Am running a mint-condition Powerbook 12" G4 1.33 ghz with 1.25 gb RAM. Recently had a new hard-drive installed. Runs very smoothly after a Leopard update. A big improvement over Tiger. A very capable, slick machine. No problems with Office 2008, web-browsing, watching videos. I even rip and encode movies with it, no problem. These are very well-made machines.
There's no way of knowing how close a computer this age might be to dying. My hard-drive failed after five years and I thought it worth repairing. Never had any other issues. Hope to get a couple more years out of it. Yes it's limited. You can't run Intel software or do high-end work. But it's a nice solid workhorse and if you know its limitations can be a satisfying computer to own.
indeed.
I use that particular PB for more than 4 years as my only computer now, and it is still very stable and very useful. Install Leopard. I also upgraded the HD to 250 GB. To help you with your decision it's extremely dependent on what software and hardware you want to use. Oh, and don't listen to people who's first Mac was a newer Intel and who never actually used a G4/5. They don't know how capable the G4 is.
I tell you what I use it for and then you might an idea of its "power".
I use it for work (I'm a cell biologist) and at home for
- mail, web, Apple/MS office (sophisticated and animated Keynote 09 presentations of 100 MB work smoothly), iphoto, iMovie 6 HD/iDVD video editing (!), you tube (!), watch movies (DVD and avi), transcode using handbrake and iSquint, Skype, photoshop. I have usually 10 to 20 windows open (Pages, Keynote, Preview, Mail, Safari, Papers, iCal, Adressbook, iTunes, some other software) while I work.
The hardware is great, but I needed to upgrade (DIY) the HDD and RAM. I use Bluetooth a lot.
What I miss is the iSight for skype ( I use my video camera via firewire) and the Apple remote for presentations.
And by the way, the trackpad is scrolling!
So I love my PB G4. But I would by an Intel next time, maybe an Air