I think I will only jump back to Carrara when is 64 bit savvy, be it 8, 9, 10...

 LCBollu:
Although I agree with you, and it also has been said that if full blown Fascism ever came to the U.S. it will be cloaked with an American Flag and served with a healthy does of "Patriotism", what do any of these things have to do with Carrara 7 upgrade?
Don't get me started! :-)

 I agree that DAZ has a market, and you are part of their demographic. Don't get me wrong, I like Carrara and Hexagon a lot. But why has it been two years. Two full years with very little development if any with Hexagon?, and why is modo moving so fast as far as development? At some point you need to factor in revenue streams and development cycles. If Hexagon was making money for DAZ like modo is doing for Luxology, you bet that it would be in their best interest to aggressively develop it. Sure selling Hexagon for $2.00 dollars seems like a good deal at the time, and it probably is, for you, but not for DAZ or Hexagons future, because  development cost money, and that money needs to come from somewhere. That is my point.  

I know that DAZ has it's market demographic and it's good that they make great software available to users at an accessible price point, but $2.00 was a mistake, because you depreciate the perceived value of the package, and you can't conceivably fund future development with such small margins, regardless of volume. If Hexagon has not been updated, it's because of lack of resources.

If you are using Hexagon on Windows, you would not fully perceive how atrocious and bug ridden Hexagon is under Mac OSX 10.5 Leopard. Yet Carrara runs O.K. I do think that DAZ will one of these day renew development with Hexagon, but as a professional, I could no longer wait and I moved over to modo.

Since I have modo, I now realize I don't need Carrara as much ether, since it has a magnificent rendering engine. modo is not perfect, it crashes at times with complex setups and it has it's share of bugs also. But their is no caparison productivity wise with Hexagon and modo. When you have a deadline, the last thing you need is problems in your pipeline.

 Well that is part of the problem. Sure modo is a lot more expensive then Carrara. But why is that? Think about it. Part of the problem that DAZ has is lack of developers. That is why they take so long to update there code. Well if they could hire more developers, this problem could be solved. But if they did that, they would have to increase the price of their packages also.

Hexagon at one point was sold for $2.00 dollars. What kind of development can you expect from such a vision-less move. It was meant to increase Hexagon's user base. Yet more then two years have passed and Hexagon has seen little to no development. Do you think this might be because DAZ lacks resources?, and if you agree with this, then you have to agree that revenue is tied to development, and development to efficiency and quality. That is why for a professional using these tools for his/her business, having the backing of a well funded application is more important then price alone.

Carrara is one of those packages that has enough strengths to fit in a professional's tool set, but when you stumble in to a show stopping bug, and believe me, they are there, you need to know that you can count on DAZ to solve the issue expeditiously. This will not happen if they keep on selling their software at bottom of the barrel prices. Also DAZ with their insane discounts create a market mentality of "why should I pay full price, when I can wait for a special". I guess they think they can off set this by selling larger volumes. Maybe this has worked for Carrara, but Hexagon seems to be a casualty of this dumb marketing strategy.

 I agree, and that was the reason why modo was purchased. I am more then half way through Dan's book, but I still need to get some more video tutorials. The thing is that aside from animation, modo trumps Carrara and Hexagon in one swoop. Carrara still has some features like morph targets and bones that modo does not have. So it depends. But modo's rendering..., Carrara can't even come close.

 I am also transitioning to modo but it has a steep learning curve and a lot of depth. Hexagon is simple and very straight forward, which is it's charm. Sure, modo is a lot more powerful, but I am a lot more comfortable with Hexagon at this stage. I have had modo for six months more or less and I am just beginning to tap in to it's real power. But boy, does it take time. Working full time and having a family does not aid much on this endeavor (5 year old boy and 3 year old girl).

 You have a point. I guess soon for DAZ is in the next 6 months. Heck, I have been longing for a Hexagon update that will allow it to run on OSX Leopard reliably for more then a year. The thing with DAZ is that they have very few developers on hand, so they "share projects". Or at the very least that is the case between Hexagon and Carrara.

 I think that Carrara users should expect something soon. Not to much movement on the bug tracker for Hexagon, so I assume that the developers are still working on Carrara 7.0. But this is pure and absolute speculation on my part.

Quote - Okay, the iMac 2.66 Ghz 24" looks like the best bet for the price - does anyone have complaints who's using the new iMacs?  I tell ya, this old emac has been bulletproof - knock on wood.

Oh, btw, I'm scrollin' around with a new Logitech TrackMan - "thumb-driven"... wish me luck, and I really don't spend that much time on the computer ; )

Well I have been using a 20" for several years (two), and it has been pretty good. The iMac has had it's evolution. When they first shipped in this form factor, they used to have G5 processors. This model was one of the baggiest most unreliable Mac ever maid by Apple. Once they introduced the Intel processors they seemed to have worked out the problems. I personally attribute much of the problems of the early G5 models to heat. The Intel Core processors are a lot cooler faster and overall a much better choice.

I know this is all anecdotal, but I know about 8 people that have Intel iMacs, and they are all in good working condition. My brother bought the first 17" model that has been already discontinued. The only problem he had was a bad HD, but that can happen to any computer an any given time. It was repaired under warranty.

 I am not sure what you budget allows, but form what I have read, the 24" iMac not only has a bigger display, but it's of much higher quality then the 20". I know it's a deference of $500 or so dollars, but it might make up the deference in the long run. Now if you are coming form an eMac, the 20" will probably look gorgeous and be quite capable for your needs. Ether way, you going to love Leopard!

Now as far as choosing from a MacBook to an iMac, just remember, if you do go for the laptop, they usually are a bit more prone to "accidents" then the desktop. I would strongly suggest you get Apple care if you go for the MacBook. Also, they are more susceptible to get stolen. If the work you do does not require you to be mobile, I think you will be better served by the iMac. On the other hand, if you like to get out of the house and work anywhere, the laptop is more for you. As far as capabilities, they are pretty similar as far as feature sets and speed.

Get less RAM and upgrade as you budget allows. 2 Gigs will get you going from the start, you can later swap the RAM to get the 4 Gigs. The upgrade is not that costly and you will have more time to save money for it. The CPU however is not upgradable and you are stuck with what you get.

 The new MacBook has some pretty good video capabilities. The prior MacBook used the intel Integrated Card that left much to be desired since it shared the RAM with the CPU and it simply was not very capable.

If I was you, I would get the higher 2.4 GHz model with less RAM, you can always update that later. RAM is cheap. Also, do not buy the RAM upgrade ever from Apple. 3rd party suppliers like www.macsales.com offer the same quality at a fraction of the price that Apple offers.

 Is anybody using the OSX version of Carrara 7 Pro. I am kind of in the sidelines. I just purchased modo this past year. I am still learning it and it's taking longer then what I thought. I don't do much animation so to me modo seems to be a better fit then Carrara at this point. But I am still curious to see if the OSX version of Carrara runs well. DAZ seems to be a little bias towards Windows, if you ask me.

I don't use content and so far C6 Pro has really not improved much as far as rendering from previews versions. How does C7Pro stack up. 

Also, I find it kind of unfortunate that I am required to upgrade to get bug fixes that should have been patched in version 6 Pro.

 I think, Carrara is a dual platform program. Both Windows and Mac are available under the same license.

 Yes, they are in there, but they relay on a Map, I wanted a procedural version. Thanks thou.

 Funny Mark, but I ended up doing just exactly what you explained (before I read you post). The only thing i did not implement was the blurred reflections, that make perfect sense to me. Thanks a lot guys. I got it.