The Power Mac line is sorely in need of an update, I think. Back in April or May, I decided that come June (when the educational discount resets in Apple-land) I was ready to pick up a shiny new G5 as a replacement for my Powerbook. This didn’t happen, and it was well before June came around that I had decided I wasn’t going to buy anything. Because of the timing, the decision obviously didn’t have anything to do with the Intel switch and instead was because it simply wasn’t an easy decision.

I bought my Powerbook because it was the highest-end 12″ model available and the price was fair. It supported display spanning natively and had Bluetooth and other tech-junk standard, which is why the iBook was never a consideration (although it has certainly caught up since). I chose the 12″ because the 15″ was, in short, too much money (although now it’s much more reasonable). With the current offering of Power Macs, there’s no simple choice. You either get a stripped-down model or you don’t and you spend more money. I didn’t feel like making those choices at that time, especially with that much money on the line.

At the same time, the iMac G5 was becoming an unbelievably good deal, and had I not bought a 20″ display back in January there’s a very good chance an iMac would be sitting on my desk right now. If there had been a Power Mac that was as much of a no-brainer as the iMac is, then there’d be one sitting next to my desk right now, but there’s not so there isn’t.

Apple is known for “ruthlessly pruning older models from the lineup” and leaving you with only the necessary choices. They’ve been managing this extremely well almost across the board, but the lines seem to blur once you get to the Power Macs, and that’s unfortunate for people like myself who are just casually looking for the time being. There is just no easy choice, unless you’re rich.

But I’m not, so rather than spend $2K+ on a new computer, I spent $100 on some RAM and called it a day.