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neoelectronaut

Cancelled
Original poster
Dec 3, 2003
3,417
2,093
I want to get my father a Apple laptop so he can do his web browsing with ease in the comfort of his living room. Wireless internet is a must. What's the best price for such a thing?
 

Bluefusion

macrumors 6502
Apr 25, 2003
257
1
New York, NY
The last viable machines to run OS X were the second-generation iBooks. The first gen doesnt have a big enough hard drive. Of course, by "wireless" im assuming you meant laptop, but the older iMac can do so as well (though really, really, really not recommended).

I use a Blueberry iBook with OS X from time to time; it does still work, albeit slowly. You want to look for the 300 MHz, 6 GB models instead of the 233/3.3 GB ones. I have absolutely no idea what they'd run for now, but I was going to sell mine for around $300 at one point, and I'm sure they're less now.
 

7on

macrumors 601
Nov 9, 2003
4,939
0
Dress Rosa
A Pismo would work too. It's a little faster than those iBooks at basically the same prices on eBay (the clamshells are considered in a small part "collectible" and demand slightly more than what they're worth).

You'll be looking to spend at least $400. Maybe $350 - but that maybe stretching it.
 

Bluefusion

macrumors 6502
Apr 25, 2003
257
1
New York, NY
The Pismos are vastly better machines in every possible way. They are therefore not the "cheapest", and technically not even the "oldest", really; the Pismo was officially discountinued YEARS after the iBook, because the Pismo was the last G3 PowerBook--and it was only once they got the G4 into a laptop that they killed it.

So the iBook is cheaper, but the Pismo kicks its ass. :)
 

Horrortaxi

macrumors 68020
Jul 6, 2003
2,240
0
Los Angeles
Another vote for the Pismo. That's the oldest PowerBook to have all the modern comforts-USB, FireWire, AirPort, decently powered processor. It also has some upgradability, which is rare for a laptop.

The problem you may run into is price--while the Pismo is a great computer, the original white iBooks sell for around the same amount and they're a little faster. For the same money I'd take a 100mhz slower Pismo.
 

Mord

macrumors G4
Aug 24, 2003
10,091
23
UK
Horrortaxi said:
Another vote for the Pismo. That's the oldest PowerBook to have all the modern comforts-USB, FireWire, AirPort, decently powered processor. It also has some upgradability, which is rare for a laptop.

The problem you may run into is price--while the Pismo is a great computer, the original white iBooks sell for around the same amount and they're a little faster. For the same money I'd take a 100mhz slower Pismo.


the speed difference is made up by the 1mb l3 cache and the 100MHz bus.
 

Crikey

macrumors 6502
Jan 14, 2004
356
0
Spencer's Butte, Oregon
jsw said:
My Lombard runs it as well. And I've got a PCMCIA wireless card that works fine with it.

When my friend put Panther on the Lombard issued to her by her work, it crashed repeatedly on installation, and whenever she tried to do anything bandwidth- or I/O-instensive. She looked around on the Web and found it to be a common problem. She had to pull out the second SODIMM (RAM chip) to get Panther to install properly. That worked, but now she has to pull the SODIMM out in order to do stuff like render a DVD or send a DVD image across the network, compress a large file, and so on.

I told her she should just wipe it and go back to Jaguar, but her work won't let her (guess they don't want to call the software vendors and get new install codes for the obscure programs she needs). Sheesh.

So you guys running Panther on Lombards, did you encounter anything like this?


Crikey
 
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