each computer generation - is only 18 months.

Dual 2.0Ghz machines date from aug/oct 2003 - that is 2 generations ago.
In computer terms that is very old.

But there has been a major hardware and/or software change - every 6 months in those 3 1/2 years.
Sometimes both at the same time.
There have been 3 major hardware architecture changes. PCI -> PCI-X -> PCI-e -> PCI-e Intel. which has meant that every 6 months - the hardware inside peoples machines has had to change.

And 3 major OS changes. 10.2 -> 10.3 ->10.4, and soon 10.5

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Its even harder for those of us developing software to keep up.

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The intel mac pro machines have 2 ethernet ports - but i have not had time to get to the bottom of using both of them at the same time.