I used to work at an ad agency and when they went out of business I scored a MBP 2.16 for $1.

I've been using it ever since as my iTunes repository, storage for all my images, and it's the machine that has CS 2 on it. My desktop PC has been for web surfing and playing games and is a nice i5 with Win 7.

My MBP has Snow Leopard on it but I was hesitant to go to Lion. Now with Mountain Lion on the way I've been wondering about finally replacing this machine. My primary concern is that I will lose CS 2 as well as Office 2004. Quicken finally updated their old 2007 version so it will run under Lion so that's one thing I won't have to worry about.

The Air has too little storage so I've been looking at the 13" MBP. It's a shame they don't still make Macbooks, that would be perfect for me and was what I had before I scored the $1 MBP.

Does this seem like the right time to make the switch? Can I get by without Office? Will I rue giving up my old Adobe apps even though they get very little use?

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I'll see you again... when we are both like golden clouds on the wind.

sounds like a lot of personal questions. hard to give advice.

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Of course ! I'll happily buy it from you for $2 .. A 200 % Profit !!!

Seriously, you're asking yourself the right questions. A computer is a tool. Do you have the tool you need to do your job so you're profitable ? If not.. upgrade !

...and just remember... it's cbelt3 who made the first offer

Not 100% clear why you're considering upgrading. We've got a couple years yet until there's any real push to go beyond 10.6.
At current prices, it's become kind of a no-brainer upgrade to put an SSD in a portable of that vintage. 2.16 I think means max RAM 3.3GB, but with an SSD that becomes almost irrelevant.

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MR/F Guestmap: [www.mapservices.org]

Quote
mattkime
sounds like a lot of personal questions. hard to give advice.

That's how people make decisions about buying products, not hard to give advice at all. Ever client I have/had asks the same questions.

rob,
That's a Core Duo model, right? I thought about suggesting an SSD and Lion upgrade to the current MacBook Pro, but Lion isn't actually compatible, so that's a no go.

If you don't use Adobe CS2 or Office very often (I'm assuming those are PowerPC versions which is why they won't run on Lion/Mountain Lion), perhaps hunt around for cheaper alternatives before making any hardware purchases. Will Pages/Numbers/Keynote/Mail replace office for you? Will Acorn and…how about Lineform for vector replace CS2?

I would not buy hardware now anyway. Not with a refresh supposed to be coming soon. Waiting until the refresh will give you better options.

Thank you all! That's what I needed to hear.

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I'll see you again... when we are both like golden clouds on the wind.

It's been reported that the 15" MBP is disappearing from retailers' shelves. That's often a sign of an impending refresh.

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You and I have memories longer than the road that stretches out ahead.

We don’t do focus groups. They just ensure that you don’t offend anyone, and produce bland inoffensive products. —Sir Jonathan Ive

-An armed society is a polite society.
And hope is a lousy defense.

There is no safety for honest men
except by believing all possible evil
of evil men.

Pixels were born to be punished. -Frederick Van Johnson

Mister, that's a ten-gallon hat on a twenty-gallon head.

I *love* Sigs. It's Glocks I hate.

true, i would wait for the refresh.

while you mention the apps that you sometimes use, it would be helpful if you explained what you use the machine for.

Keep your old machine for a while to see if you really need any of the old programs. If you do, you still have that computer or you can buy them. If not, you can make the decision to sell it.

I used to use my iBook as my primary machine, and a PC desktop just for games. So if I needed to do any graphics work it all happened on the iBook. It also had Office apps and Quicken as well as storing all my images and music.

Around the time the $1 MBP arrived I was retiring the iBook and using a better PC to take over some of the things I used to do on the Mac. I popped Photoshop Elements on there for light graphics, for example.

I still needed CS 2 for web work, any vector stuff and Imageready for animated GIFs. Office was for docs emailed to me since anything I made from scratch I could just do in Office 2007 on the PC.

Now it's mostly wanting to have the power of the CS 2 apps available even though they rarely get used due to my job changing. Having Office is because it's the standard and my experiences with the open software competitors being pretty lackluster.

So I think I'll keep my eye on hardware refreshes and cut the cord on the old machine when that time arrives. I'll probably go for the cheapest MBP available, probably a refurb and my Mac's role will diminish to just email and storage and keeping current on the OS.

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I'll see you again... when we are both like golden clouds on the wind.

....so you are hoping to upgrade to the LAP of luxury.....???

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____________________________________________________

I reject your reality and substitute my own!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/12/2012 03:23PM by NewtonMP2100.

I've got $2.00...Do I hear $3.00?

Umm, just budget in the cost of upgrading to CS5.5 and Office 2011? Granted $800+ in software upgrades might be hard to swallow, but it is the cost of staying current.

It sounds like there won't be an upgrade path from CS2 to CS6, so you either have to live with CS5.5, pay for two upgrades, or time it right so that you buy CS5.5 when you're eligible for a free upgrade to CS6.

That machine has a lot of potential life left if you put in an SSD. That would not mean Lion, but speed would be more than adequate for your needs for some time to come, if I understand your post.

In the future, I think you should seriously consider alternative software options. Pages and other iWork apps are quite decent compared to Office. And there are a number of decent apps that cover basic Photoshop functions - even iPhoto has a lot of decent image processing options. Image J is also usable for a lot of things we normally use Photoshop for in our workflow.

Inkscape is cool, too.

Here's a listing of 10 free apps with some PS functions:

[www.apartmenttherapy.com]



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/12/2012 09:57PM by sekker.