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(Long) About to lose my baby, here's to you Steve Austin.

Greene

Greene

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jul 15, 2015
149
42
Fort Worth
So I've off and on toyed with the idea of selling my 2.7 G5. The model had a refurbished liquid cooling system, and really brought me back to the days of salivating over the dual 2.5 and fanboying about how much better tiger was than XP (it isn't [it's just different {i tell myself}]). These days lasted for quite a while, as I was too young to work.

Eventually, after I started learning some python, my uncle, a big mac guy and a database administrator in Dallas, gave me his old single 1.8 GHz G5 and a copy of tiger when he upgraded to a dual 2.5, around 04 or 05. It was for my 13th birthday. I owe more than is quantifiable both to him and that computer. He's since passed away, his name was Steve Austin, and he and his partner Jerry were my stand in father figures. As you can imagine, the G5 holds a special place in my heart as it reminds me of him.

Unfortunately the day to sell has come. An AmigaOS guy is about to get it for a price too good to pass up on my end. At least it's going to a good home where it will have plenty of open farmland to play.

Sad / happy / saudade day. Is this what sending your kid off to college is like?

Any one selling a quad? or maybe a dual 1.8?
 
That's a fair question. (1) Asking if anyone had another G5 for sale was a bit of a laugh, not serious. (2) I'm a 23 year old grad student in philosophy (although thankfully one with a good job), money was the reason I sold the computer. I had $60 invested in the machine, and the guy bought it for $257 shipped. That, unfortunately, was too good to pass up on my end.

Also I do have intel macs, Power computing is only a hobby for me (though I could survive if I only had a G5).
 
Greene said:
That's a fair question. (1) Asking if anyone had another G5 for sale was a bit of a laugh, not serious. (2) I'm a 23 year old grad student in philosophy (although thankfully one with a good job), money was the reason I sold the computer. I had $60 invested in the machine, and the guy bought it for $257 shipped. That, unfortunately, was too good to pass up on my end.

Also I do have intel macs, Power computing is only a hobby for me (though I could survive if I only had a G5).
Click to expand...

I know it's sad to get rid of something, especially such a computer that has had a family history with you. I had an MDD single 1.0 that I had wanted for a looooonng time, but I ended up having to give it away because I just did not have the room and my QS and 2.0 DP G5 needed that room.

I too am going into college, and I get you need the money. But here's a metaphor for you Greene: if you have a really neat old car, but never drive it, then it's not longer a car, it's just an object. The fact that you enjoyed it made it not only an automobile, but a car.

So, just like you enjoyed your G5 if you weren't really using it, than it was nothing more than an object. The fact that it was connected to you in a powerful way is what made it a G5.
 
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CYB3RBYTE said:
So, just like you enjoyed your G5 if you weren't really using it, than it was nothing more than an object. The fact that it was connected to you in a powerful way is what made it a G5.
Click to expand...

This is true, stuff is just stuff, and what matters is the connections and relationships that we as memory-forming entities make with the stuff. Without that, it's just an object.

Oh well, I am happy it's going to someone who will actually get productive use out of it. I did use it relatively often, but for much of the time all it was, was a very power hungry wifi card for my mac pro.

I think your last sentence really hits the nail on the head as to why so many of us choose to use PPC in 2015, when they are fairly (puts on flame coat) underpowered by modern standards. A lot of us, certainly myself, saw these computers at a young age and were blown away by the possibilities. There were things we could do with these computers that we didn't think were possible. For me most of this centered around Apple's music making software, which is something my uncle also introduced me to. A Kantian way of phrasing this would be that these computers expanded our concept of freedom.

This could be due to my drinking Apple's marketing kool-aid, sure, but the actual experience of these computers when I was young was still pretty powerful / compelling. Using them now reminds me a lot of being an optimistic kid, believing that there were an unlimited amount of possibilities available to me.
 
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Greene said:
There were things we could do with these computers that we didn't think were possible. For me most of this centered around Apple's music making software, which is something my uncle also introduced me to. A Kantian way of phrasing this would be that these computers expanded our concept of freedom.
Click to expand...
Love the sentiments expressed there.
I think it was a unique period for technology - lots of developments were rolling out at the same time - the digital hub, online music, pocket computing, digital imaging and the birth of the smartphone - they were huge leaps ahead over what had gone before.
 
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