairs with software is hideous. That said, it's all in response to the market. Customers for the Desktop market are not particularly bright in responding to their real needs. Rather, they buy the upgrades only if they have all sorts of bells and whistles, processor-eating animations and dancing dogs or some such crap. There's tons of features that never get used bloating most programs.

The market in the industrial side is completely different. I program for IBM Mainframes. We can work 6 months to shave off a few milliseconds of a process, work 1 year in advance (so that when the product reaches the client it has been thoroughly tested in house) and when a bug does reach the client, it is treated as a major problem. This is because our clients are much more demanding (and they should be, given the buck they pay).

Mmmmm... daddy like.

Nothing like a good black background.

it's nice to see that the mark on the box is all white too

yes... phew, thank god they left it alone on the box.

I just got sent this by Dan (some random dude):

Evolutionism Propaganda (scroll down to the last subhead). Here are a few little excerpt:

"...truth has finally come out: Apple Computers promote Godless Darwinism and Communism."

"Consider the name of the company and its logo: an apple with a bite taken out of it. This is clearly a reference to the Fall, when Adam and Eve were tempted with an apple by the serpent. It is now Apple Computers offering us temptation, thereby aligning themselves with the forces of darkness."

No offense meant to any religious folks out there, but this is way too much.

It is now Apple Computers offering us temptation, thereby aligning themselves with the forces of darkness.

I think I'm ok with this.

just wondering if anyone else had gone to panther (grr!) yet and what they thought of font book? i've had it for a few weeks now and it works well but the interface kinda stinks in my opinion. i miss ATM terribly.

I miss ATM as well. I'm still getting used to Panther, but I'm not upset with the switch. I'm using Suitcase and it seems to be doing the trick, except I've got a batch of font conflicts now and don't know how to resolve it. Any ideas?

I'm still using Classic environment a lot, as some things aren't right yet with X. My scanner plug-ins don't want to work in X (depsite downloading new ones) so I'm still scanning in Photoshop 6 in Classic. I'm also using Illus. 8 still, because 10 is slow on my computer and has some stupid bugs. Maybe Illus CS is improved? Anyone give it a shot?

Oh, and I also decided to make the leap to InDesign and woah, baby, is it awesome! Can't wait to really give it a whirl.

Jon- Are you having trouble since upgrading to Panther from a previous version of OSX or simply upgrading at all? I'm not sure how well Font Book plays with others but if you're using Suitcase exclusively you might want to disable it.

I've still got some issues with scanner compatibility as well. Umax finally decided to do something about their scanners but via a third party developer. Which stinks, and kinda worries me, but I'm glad I can finally use the thing without rebooting.

I haven't used Illustrator CS extensively but I should be getting a copy of it in the next two weeks for a more thorough eval. I did find a head-to-head between Photoshop 7 and CS. The results were surprising. (second article on the page)

AND...it looks like there are less reasons for QuarkXpress users not to switch to InDesign CS.

I upgraded to Panther straight from OS 9.2, where I had been happily ensconced in ATM-land. I just want to know how to eliminate my font conflicts, which I never had before.

Go back to OS 9.

Go back to OS 9.

That's pretty much it.

Basically, you need to just make sure that there aren't any duplicates in either the system font folder (OS9 and OSX) or Font Book's library cause I'm pretty sure that would do it. Also, if you're using older apps (Illustrator 8, Photoshop 6) that don't run native in OSX make sure that your classic extensions for suitcase are installed and working correctly. (I think if you just boot in OS9 and it works there it should work in OSX.) Hope that helps, if not give this a try.

I have been trying to convert my mother from a PC to an Apple. Finally after years of trying, she just purchased a new 17" ibook. After a few hundred phone calls from her, I think she has got the nack of it and loves using it. She asked me "why aren't all computers this easy" I said "mom, we will never know."

I felt gulity after leaving you with such unhelpful advice Jon. After you do clean up your duplicates forget about anything you know from your ATM days and get yourself a font manager. Extensis suitcase X1 is a little marvel. Some people have problems with it (not sure why) but I've been using it for three years and it is excellent software.

Benefits of a little late-nite browsing: apple-history.com.

My first was 1984, the Mac 512k.

See also under 1984, the original Ridley Scott commercial. You WILL get chills.

thanks Sam for the trip down memory lane.

I had a Macintosh SE/30, and drove a 17" Radius b/w monitor off it. Amazingly dependable. Looking back, I had no idea how I managed w/ 80MB of storage for school and freelance work.

I remember visiting a photographer once who had an Apple IIfx, which was the baddest you could buy at the time for about $12K. He bragged that he had maxed his RAM out at 256MB, and I almost didn't believe him. I just couldn't fathom why someone would need that much RAM.

There are PDAs with more RAM now.

I'm getting misty-eyed thinking of my old Apple IIe, it's blinding 1mHz processing speed and the 5.25" floppy frisbees. I don't know how I survived without the 80GB of harddrive space and 700+ mb of RAM.

I've had a II, IIe, Mac Plus, Centris 650, Performa something and my current graphite G4. Next up, Mr. Dual G5, come on down.

> under 1984, the original Ridley Scott commercial. You WILL get chills.

I was reading in the current MacWorld that Apple executives at that time did not want the ad to run after seeing it for the first time. They had asked Chiat/Day to get the money back from whichever network aired the superbowl. They didn't get the money back so the ad had to be aired. Moral of the story? Decision-makers can make bad decisions.

The ad cost $700,000 to make. And the hot-blonde (for 80s standards) was an actual disk-thrower. Moral of the story? If you can throw a disk, you can throw a sledgehammer.

Just a note to wish the Mac a happy 20th birthday today.

On Jan 22, 1984 -- the infamous 1984 Superbowl ad mentioned above was aired, ushering in sales of the original Mac classic, the mouse, and the desktop GUI that we all know and love.

So happy birthday Mac!

See also: Folklore.org: "Anecdotes about the development of Apple's original Macintosh computer, and the people who created it."

As seen on DF.

And also, check out the updated version of the 1984 Ad.

HA HA! an ipod, that's good...

yup, she's still hot.

A whole mess of Apple ads, via today'sMorning News.

Wow, I didn't realize Apple had made so many ads.