Hello, Macrumors! I was planning to get an iBook G4 as a browsing laptop or maybe just for school and use it for whatever reason. What do you guys think about it? I was planning to trade my new 4th gen ipod touch for one. Do you think its worth it? Thanks in advance.
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iBook G4
- Thread starter iMacXpress
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if you only need the iBook for browsing (tenfourfox browser is a must)
and are happy using older versions of apps like they had been available at release date of the iBook it will be fine , cheap and still useful for the average user who doesn't want to spend £400+ on a used MacBook with some defects
and are happy using older versions of apps like they had been available at release date of the iBook it will be fine , cheap and still useful for the average user who doesn't want to spend £400+ on a used MacBook with some defects
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If you got a high end model and upgraded the RAM it'd probably make an alright browsing machine. I had an iBook G4 800MHz model with 384MB RAM and to be completely honest it wasn't even good enough for basic web browsing. Facebook was completely unusable (In TenFourFox and Camino) and Youtube videos only played right in 240p.
It might be different with a 1.42GHz model if you put a couple of gigs of RAM in. However, for anything more than web browsing I'd say put some extra money and get an Intel Macbook so you can run the latest OS and programs. Can't fault the form factor and battery life though.
Edit - Just noticed you have a MBP and MBA already. If you just want the G4 as a project then I'd say go for it, I had fun messing about with mine and made a bit of money out of it at the same time.
It might be different with a 1.42GHz model if you put a couple of gigs of RAM in. However, for anything more than web browsing I'd say put some extra money and get an Intel Macbook so you can run the latest OS and programs. Can't fault the form factor and battery life though.
Edit - Just noticed you have a MBP and MBA already. If you just want the G4 as a project then I'd say go for it, I had fun messing about with mine and made a bit of money out of it at the same time.
384mb have not even been really usable when the iBook G4 was released to get any performance , so to say its unusable is a bit harsh
, just try to run a 2011 MacBook air with only 384mb ram ..dont argue just try it then we can talk again about performance difference so max out the ram on a iBook ,run Tiger , disable spotlight and dashboard , use vlc to play movies and use Mactubes if you want more then 240p or watch a youtube video in fullscreen
those iBooks do whatever a MacBook can ,just with older and in my opinion more useful apps and OS
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I wood go for a powerbook i think it was the ibooks that had gpu issues but i may be worng
i have a powerbook g4 12in 1.5GHz and can play 480p youtube videos just fine and can brows the web just fine as well the max flash player version you can get on ppc is 10.1 i got my powerbook in good shape for $130 in 2010. you may be better off selling your iPod touch being it has more valu then a powerbook or ibook then buying a powerbook or ibook with the $ from the ipod. just for a $ on a ipod touch i just sold my iPod touch 4g 32gb 2 weeks ago for $200 it was in mint shape. and used the $ from that to get the macbook in my sig. 384mb have not even been really usable when the iBook G4 was released to get any performance , so to say its unusable is a bit harsh
so max out the ram on a iBook ,run Tiger , disable spotlight and dashboard , use vlc to play movies and use Mactubes if you want more then 240p or watch a youtube video in fullscreen
those iBooks do whatever a MacBook can ,just with older and in my opinion more useful apps and OS
I'm not hating on iBooks here, I was just being honest with the OP. There's no point making iBooks out to be some brilliant machines that are just as good as today's Macbooks because they're honestly not and it'll just lead to disappointment if you convince someone otherwise. If you want support for pretty much all new applications then you need an Intel machine (Not including work arounds such as TenFourFox of course). I honestly think the way Apple dropped PPC support was unfair, they're basically saying a Quad G5 isn't powerful enough for modern software.
The iBook I owned came with 256MB RAM standard which was the norm in 2003 (The 384MB was actually upgraded), obviously for an everyday machine you'd definitely want to max this out if possible. I'm not over exaggerating when I say Facebook was unusable though, it literally would not load properly (broken layout, extremely slow, the chat windows didn't work). More basic websites weren't a problem though.
Also yes, my iBook suffered from the infamous logic board failure. I bought it broken, repaired it and then sold it on for a profit. So look out for this issue, it mainly affects the older models.
there are problems yes ,but you find the same if not worse problems on MacBooks for 3 times the money (just look on ebay), but i found it a common problem today of people to just expect absolute newest software ,oh cant play 1080p video on youtube is the most common reason why someone is buying a MacBook instead of a iBook , sorry but i dont measure usablility based on what a laptop or desktop can't do , i measure it on what it can do , i dont care if i need to run office 2004 or office 2011 to write some letter or do some spreadsheets or if i have to use photoshop cs4 instead of the newer cs5 to work on the odd holiday photos .
As i see it the iBooks with maxed out ram make a great alternative and for me OSX Tiger is still the best OS after OS9 apple has ever released
gone is the "think different"
been there bought iMac intel , and happy gone back to PPC
today's "Mac's" are just PC's made by Apple ,are more powerful true , but i see them as what they are just rebadged chinese PC's with a
logo
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i agree partly , and yes i am a fanboi , at least i hope so
and after all i like a challenge , its part of the fun using a computer , if i only need to click without any thoughts ...thats just boring , i use as often as possible the terminal to do things too , there are even games hidden and you can make your Mac sing and lots more stuff
all this i would never have discovered if i used a intel Mac only , because normally there is no need to go in the terminal of a intel Mac , so i will go as far as saying a PPC Mac makes you understand how the OS works ,btw a hackintosh too
i now use to send all my eMails and for writing letters my commodore SX64 and a acoustic coupler and it still works ! its like time travel
and after all i like a challenge , its part of the fun using a computer , if i only need to click without any thoughts ...thats just boring , i use as often as possible the terminal to do things too , there are even games hidden and you can make your Mac sing and lots more stuff
all this i would never have discovered if i used a intel Mac only , because normally there is no need to go in the terminal of a intel Mac , so i will go as far as saying a PPC Mac makes you understand how the OS works ,btw a hackintosh too
i now use to send all my eMails and for writing letters my commodore SX64 and a acoustic coupler and it still works !
its like time travel
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Yes intel looks cool, runs faster if not better. But the iBooks are not dead yet (unless it is dead and it is not booting anymore).
I agree that Tiger is the best of the OSX (of course eye candy will always be better on iOS and latest OS iterations). Simple no frills direct to the point useability.
The reality distortion field is really working. Apple want us to buy the fastest, sexiest coolest and the greatest gadget everytime. Even if we don't need it. Most of my word processing, I am doing it on the outdated Appleworks. Never have used iWork or Office in the last couple of months now. It is lightweight and fast. It gets the work done. Eye candy most of the time does not matter, it is the content that matters.
I agree that Tiger is the best of the OSX (of course eye candy will always be better on iOS and latest OS iterations). Simple no frills direct to the point useability.
The reality distortion field is really working. Apple want us to buy the fastest, sexiest coolest and the greatest gadget everytime. Even if we don't need it. Most of my word processing, I am doing it on the outdated Appleworks. Never have used iWork or Office in the last couple of months now. It is lightweight and fast. It gets the work done. Eye candy most of the time does not matter, it is the content that matters.
and always remember "NO RISC NO FUN " and no its not a typo
and the argument "you cant expect support forever " is a bit flawed
windows7 i dont like windows , but at least microsoft is suporting under windows 7 any 1 ghz processor 32bit /64bit so it runs on everything after 2002 officially but no problem to install on even older hardware
Apart from PPC, but that would be Apples duty after all they promoted them still in 2005 as the architecture to have when they already knew they would drop support sooner or later anyway they knew it actually since the first version of OSX in 2002 and still made people buy PPC processor based Mac's until 2006 , and no thats not unfair in my opinion its even fraud , but thats a old matter so forget it , after all i dont expect anything else from Apple with their attitude to ignore hardware flaws until they can release a Mac that does not depend on the flawed hardware ..hint bad caps on g5 iMac's , bad solder in iBooks ,using gpu's that are known to fail (nvidia8800), yellow tint .....
to the OP get that iBook and you might even start to love it
and the argument "you cant expect support forever " is a bit flawed
windows7 i dont like windows , but at least microsoft is suporting under windows 7 any 1 ghz processor 32bit /64bit so it runs on everything after 2002 officially but no problem to install on even older hardware
Apart from PPC, but that would be Apples duty after all they promoted them still in 2005 as the architecture to have when they already knew they would drop support sooner or later anyway they knew it actually since the first version of OSX in 2002 and still made people buy PPC processor based Mac's until 2006 , and no thats not unfair in my opinion its even fraud , but thats a old matter so forget it , after all i dont expect anything else from Apple with their attitude to ignore hardware flaws until they can release a Mac that does not depend on the flawed hardware ..hint bad caps on g5 iMac's , bad solder in iBooks ,using gpu's that are known to fail (nvidia8800), yellow tint .....
to the OP get that iBook and you might even start to love it
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but you dont get a choice any more , you need a new Mac and that includes now a i5 even if a core duo would already be overpowered for your needs
as you said for word processing and sending emails and web browsing even watching youtube at 1080p a i5 is more then overkill and those are the task the majority of computer owners do
in reality for those totally basic tasks a iBook can do it apart from 1080p which would anyway make not much sense with a display with 1024x768 as you cant display a higher resolution then the one of the display so a AMD e-350 would be more then sufficient
would easy fit in a mini case or even better in a iBook case or Powerbook 12" personal choice as i think both cases are gorgeous and bigger case means better cooling so no need for thin thinner thinnest
as you said for word processing and sending emails and web browsing even watching youtube at 1080p a i5 is more then overkill and those are the task the majority of computer owners do
in reality for those totally basic tasks a iBook can do it apart from 1080p which would anyway make not much sense with a display with 1024x768 as you cant display a higher resolution then the one of the display so a AMD e-350 would be more then sufficient
would easy fit in a mini case or even better in a iBook case or Powerbook 12" personal choice as i think both cases are gorgeous and bigger case means better cooling so no need for thin thinner thinnest
iMacXpress:
For what you want a G4 800 is fine. It's all about using the right apps. You will even have enough power to watch video like DivX etc.
If you do indeed buy it just l;et us know and I will recommend a bunch of great G4 optimized apps that will make that 800MHz seem much faster.
AdrianK:
You're not typing a single thing that actually answers the OP's question. All you're doing is spewing out your limited thinking and understanding about things.
You have honestly never written one single word that would ever even hint that you're at all experienced at dealing with PowerPC hardware. You sound off like the typical uninformed need the latest hardware to watch youtube type user. You should really consider sticking to the Intel Mac parts of the forum.
For what you want a G4 800 is fine. It's all about using the right apps. You will even have enough power to watch video like DivX etc.
If you do indeed buy it just l;et us know and I will recommend a bunch of great G4 optimized apps that will make that 800MHz seem much faster.
AdrianK:
You're not typing a single thing that actually answers the OP's question. All you're doing is spewing out your limited thinking and understanding about things.
You have honestly never written one single word that would ever even hint that you're at all experienced at dealing with PowerPC hardware. You sound off like the typical uninformed need the latest hardware to watch youtube type user. You should really consider sticking to the Intel Mac parts of the forum.
Get back at me when Lion runs at below 1GB. That is the distortion, is it not supposed to be that newer codes should be more optimized, streamlined and more lighter? I have been a software developer for robotics and factory automation. And I am still in equipment manufacturing business, in all reality machines could run even on old dilapidated hardware. I am not against Apple's business model, but I don't believe and follow whatever things they are pushing to their "consumers".
To the OP, iBooks will run fine if all you have to do is mail, word processing or typical web browsing. As what the others have said here, there are PowerPC optimized software that will run well on the iBook. As I can see in your signature that you have a couple of Intel macs, even if it is older you will love the PPC macs.
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OS progression amongst Windows, Linux and OS X has caused heightened system requirements since their initial releases, so this is not so much distortion caused by Apple, but the developers of every OS...?
But I get your point, it is much more prominent with Lion than Windows or other *nixes.
at least windows7 and linux can run on less then the recomended hardware , slower yes , but thats not the point nobody would expect windows7 to run speedy on a say 450mhz pentium 3 , but as youtube proves it its possible to even install on a http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lqdmVOgellQ 90mhz amd cpu
so windows 7 , remember microsoft does not build computers can run on more then 10 year old hardware from whoever the manufacturer was (with emulation on PPC too if enough ram is there )
and linux well it does run pretty much on everything you want it to run on
i installed ubuntu 9 , excuse me as at that time it was the newest on a old AMD K6 300mhz and 4mb vram GPU and on a iMac G3 700mhz ubuntu 10 and it run fine
and again its not about speed at all as long as everything loads eventually its fine
i for example dont get stressed out and ready for a shrink if My Mac's take a moment to wake up , or a app takes a couple minutes to load , or if i can only watch youtube in 240p all that is not important , the important thing about PPC Mac's is they are still usable computers that still get the job done , even if Apple want them to be in museums and not on peoples desks any more, so let us and other enjoy our old PPC Mac's , its enough that apple wants you to buy every 12 month a new Mac to stay ahead of the game , we just dont follow that trend
sure our PPC Mac's cant run snow leopard or Lion , but that is everything but not the fault of the PPC architecture , Apple could easy have developed those newer OS to run on PPC too
for me its a question of why should i spend £2000 on a MBP if i could get the job done on a £200 iBook and its only about choosing the right software to get those jobs done , in my opinion and some might agree only because a app is 5 years old does not render the app unusable
Mac's and apps dont have a use by date.. ok i am a bit wrong there with Apples tendency to render hardware unusable with new OS's after 5 years , so you could say they build in a use by date in the OS , but not because the hardware could not cope , best example and a new one is the lion official restriction to core 2 duo ,ok can be made to run on core duo's too, but not officially , because they want to sell you a new Mac and its not in their interest if you keep your Mac longer then 3 years , Apple is a profit based company not a charity
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To sum it up, it is the reality distortion field. Apple make you to believe that you need it, but in reality you do not.
I believe that Leopard will be around for the next 5 years.
About the question if an iBook is worth it, even at these times? I would say "yes'.
I believe that Leopard will be around for the next 5 years.
About the question if an iBook is worth it, even at these times? I would say "yes'.
And there is always MintPPC
A little off topic, but not really....for starters, I am a diehard mac user since 1987, so no flame wars please. I've owned pluses, classics, blackbirds,bondi blues, graphites, icebooks, titaniums and mini's. I have dabbled with linux PPC in the past (even MK linux, christ I am old) but finally took the plunge, wiped Tiger and Leopard off my ibook G4 1.2 ghz with 1.2 gb of RAM for good and installed mintppc. Am I happy? In a word, umm, yes. Iceweasel 6 (Firefox 6 for Debian) is wicked, hellaciously fast, as fast as firefox my wife's core 2 duo macbook at loading pages, which render perfectly, as you would expect. Midori is a great alternative browser if I want some webkit action. Abiword and Gnumeric are all the word processor and spreadsheet apps I'll ever likely need. VLC worked great, until I broke it, haven't been able to get it working even with uninstalling and reinstalling it. Will likely have to reninstall the whole damn OS to get it working again.
There is no flash of course, but there are several workarounds for that piece of dog doo-doo software. 1st, developer of mintppc, a dude in the Netherlands, has backported minitube (mactube like program, free on linux but macheads have to pay up for it) into mintPPC. It gets the youtube job done, but outside of a browser. Downloadhelper in Iceweasel allows me to download higher quality mp4 files and play them back in gnome mplayer. Finally, flashvideoreplacer replaces flash for many streaming sites like youtube or vimeo, and some other ones as well. The embedded player doesn't work but the standalone does, it launches and streams to gnome mplayer. Works a charm. For high quality mp4's I download and use mplayer from the command line, this bypasses the GUI of gnome mplayer. Sounds geeky but its pretty easy, fire up a terminal, type mplayer then the path to the file and hit enter, and your playing. There are also commands you can type in to drop frames, skip buffers etc, but I haven't bothered with that yet.
Developer is working on a new port of Mint11, it looks awesome, he has a downloadable ISO installer now but won't have a liveCD or DVD until the folks at Debian get their heads out of their i386 butts and port it to PPC. As much as I love Tiger, as much as I love tenfourfox and all things mac, I think this is likely the future for anyone who wants to keep at PPC machine current and usable into the future.
A little off topic, but not really....for starters, I am a diehard mac user since 1987, so no flame wars please. I've owned pluses, classics, blackbirds,bondi blues, graphites, icebooks, titaniums and mini's. I have dabbled with linux PPC in the past (even MK linux, christ I am old) but finally took the plunge, wiped Tiger and Leopard off my ibook G4 1.2 ghz with 1.2 gb of RAM for good and installed mintppc. Am I happy? In a word, umm, yes. Iceweasel 6 (Firefox 6 for Debian) is wicked, hellaciously fast, as fast as firefox my wife's core 2 duo macbook at loading pages, which render perfectly, as you would expect. Midori is a great alternative browser if I want some webkit action. Abiword and Gnumeric are all the word processor and spreadsheet apps I'll ever likely need. VLC worked great, until I broke it, haven't been able to get it working even with uninstalling and reinstalling it. Will likely have to reninstall the whole damn OS to get it working again.
There is no flash of course, but there are several workarounds for that piece of dog doo-doo software. 1st, developer of mintppc, a dude in the Netherlands, has backported minitube (mactube like program, free on linux but macheads have to pay up for it) into mintPPC. It gets the youtube job done, but outside of a browser. Downloadhelper in Iceweasel allows me to download higher quality mp4 files and play them back in gnome mplayer. Finally, flashvideoreplacer replaces flash for many streaming sites like youtube or vimeo, and some other ones as well. The embedded player doesn't work but the standalone does, it launches and streams to gnome mplayer. Works a charm. For high quality mp4's I download and use mplayer from the command line, this bypasses the GUI of gnome mplayer. Sounds geeky but its pretty easy, fire up a terminal, type mplayer then the path to the file and hit enter, and your playing. There are also commands you can type in to drop frames, skip buffers etc, but I haven't bothered with that yet.
Developer is working on a new port of Mint11, it looks awesome, he has a downloadable ISO installer now but won't have a liveCD or DVD until the folks at Debian get their heads out of their i386 butts and port it to PPC. As much as I love Tiger, as much as I love tenfourfox and all things mac, I think this is likely the future for anyone who wants to keep at PPC machine current and usable into the future.
by the way i heard rumors of ANDROID is coming to PPC Mac's
and if i see what my little htc wildfire with a little 528mhz cpu and 384mb ram can do i guess then it will fly on a iBook
but back to the topic
here a video i found on youtube ,to the OP its worth watching as its about a iBook G4 and if you can still use them on a every day basis
and if i see what my little htc wildfire with a little 528mhz cpu and 384mb ram can do i guess then it will fly on a iBook
but back to the topic
here a video i found on youtube ,to the OP its worth watching as its about a iBook G4 and if you can still use them on a every day basis
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I have no clue what you guys are talking about, but I picked up an iBook G4 yesterday.
Everything seems smooth, no lags whatsoever. The only thing I have problems with is Youtube videos which are a bit laggy depending on the video. Besides that, It's great for browsing. It also has Microsoft Office 2004 on it so I can do some typing.
Any suggestions on whats some good apps? Can I upgrade to snow leopard or something? Thanks.
Everything seems smooth, no lags whatsoever. The only thing I have problems with is Youtube videos which are a bit laggy depending on the video. Besides that, It's great for browsing. It also has Microsoft Office 2004 on it so I can do some typing.
Any suggestions on whats some good apps? Can I upgrade to snow leopard or something? Thanks.