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Not everyone buys the "maturing PC market" hypothesis, including some of our readers. It looks very much as if what defines sufficient computing power for consumers depends on programmers and marketing: developers who invent the ability to do something that's never been done before, and marketers to convince you that you need to do it.

Even readers who don't agree with the idea that computers are already fast enough for most people admit that the PowerMac G5 so far outstrips what they're used to that there may be some truth to the argument:

...the new G5 does change things for sure. I think my paltry Dual G4 1.4 FW 800 will even last for quite a while. Compared to my old G3350, it smokes.

We're straddling the fence on this one. While we can't imagine how all that power would help us do better work (typing, uploading), who doesn't like power? And then there's this thoughtful observation from another correspondent:

When I purchased my first SE in 1988, I opted for an internal 30 MB hard drive instead of a second floppy drive. The salesman helpfully questioned my choice by calculating how many pages of text documents 30 MB could hold and gently suggesting I would never, ever fill that hard drive. Of course he ended up being wrong as filled it with ever-larger applications and increasingly graphic-intensive documents.

Of course no one was talking about editing digital video on a Mac back then, and today, no one is talking about the crazy things we'll be doing with our Macs in just a few years. If the capacity is there, some programmer will find a way to exceed it in a way that we'll all be chasing more capacity, just as we are today.

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