I've had my own failings here as well. @Dronecatcher even called me out on one a long time ago.
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A tower of towers
- Thread starter bunnspecial
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Oops...sorry about that
Nah, you were right to call me on it. I was being a jerk at the time.Oops...sorry about that
Okay, so please edumacate me...
What is the "thing" with PowerPC's and PowerPC owners?
I have NO CLUE where this is going... :-/
Personally, the only Macs that I have owned include a Mac Mini when I started off in 2008, and then ever since, MacBook Pros.
What exactly even is a PowerPC? (It almost souns like a "Hackintosh"?)
I have seen the towers like in the OP photo, and for towers, I guess they look nice - especially how you can make them glow in different colors. But other than that, what is this *hidden culture* I stumbled across?! 😮
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PowerPC computers are those with PowerPC processors inside. Apple used those prior to switching to Intel in 2005. Before PowerPC, Apple used the related 68xxx processor. Applications written for PPC will not run on Intel and vice versa, except in emulation.
In short, it's partly a nostalgia forum harking back to a time when Apple seemed genuinely interested in making great computers rather than purely profitable computers and partly an antidote to the throwaway culture in that forum members are interested in eking out every last practical use they can from the machines Apple made when it was cool rather than big.
In short, it's partly a nostalgia forum harking back to a time when Apple seemed genuinely interested in making great computers rather than purely profitable computers and partly an antidote to the throwaway culture in that forum members are interested in eking out every last practical use they can from the machines Apple made when it was cool rather than big.
A ha. Right. I remember that now.
Okay.
Gotchas.
Well, if it's any consolation, I tend to be a "late adopter".
For instance, I still run macOS Sierra because it seems stable and secure and why update when what you have works? (I have been getting some flack in the main forums about needing to swicth to Catalina - which I will not touch at this point.)
So maybe in some ways we are kindred souls? ;-)
As far as towers go, that is from a former lifetime for me...
I don't have the luxury of owning a house, and I live on the road, so the only option for me is a laptop. And since I went entirely to laptop(s) in 2010, I cannot personally ever see the need to go back to a desktop.
But for those with lots of space and stability, more "power" ;-) to you! *LOL*
Not eyoungren, and as a mere dwarf I wouldn't presume to speak for Gandalf. But heres my $.02:
This is PowerPC. Some can wax eloquent about its unique technical aspects; I'm not one who can do that. What PowerPC represents to me is Apple's glory days, when Macs had character, before everything became monotone plastic or burnished aluminum. It's also about stickin' it to The Man, because I don't have to follow the crowd marching to Google's and Microsoft's and (today) Apple's tune. I can keep my old machines useful and march to my own damn tune.
We're just an enthusiast community like any other. PowerPC is cool to me because it's different, because Apple in choosing to develop this architecture did something different, and because I'm naturally a contrarian and I want to do something different. I like that there's a bunch of PowerPC chips flying about in space and running around on Mars right now. There's Intel stuff out there too, but who cares? I'm in my little niche, with my cool friends, and we're having things our way. This is Burger King baby, this ain't no McDonald's.
But anyway, everybody's here for their own reasons, and even we don't agree what they are, or what they should be. We're just doing our thing and appreciating some cool old computers, that's all.
It feels like I have been transformed to a Harry Potter movie - which I've never seen - or something from the SyFy channel?!)
Hey, I am all about "sticking it to The Man" and being my own person - very much my nature.
And, yes, I agree that Apple has become too "mainstream" and seems less innovative and rebellious since Steve Jobs passed.
👍
It feels like I have been transformed to a Harry Potter movie - which I've never seen - or something from the SyFy channel?!)
Oof...that hurt. My references were to J.R.R. Tolkien's works The Hobbit and The Lord of The Rings.
Reminds me of this:
Other people couldn't care less for the Apple branding and at this point are solely attracted to the exotic hardware (specifically processors) contained in a PowerPC machine, as derivatives of IBM's POWER architecture and Motorola's 7400 line. These are typically the people that more-so gravitate to Linux / BSD than OS X, because the hardware itself is the subject, and not necessarily the experience, meaning, or culture.
That makes you an avantgardist in my book - I'm still on Mavericks.
Hey, when someone starts off with, "...as a mere dwarf..." ;-) *LMAO*
(Shows you how much I know about that world!)
;-)
@Raging Dufus You're two late! You should have thrown in this picture in another thread 2d ago !!! 🤣
Since everyone has pretty much explained to you what PowerPC Macs are and a few reasons as to why they are here, I'll just get into some of the mentality that is typically common among us.
We all have different models and types of Macs that we like of this era (about 1999-2006). And there are certain versions of OS we gravitate to (anywhere from OS8 to OS 10.5). But we all share a common love for this era of Macs and appreciation for what they can do and the apps and systems they can run. Some of these apps aren't around anymore and if you spend any time here you'll also find out that there are a lot of software houses that made universal apps that were not commonly advertised. Part of the fun is finding those. The second part is seeing how the community uses what we find.
There's another wing of the community that is very interested in Linux on these old Macs. The hardware is still very much capable and a good Linux system will bring that out.
Each model has a different personality and a lot of times there were variations even in models. So, for the collectors here this is a thing. Because even though they were mass produced, some of these variations were rare.
There are other little things, but one of mine is the ability to max out a Mac with stuff that wasn't available when it was first made or that was very expensive. That enabled me to do reasonably current things with that Mac - one of the other reasons we're here.
Finally, we all enjoy helping others to get the same enjoyment. It makes us feel good when others can see what we see or when we can help others make an old Mac useful (to them) for whatever it is they are doing.
And what we do keeps old Macs out of landfill.
That makes you an avantgardist in my book - I'm still on Mavericks.
Well, come to think of it, I am actually typing on my older MBP which runs Mountain Lion, so I have a little "throw-back" nature in me! ;-)
I still use Snow Leopard almost daily, but my main Mac OS is High Sierra.
@eyoungren,
Sounds like a club full of '57 Chevy lovers?!
Everyone needs a hobby, and it can be fun to tinker.
This sounds like an "old school" online forum where people are more serious about solving things, and there is more a sense of community. I miss those days of the late 90s and early 2000s!
Sounds like a club full of '57 Chevy lovers?!
Everyone needs a hobby, and it can be fun to tinker.
This sounds like an "old school" online forum where people are more serious about solving things, and there is more a sense of community. I miss those days of the late 90s and early 2000s!
Exactly like that. Most of us are here to support each other and help others out. We have our disagreements but it's a good community and we'd like to keep it so.
You're welcome to stay, but if this isn't your interest or hobby then good luck to you!
Well, I'd like to benefit from this group, but not even having a tower, I'm not sure what I could contribute.
I'm a pretty simple Mac user. I just have an old MBP and two Retina, and an iPhone without a SIM card in it that I use as a camera. (Although I am looking at crossing over to "the dark side" and maybe getting my first ever cellular plan this week to address the fact every company insists on needing to text me security codes?!)
It's cool I stumbled across (most) of you! ;-) This place is like finding a bunch of gnomes under a mushroom or something?!
LOL, welcome then.Well, I'd like to benefit from this group, but not even having a tower, I'm not sure what I could contribute.
I'm a pretty simple Mac user. I just have an old MBP and two Retina, and an iPhone without a SIM card in it that I use as a camera. (Although I am looking at crossing over to "the dark side" and maybe getting my first ever cellular plan this week to address the fact every company insists on needing to text me security codes?!)
It's cool I stumbled across (most) of you! ;-) This place is like finding a bunch of gnomes under a mushroom or something?!
I'll let you in on a little secret…most of us have other more modern Macs. I'm typing this on a 2009 Mac Pro and my earlier posts were on a 2008 MBP. We tend to support early Intel, mainly the stuff before the unibody - all the models the Intel forum here on MR tends NOT to support. You can find some of us there too.
I, myself am active in the iPhone forum so you'll find me there as well. It's just that our main support, the reason the forum was made for us is PowerPC.
Well, I can defintely use help with my iPhone... (I'm extremely resistent to change, and if the masses are doing something, I tend to reject it. But sadly, I am going to likely have to get a cellular plan for the reasons I mentioned, and once I do that I'll likely need to secure my iPhone more.)
It's too bad I cannot benefit/contribute from this forum, really, but maybe I can drive by now and then and say, "Howdy!"
There is definitely not enough love on the Internet, so I appreciate your "old school" sub-group here!
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Sure, not a problem. We have others such as @BigMcGuire that drop in from time to time as well.It's too bad I cannot benefit/contribute from this forum, really, but maybe I can drive by now and then and say, "Howdy!"
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Definitely wish I had been born at least a decade earlier. While I got to enjoy a 486 as a kid, Windows 98 was the first OS I had my own login to. So, I get to live it through posts here.
Yep, that's the kind of being subversive!
Come to the bright side and think different, instead of sending valuable hardware to limbo, just because big-A tells you, it is meant to be EOL ...
Welcome home at "old school",
PPC can be all: a '57 Chevy, a sturdy pickup, a special vehicle (for tasks, there's no other one is available), a daily driver or just the fun-car ... Most important: get in, turn the key and be able to drive wherever you want to go!
That's difficult or plainly impossible with Cloud-services, video-streaming, 4k-video ...
For the rest, PPC a valuable machines and keeping them in the game it's a matter of tinkering, collaboration and imagination. Plus: all the stuff that worked 10-20a ago still works (including all related hardware).
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Ha ha.
Well, in the computer world I'm probably a "moderate". I don't strive for the "latest and greatest", but I don't necessarily go for "the grateful dead" either.
I just need enough to do what I need to do on my laptop, which tends to be on the heavier side, but not too extreme.
In my experience, if you buy enough RAM up front, and maybe HDD, then most computers - PC or Mac - will last a long time if you take care of them.
Now as far as OS's go, I totally need to get off my arse and upgrde *this* MBP to at least macOS Sierra because it's just a matter of time before I get nailed security-wise. (I'm just so swamped with projects I con't find the time to migrate to my newer Retina.) :-(
So what is the latest OS you can run on that hardware?
And from a software standpoint, what could I run?
LibreOffice? Latest Firefox and Chrome? Audacity? How about fancier software like Adobe Photoshop?
Well, when I was a teenager, I have a Chevy Nova that I learned automechanics on, and now I have a 28 year old Honda that I am trying to keep going, so indirectly, I can relate to you guys and gals!
That's me, but I don't like to talk about them; they're like the relatives from "that" side of the family.
@Texas_Toast there's a fascinating group in here and I find that the level of knowledge in this forum is substantially higher than anywhere else on this site, as well as a much greater willingness to help. I hope one day to have the knowledge that some of the people here possess. People even ask questions about older Intel Macs in here because they know they'll get a helpful answer, and not just get told to buy a new computer.
Some people are here for Apple nostalgia. Others like exotic hardware. Still others just like seeing how far they can stretch something that the rest of the world says can't be used today. I'm kind of in the latter two camps. I never had a Mac growing up so there's no nostalgia, but I really like exotic systems and basically doing anything I'm told I can't do.