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Does anyone ONLY use a PowerPC Mac?

I upgrade to a new fully loaded 15" MacBook Pro at each refresh cycle, mainly for two reasons.

1) My engineering work demands a lot of resources, and I also benefit from the portability of a laptop.

2) I really enjoy getting a new Mac Laptop frequently.

That said one of my all time favorites, by a wide margin is my Titanium 2002 G4 PowerBook.

The first PowerBook to have a 1GHz processor, 1GB of ram and a SuperDrive. It was the last of the series right before the release of the Aluminum PowerBooks at MacWorld 2003. It's still with me, and I use it regularly for writing. Because I am very careful with my equipment it looks like new and I've never had any problem with the lid hinges, since I open and close it with care.

Amazingly, it's never had a single thing fail. I've replaced more batteries than I can remember which is to be expected. Otherwise it's simply stellar. In my opinion Apple really blew it when they abandoned the very popular model name "PowerBook".
 
Theophany said:
That's unlucky man and is the fault I've always dreaded with any Mac I've owned. Still, if the logic board on this one goes that's fine with me. The equivalent PC from 10 years ago wouldn't be able to run the firmware on my washing machine, so at least my TiBook has lasted :)
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I agree with you. I have asked my boss more than once. Just how many PCs in the building from 1999 and 2005 are still working? And have what is now considered to be standard ports? I'm still waiting for an answer.

My old TiBook gave out in October of 2009. It was a January 2001 model so it lasted 8 years. After replacing the logic board it lasted another year and a half before falling victim to my daughter.

Right now though, the main machine I use is my 1Ghz 17" PB. I bought it and my other 17" off eBay "broken" for less than $500 together. I was told that the 1Ghz model was on it's last legs. It's been two years, a LVDS cable, DC Inverter board and screen replacement later and it's still going (depsite suffering from a failed external cache). I think it was telling that the seller never left me feedback.
 
I use my 12" PB for checking e-mail, logging onto secure sites, and browsing message boards, basically. It's over 7 years old and so messed up. Maybe it's not just hardware as I've been running Tiger since 2005 without a reinstall or any sort of OS maintenance. If i want to play any games online, watch youtube, etc. I get on my PC. I will be getting a new MBP in a few months or when my PB breaks...whichever is soonest!
 
I still have a 8600/200 running in my office just to talk to the Fiery Rip Station that runs our ESPON Stylus Pro 24" printer. It used to communicate with a 13x19 ESPON, but that died. It runs OS 8.1, has 3 HDS (SCSI based) and 160MB RAM.

I still use my home unit B/W G3-see sig for OS 9 apps: UT GOTY, Links Pro, Links 2000, Photoshop 5.5 and 7, Alan's Euchre 1.1.1, ClarisWorks 2.1, Diamonds 3D, Movod II, Painter Classic, QuarkXPress 4.1, Adobe InDesign 1.5.

It also runs OS 10.4.6 for my everyday stuff: Thunderbird, multiple browsers, Photoshop, Illustrator, Audacity, and many other apps too long to list.

I always thought the PowerPC was superior till the Intel/AMD chips hit the 3Ghz mark. But I also like the fact that PPC chips use less energy and in my experience, never fail.
 
I *would* still use entirely PowerPC based Macs if I didn't require a lot of RAM and CPU capacity. (Lots of VMs and a few development tools that are x86 only) - I've tried to do exactly what I do on my Mac Pro on a Quad G5, and it sadly couldn't keep up, so I spend most of my time on Intel Macs these days. I do however own and still use daily a lot more PowerPC Macs than I own Intel ones. (Everything from my Dual 867 MDD running as an iTunes machine to my 8100/100 which sits in the corner quietly sharing files with all my other PowerPC and 68K Macs.) One day, I think I might try and do all the stuff I get done on my modern Macs on Macs from the Beginning of the PowerPC Era. Then Ill be all PowerPC for as long as I can manage (Im thinking 8100/100, 6100/66 and a PowerBook 5300).

PS. I posted this using my 8200/120 running OS 9.1. This thing is rock-solid.
 
I have just - as of two weeks ago - upgraded to a G5. I still use my Quicksilver G4 and 19" studio display for a lot of things, and to be honest only upgraded as the G5 was cheap on eBay.
 
I have one PPC Mac at work (I own it). It's a 7300/200 with 48MB ram and a 4GB hard drive. I'm using it as an Applescript server. I have DAVE 6 installed on it so it's able to use the Windows network we have here. It does a lot of heavy lifting including processing photos and moving files. I got OS9.2.2 on it as well. That's not supported (I think it's 9.0 max), but I used one of those OS assistants (I forget which one) to get 9.2.2 on there.

Also have a 6500 at home.
 
If my PowerMac G5 wouldn't have died so early I still would be using it today. It was blazing fast for what it did. Now I am typing it from a PB 12" which is another gem in apple's lineup.
 
Gotta admire the people who only use PowerPC, talk about getting full use of an old computer! They're a lightyear away from the annoying "Just bought a new MBA 6 months ago but now its been refreshed, do i need a new one?" threads.

Did think of doing it a while back (selling my new iMac and going back to PowerPC) but there was certain software i needed that was Intel only which was a shame :(

I still have an iMac G4 which acts as a kitchen hifi and an iBook Clamshell which i play with every now and again.
 
Paulywauly said:
Gotta admire the people who only use PowerPC, talk about getting full use of an old computer! They're a lightyear away from the annoying "Just bought a new MBA 6 months ago but now its been refreshed, do i need a new one?" threads.
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I think there's nothing wrong with moderate consumerism. But it's just that: It has to be moderate.
 
Ahhhh.... and there I was thinking I'd support an Apple forum by asking questons on here.
Silly me!!
Google here I come. Do THEY have gods who slap beginners down too?
 
UlsterApple said:
Ahhhh.... and there I was thinking I'd support an Apple forum by asking questons on here.
Silly me!!
Google here I come. Do THEY have gods who slap beginners down too?
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It's not our jobs to answer your questions, we do it to help others and discuss PPC Macs, if someone asks a question that can be quickly answered by google, we are not going to answer it and waste our time.

Now, let's get this thread back on track.
 
iBook G4 run perfectly, but...

Many programs were made to work with Mac Power PC and Intel.
Thanks to Rosetta.

But not on new models with Lion, Rosetta: gone. :mad:

Rosetta: "It enabled applications compiled for the PowerPC family of processors to run on Apple systems that use Intel processors. Rosetta was based on Transitive Corporation's QuickTransit technology,[1] and was a key part of Apple's strategy for the transition of their Macintosh line from PowerPC to Intel processors as it enables pre-existing Mac OS X software to run on the new platform without modification."

"Rosetta was part of Mac OS X for Intel operating systems prior to Lion. It translated G3, G4, and AltiVec instructions; however, it did not translate G5 instructions. Therefore, applications that rely on G5-specific instruction sets must be modified by their developers to work on Intel-based Macs. According to Apple, applications with heavy user interaction but low computational needs (such as word processors) are well suited to translation via Rosetta, while applications with high computational needs (such as raytracers or Adobe Photoshop) are not.[5] Pre-existing PowerPC versions of Apple "Pro" media-production applications (such as Final Cut Pro, Motion, Aperture and Logic Pro) are not supported by Rosetta, and require a "crossgrade" to a universal binary version to work on Intel-based Macs."
Source: Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosetta_%28software%29

In other word, before to dump program to put a new one, you better made an important check if it work on your Power PC.
Example: Microsoft Word 2004 (a PowerPC application) running through Rosetta on OS X Tiger for Intel.

Yes I will keep my old faithfull iBook G4, but I'll buy next week an iMac 21 1/2"

I like Google earth but not for Power PC anymore. :mad:

My iBook I will used it for travel. (for internet it is perfect) It will be me iBookpad. :D
 
We have a G5 iMac (in my sig) that sits in our den as the family computer. My wife uses it about 95% of the time (I only go on it to do updates and run Time Machine backups). It's her main computer, and serves her needs just fine- email, web, photos, music, etc, etc, etc. Office 2008 still gets updates, Camino seems to be a pretty decent browser for PPC, and Photoshop Elements 6/iPhoto 09 are plenty powerful enough for her uses. We talked about replacing it, but at least for now, that's money that can be better spent elsewhere.

As an aside, speaking of the PowerPC forums, I'm glad that the 'Mini-Trolls' seem to have quieted down. You know the ones to which I refer- you ask a PowerPC specific question, and the invariable response is, "ZOMG.... ur such a l0ser! Get a MINI!!!... nom nom nom..."

As Indiana Jones says: "I hate those guys."

Fortunately, they seem to be around a lot less. Maybe they got bored and found a new forum to troll.
 
These days I am contemplating on buying one of Apple Intel offerings, but i cannot justify it since I have my powerpc Macs still running strong without a hiccup. Just recently bought a 21" Dell monitor with built in webcam that works great with my G5 powermac for cheap (can you imagine, it is like new in box with all the plastic wrap on it).

I don't play Angry Birds, so there is no use for App Store for me. My CAD software is still running ok and does the job as if it is a new computer.

In my view if not for my CAD software I am better off with my Powerbook G4.
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_5 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8L1 Safari/6533.18.5)

12 inch PB 867ghz and a 6500 performa that never gets used. Yay! For HTML5 now I gotta find a browser
 
I have a feeling unlike the 68k series based macs, PowerPC macs are going to last a long long time to come as being still useful for everyday stuff. I myself have a G5 Quad, PowerBook G4 and PowerBook G4 Pismo that I use everyday for my basics, along with a 2010 6-core mac pro which is my only intel mac and so far I do more with my G5 than my 6-core mac pro as I haven't decided as of yet what to use my Mac Pro for.

The PowerPC machines are still fine machines.. any upper level G4 will still do everyday tasks along with the G5 Dual cores and Quads.. All fine machines.



DSPalpatine said:
We have a G5 iMac (in my sig) that sits in our den as the family computer. My wife uses it about 95% of the time (I only go on it to do updates and run Time Machine backups). It's her main computer, and serves her needs just fine- email, web, photos, music, etc, etc, etc. Office 2008 still gets updates, Camino seems to be a pretty decent browser for PPC, and Photoshop Elements 6/iPhoto 09 are plenty powerful enough for her uses. We talked about replacing it, but at least for now, that's money that can be better spent elsewhere.

As an aside, speaking of the PowerPC forums, I'm glad that the 'Mini-Trolls' seem to have quieted down. You know the ones to which I refer- you ask a PowerPC specific question, and the invariable response is, "ZOMG.... ur such a l0ser! Get a MINI!!!... nom nom nom..."

As Indiana Jones says: "I hate those guys."

Fortunately, they seem to be around a lot less. Maybe they got bored and found a new forum to troll.
Click to expand...
 
Marcush1286 said:
I have a feeling unlike the 68k series based macs, PowerPC macs are going to last a long long time to come as being still useful for everyday stuff. I myself have a G5 Quad, PowerBook G4 and PowerBook G4 Pismo that I use everyday for my basics, along with a 2010 6-core mac pro which is my only intel mac and so far I do more with my G5 than my 6-core mac pro as I haven't decided as of yet what to use my Mac Pro for.

The PowerPC machines are still fine machines.. any upper level G4 will still do everyday tasks along with the G5 Dual cores and Quads.. All fine machines.
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How exactly have the 68k Macs not lasted a long time? I still know of a few people chugging along with the 68040 equipped Quadras. (Generally with upgraded RAM, Mac OS 8.1, ClarisWorks and older Printers). If all they want to do is type up letters and do their home accounts, for a few a Quadra is enough, and they work just fine. I'd say thats pretty impressive for machines that in some cases were manufactured in 1991. Sure they may be few and far between, but some people haven't yet given up on 68k, and for what they want to do, its all the computer they need. Some people just don't need the internet, and for them even 68k machines are viable computers.
 
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