I dropped in at the Computing Services office today to see about getting set up for school, and to ask a few of my more technical questions. It turns out that getting on the network is no problem at all, and antivirus is no issue - the problem instead has turned out to be Microsoft's proprietary technology (as usual).
In this case, the offending product is Silverlight, a web development platform that Microsoft has built on their .NET framework. The first version of this software was made available for PowerPC Mac users, and I have it installed, but it is not compatible with any of the later versions, and no newer versions have been developed for PowerPC.
So I have been looking for a work-around, but so far have not been successful. The plug-ins built for Unix installs are all x86 - so poor old PowerPC users like myself are apparently out of luck. I plan to have a nice chat with the IT folks at the school later this week about best options. It is a really silly reason to buy a new computer - but on the other hand, I will need a new machine eventually. Yet, with the PowerBook still going strong, I am in no hurry to send it into a premature retirement. I would much prefer to buy a new computer on my student discount as a 3L and get the most modern machine possible to start my working life.
But, if it means massive inconvenience to stick with the current machine, a shiny new Macbook Pro would be okay with me. Maybe I will get lucky for my birthday....?
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