Who's still doing paid work on a G4?

[Bibulous]

Just wondering who is still doing paid work of any kind (print, web, code) on a G4 or slower machine?

(besides me, print work on G4)

[Blue Velvet]

I voted G4 mainly because that's what I'm working on right this minute at home as I write... a dual 1.42 with 2gb of RAM on which I'm drawing diagrams which illustrate social networking in Illustrator CS1 for a 40pg 2-colour publication which I'm working on in Quark 6.5 on Tiger.

My main work machine in the office/studio is a dual 2.5 G5 with 2.5gb RAM, but I work flexible hours and can work from home if I want, which I often do, including at 1am on a Sunday morning. :rolleyes:

[BigPrince]

I support them, along with g3 and teachers teach with/off them.

[srf4real]

I'm on my G4 mini w/ 1Gb ram, listening to radio on iTunes while recording with radiolover, using lightroom, pse4, iPhoto, and bridge, while mail and iCal are open and, of course, Safari. I must admit that my workflow has improved dramatically since installing desktop manager... I can't wait for Leopard!:)

[fivetoadsloth]

Most of my work isnt paid, Mainly homework however i get comissioned occasionally. I use a macbook (Wish it was pro) for photoshop and some 3d work.

[jamesi]

i do all my work on my pb, but before this i used a powermac G3 to do ALOT of video editing which was awful needless to say but i was able to use a dual 1 gig quicksilver for my larger projects. i love that machine and the design of the case

[brad.c]

My main machine is an MBP, but I do a lot of on-site freelance on spare G4s. My back-up desktop is a G4, and the only reason it gathers dust is because it's in the basement. Banished by the new baby.

[RedTomato]

My Powerbook is perfectly fine for all my paid work, email etc.

I also edit films and make dvds on it as part of my job. (dvds of workshops, people signing etc).

iMovie HD and iDVD are fine on it, tho processing scene transitions, effects, and encoding for high-quality DVDs take a while.

It's still a lovely machine and does almost everything I want.

The main problems are mechanical

- Firewire port is burn-out, am using a PC card for firewire, but it won't work with Target mode, which is a pain for backups (until Leopard comes out.)

- the internal cable to the LCD is wearing through inside the hinge - blacking out the bottom 2 inches of the screen. I've already had it replaced once - cost £150, and it is wearing through again. My PB is now almost non-portable, as I try to close the lid as little as possible.

- the DVD burner is becoming unreliable with modern media

- often it won't wake from sleep caused by low battery (even if fully recharged).

Am waiting for santa rosa to come out before jumping to a Macbook. (that's my excuse anyway).

[SuperCompu2]

I do all my work on G4s or G3s from my home. I run a small computer reselling business and my main unit is the Dual G4 Gig-E in my sig. My Powerbook comes with me to school, and I do all my essays, powerpoints, etc. on that. My next upgrade is going to be to an Aluminum G4 powerbook at some point, when I get enough money to buy one.

G4s are not dead in any respect (other than maybe intense graphics) in the business world.

[emorydunn]

I only have an iBook G4. I do mostly volunteer work, but some of it is paid. I do photoshop, html, and even some 3-D modeling all on my iBook.

[Allotriophagy]

Beige G3.

[Mitthrawnuruodo]

I'm using a MacBook (Intel) as my main workhorse now (mostly web programming), but I did use an iBook G4@800MHz until May last year (and for a week just before Christmas when the MacBook needed service), and would probably still use that if the hard disk hadn't started to act up on me (ironically it still works, but since I didn't have any backup machines I couldn't take that chance as I depend on it for work, so I got the MacBook). Apart from a bit lack in (internal) hard drive space, the iBook was (and is) more than powerful enough for my use with its maxed out 640 MB RAM...

[D0ct0rteeth]

Powerbook 1.67 here.

But I ALWAYS use a previous gen laptop. I never buy the cutting edge tech hardware.

[Jaffa Cake]

At work I plod away on my little Dual 867 G4 Power Mac. I'm quite attached to the little chap, actually. :o

[Cheese]

I still use the G3 iMac DV400-- sometimes. But I do most of my work on the Rev A. G5.

[ahuman7341]

I don't do any paid work but for yearbook at my school we use iMac DV 400's with CS1.

[JMax1]

At work we still use an Apple //e every day to run music learning software. The machine is oldern than me, and it stilll works flawlessly. Some of the floppy disks have seen better days, though.

Most kids ask if it's a microwave and why the screen is only green and black.

[thomasp]

I use a 15" 1.5GHz G4 Powerbook (well, try to - the trackpad sensor has broken so I'm getting the intermittent sleep issue) as my computer, and my dad who's a professional photographer with a Canon 1DS uses a dual 867MHz MDD G4, although it looks like that's going to be upgraded soon when he buys a new camera...

[kiwi-in-uk]

PB 17" 1.33
A lot of Keynote & Powerpoint work.
Some videos.
Some website work.

In the corporate world - both Australia and UK.

As with many people (high-end graphics & video notwithstanding) the processor speed is not as important to me as the thinking process and the ability to get stuff done effortlessly and seamlessly.

[mkrishnan]

Like others, I wasn't super sure how to vote. I do most of my clinical computer-based work at the moment on computers the hospital owns, which are Windows PCs and Windows Server thin clients of various vintages. I do most of my research work on my iBook G4. I use my iMac G5 almost purely for leisure activities.

[aricher]

1 - 17" PB 1.33 G4 2 GB RAM
2 - 1.42 Dual G4 2 GB RAM - one at office, one at home.

Tons of print and video work. All machines are still workhorses.

[shecky]

up until this past november, i used a 1GHZ TiBook for everything (InDesign, Illustrator, FCP,. After Effects, FontLab), now i use the MBP in my signature, and i have access to a G5 at the office i work at.

[Keebler]

video transfers, photo slideshows, audio transfer on a g4 mdd dually 1.25 w/2 GB RAM and plenty of HD space.

loud, but a great machine :)

[Plymouthbreezer]

Any of my paid work is done on my iMac G4.

(And I still even use my G3 iMac for audio recording and video work.)

[n8mac]

I guess it depends on how you define 'paid work'. We use a G4 400mhz tower as our office computer at work. We just stepped out of the dark ages and went from OS 9 to tiger and from 26k dial-up to 3.0mb dsl 4 months ago, and it's like a new machine! (maybe someone should start up an OS 9 in use thread:D ). I can't believe how well tiger works with the second slowest G4 out there! I only get the beach ball when rapidly switching from app to app. And that's with only 640mb ram!

It's used for office type things like internet but sometimes I fireup Quark 4, photo elements 2, freehand 9, and use the old scanner. But there is talk of a used dual G5 for video editing:) .

[MacBoobsPro]

If I didnt sell my iBook G4 to my boss for the company. I would be working on a blue G3. Needless to say an iBook G4 doing heavy Photoshop and large catalogues is not a good thing.

I have never worked for anyone that has had any good machines and I have worked for a lot of companies.. I could do my work MUCH faster at home because I have a G5 plus my home studio is set up really well instead of my crappy workplace with ancient machines. We even still have a beige G3 in the corner.

This is one reason why i hate work. They give you crap tools then expect the world from you 5 minutes later. Try processing 500 40MB images on an iBook G4. :mad:

[iGav]

Plenty, I still know a couple that do work on Power Mac G3's too, though admittedly it's mainly print and web stuff, not exactly the most demanding of work.

[Lord Blackadder]

My PB G4 is my work computer, and my Power Mac G4 at home is mainly for leisure, so I'm still firmly a G4 man...though not for much longer. As soon as I finish my graduate program I'm buying myself a tricked out Mac Pro. :cool:

But the PowerBook will probably soldier on for 2-3 more years.

[munckee]

I still have a 1.5Ghz Powerbook as my main computer at home. Do plenty of payed and pro-level unpaid work on it on a daily basis.

My computer at work is a Dual G5.

The powerbook is definitely starting to feel slow, but I vowed not to buy a new computer until CS3 came out.

[diamond3]

Well, I am using an iMac g4 1.0ghz, 512mb 17" to do a lot of video editing. I have burned about 65 dvd's in the last month or made about 30 different 2 hour long projects in iMovie. I am converting video from older camcorder tapes to dvds. The process to encode and everything takes about 9 hours. Its a little time consuming which is why we are considering a mac pro.

[ATD]

2 dual G4s at home, 2 G5s at work (1 quad and 1 dual). I prefer the G5s for heavy stuff (3D renders, massive photoshop files) otherwise the G4s are still producing plenty of work.

[&RU]

It looks like I am not the only one using the iMac G4 1Ghz 17". It has been about 4 years now, and my first major problem happened last week - my superdrive died.

I have been using it for Print and Packaging design, Web and Multimedia Design and programming, and some very light Video and Motion graphics. All in all, it has been a real workhorse and proven to be an excellent investment as far as price/performance ratio.

Since the superdrive died I have put my iMac DV G3 back on light duty, and have migrated some of my current work over. Just in case the G4 decides to have any other problems.

Upgrading to a new machine and OS would be nice. But when you have tight deadlines, moving away from a setup that already works to one with potential incompatabilities is the stuff of nightmares.

[Fearless Leader]

I uses my MBP coreduo for processor heavy stuff and the G5, dual 1.8. when I want Graphics heavy stuff, an the larger screen. Both Machines are pretty close to being equal in power.

Long render's I do on the G5 and leave it alone for however long.

What I mainly use:
photoshop
FCP
shake
xcode

lots of freelance stuff for people at school.

[Ish]

I do, (1.67 PB) and probably will for a while yet. Mostly print and internal. Its when I do personal stuff such as DVDs it can seem slow. That's not often enough to justify replacement though. Hopefully, when Santa Rosa, Leopard, iWork and CS3 are all out I can think about upgrading.

[wheezy]

My little 1.0Ghz G4 PB chomps along better than a lot of new laptops out there, and it goes for hours a day, I love it. I only have the 32MB Video Card though and that's about the only place I wish I had some more oomph it, Core Image really puts it to work and my fans are on 80% of the time, 100% when I'm working with RAW in CS2. But, for 3 years old... it's still a slick cushy ride for me!

However... give me 4 cores and a 512MB Vid card please :)

[Xeem]

Hopefully, I'll be using my 1.33 GHz iBook G4 for several more years, but the only official paying work it is used for is proofreading and the occasional odd task for my dad's small ad agency. I also use it for all of my college work as well, which consists mostly of word processing, Keynote, and Photoshop.

[Sparky's]

I do all my work (both at home at at the work place) on G3's :eek:
At least my machine at home I installed a G4-500 CPU that helps a bit. I design and layout several monthly newsletters, help in customer education and consulting. My mainstay at work is preflighting and prep for commercial offset presses. The work I do at home is for all media formats. Someday I may just get my head above water enough to actually get a new machine :rolleyes:

[2Niels]

Yup, ALL of my work, paid or otherwise, is done on my 6 year old single processor G4 /466.

Software updates mean I'll probably look to a new Intel Mac when Leopard is released soon - not for any issues in the practical speed of the G4, just that compatibility with client's files is becoming an issue.

[keysersoze]

Everyone at my consulting firm has a PowerBook G4 at one speed or another.