Be Good Not Bad : Web Design :: Brian Warren : Denver, Colorado

I’m beginning week two with the new Intel iMac. There are some really great things and some annoying things that come with being completely new and different from life on the PowerPC.

This thing is way fast. That’s the thing I’m really enjoying with it. I have yet to feel like I’m pushing it at all toward the limits. The new iLife stuff is awesome. I’ve already enjoyed iPhoto and iMovie a ton. I plan on using iMovie for a big project soon, so that should be fun. Apps that were kind of sluggish, especially in the UI realm, are now very snappy. Launching apps takes no time at all.

Rosetta works totally as advertised. Microsoft Office runs smooth and fast. No waiting. Photoshop works fine, but is slower than it was on my dual G5.

In general it feels faster and works smoother on everything I’ve tried.

Except…

There are a few things that don’t run well, or don’t run at all. Java applications that were compiled for PowerPC, such as Azureus, don’t launch. I presume that future apps will run fine once they get them compiled for intel. I have no idea what this will take, or if there are any major hurdles that will require jumping.

Also, any non-standard web plugins won’t run as well. Flash and all that stuff runs fine, but most other, nonstandard plugins like ad blockers, enhancers and the likes of which you would find on Pimp My Safari don’t run yet. Inquisitor, an amazing search tool for Safari does run. All Firefox plugins work for me so far, which is fine because that’s my go-to browser.

That’s pretty much it, fire off any questions in the comments if you have them. So far, I’m a happy camper.