Goodbye G5...

[A.Goldberg]

I wanted to share that last weekend gave my beloved Dual 1.8 Power Mac G5 and 20" ADC Apple Display to my 12 year old cousin. I upgraded the RAM from 4GB to 8GB, swapped the 1TB drive with a 320GB drive, threw in an unused HP printer/scanner, and instructed my uncle on parental controls.

Dovie, my cousin, has a longtime passion for Apple and already owns an iPad Mini and iPod Touch. Whenever he comes to my house, he always runs up to my room and insists on exploring my Apple products. He'll often play around with GarageBand and iMovie. I know at the age of 11-12, I was just becoming interested in Macs and was starting to use Photoshop Elements, MS office, Final Cut, iMove, etc. I think the G5 will provide great exposure to OS X and some of the professional and nonprofessional creative apps. I'm happy to donate to someone who will appreciate, learn, and get more use out of the item than me... even if it's temporary. I don't need anywhere close to FIVE computers on hand - a rMBP, TiBook, MacPro, Thinkpad, AND a G5...

My uncle had his only child late in life and always treated me like his son when I was young (I'm almost 26). In fact, he gave me one of my first PC's- a PII HP desktop back in the day. I suppose I am now returning the favor (...Funny how the world works). The G5 and I had a good run, it has helped me immensely- both in school, work, and play. I will sincerely miss it, it was a beautiful machine, but I know it's too valuable (functionally) to collect dust. I could sell it, but I don't think that would be fair to my buddy who gave it to me for free.

I know our specific subforum has a long standing culture of exchanging and donating parts and items. I believe it's what separates us from "the others" and is solid evidence of the quality community we have. We've had issues, but it seems like the exception rather than the norm. I often forget the satisfaction of selflessness. It's easy for me to overlook gratitude and the position of others- I forgot about my preteen days when I coveted a Mac more than just about anything! It is the generosity here that inspired me to sacrifice my G5 rather than sell it for profit or selfishly stow it away. I'm not writing this to highlight my charity and/or goodness, but rather thank the community for the model of altruism provided AND to encourage others to assess what they have, what they really need, and promote generosity and compassion.


BTW: The surprise and excitement in Dovie's eyes- absolutely priceless.

 

[Anonymous Freak]

Excellent job! Always good to see useful systems see good use.

And this just reminds me of my own age - to think "...my preteen days when I coveted a Mac..." Sheesh! The Mac wasn't really "covet-worthy" until I was out of college! (My first post-college "real IT" job was a tech support call center - the iMac was introduced while I was there, and it was the thing everyone drooled after when we got one to replace the ancient first-gen PPC that had been our "test Mac".)

For me, my preteen days were coveting *ANY* computer! (I was lucky, by the time I was in middle school, we had two computers in the house - an insane rarity, especially for a family that was poor until I was in high school!)

 

[three]

That was a great write-up and a very touching story! Very nice and awesome of you to donate the G5 to Dovie! I'm sure he'll love it, play around with it, and be creative on it for years to come. This makes me think, as much as I love (most) of my current collection, how much of it can go to someone in need, like Dovie in your situation? I'd love to know that someone is getting use out of a machine, not simply gathering dust on my shelf.

Thank you for posting this. I'm going to do some brainstorming and think of who in the community could get use out of one of the machines in my collection.

 

[bunnspecial]

Ari,

You are truly a kind hearted soul, and that was a great gift.

I know I would have been over the moon to receive that kind of gift when I was your cousin's age!

 

[eyoungren]

I will just say here that while I tend to hoard Macs and parts and make purchases that defy the logic and practicality of some MR citizens I like the feeling of being able to help someone who is genuinely in need – because I have the part or the Mac, or whatever, even if I had no need for it when I got it.

So, this was a generous offer on your part and the reward is the good feeling of doing something nice for someone else.

It's that feeling that is exactly and precisely the reason I engage in internet forums.