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Old macs usages

MacBH928

MacBH928

macrumors G3
Original poster
May 17, 2008
9,134
4,175
Hello everyone..

I never hard the clamshell ibook, and it looks really beautiful and I wish for one. I also like the original imac but its too big to own, and older macs than that are too slow I guess.

I am not a collector, but i so much wish to own this clamshell ibook. I believe they are very decently priced and they run os 9 very well.

but I do own imac 800 mhz now, and this will be changed with new imac 24 inch....plus I have an ibm laptop(4 years old)....

so i want to know, if i am buying this clamshell for no collecting purposes, what can I use it for? Do any of you who buy these older macs just collect them and feel good about it or do you actually use them?

if i am convinced that I can actually use it , I will buy it, but if it is going to sit there in my room just for decor then its no use i guess
 
Well, i had an older Rev 2 G3 B&W and i had 9 on it. I used it for Word Perfect since it doesn't work on X, the original Macdraft since i used that when i was in high school. Also some of the older games i used to play like Diablo 1, the original Dark Castle. Sure i know some of these work on X now, but it's just the vintage sake. OS 9 is a obsolete operating system, but for some users as myself, like i said, it's for memorial purposes.
 
I still think the Clamshells are one of the best looking notebook designs, you'll definitely get noticed using it in public :)
If you get one of the later 466 mhz ones you can run OSX up to 10.3, I think. I had 10.3 running on my old 300mhz B&W G3 for a while and it ran fine. Get one with a good battery and airport card and it'll make a fine mobile web browsing/note taking/email machine.
 
The clamshells also have really good battery life. I have one with a 4 year old battery and I still get 2+ hours of charge.
 
ihabime said:
I still think the Clamshells are one of the best looking notebook designs, you'll definitely get noticed using it in public :)
If you get one of the later 466 mhz ones you can run OSX up to 10.3, I think. I had 10.3 running on my old 300mhz B&W G3 for a while and it ran fine. Get one with a good battery and airport card and it'll make a fine mobile web browsing/note taking/email machine.
Click to expand...

Actually, the 466 Mhz ones can run 10.4, which is Tiger. :)

I have a 300 MHz Blueberry clamshell that runs 10.3. it's decent, but just a word of advice: don't even try to run 10.3 on less then 192 MB of RAM.

Pop in an airport card, maybe a new battery, and you've got one great portable Mac. :cool:
 
I find 800x600 screen makes web browsing a right pain with lots of scrolling needed. The flash adverts that are all over the web now including this site bring it to its knees pretty quickly as well. The Original iBook is a great bit of design, but I personally would not recommend it for serious web browsing.
 
Oh, i wouldn't want to use it as my main browser either, but I think it more like the eeePC, it's cheap, simple, and you don't have to worry about it getting stolen if you turn your back on it in the library :p

Sly said:
I find 800x600 screen makes web browsing a right pain with lots of scrolling needed. The flash adverts that are all over the web now including this site bring it to its knees pretty quickly as well. The Original iBook is a great bit of design, but I personally would not recommend it for serious web browsing.
Click to expand...
 
ihabime said:
more like the eeePC, it's cheap, simple, and you don't have to worry about it getting stolen if you turn your back on it in the library :p
Click to expand...

That would basically be my plan with my dual USB ibook. Something to carry to class (large university setting) but not worry about being taken in the library or on the subway.
 
I have a 300mhz junker iBook Blue 3gb, 64mb, etc... I use it to surf the net by my bed, so I can just check the net when I want, but with my iPhone coming soon, this one is gone. And I have a rare and high in demand Keylime 466mhz/DVD/maxed w/ WiFi, I love that one! I use both online okay, not super fast but... Good. The 300mhz has 9.2.2, and the 466 has 10.4... Works no problem. I'd say go for it.
 
Well, you can definitely find something to use it for. It would certainty make a good internet machine (e-mail, MobileMe, maybe YouTube) and it would run software of it's generation.

So, all in all, you could get internet, email, and some word processing out of it.

Just max out the RAM, Hard Drive, get it a new, large hard drive, and you should be good.
 
I would add that you should try to get it with the largest hard drive you can find already installed. Replacing the ram doesn't seem to hard, but from looking at this page, replacing the hard drive is one of the most complex procedures I've ever seen in a computer. From my count that's 36 screws removed and just about every piece of the ibook dismantled :eek:
 
iBook

Yes and yes is the answer they look good for the sake of having one i have one in each colour!
and yes they do make a good laptop you can ebay them but also there are sites that sell refurbished ones where you can upgrade to a bigger hard drive or add a airport card etc you will also get a 60 day gte

my favorite mac is the G4 Cube which i use all the time its nice to own retro apple stuff its like driving a vintage car i suppose
:apple:
 
Well if it has wireless I guess it will be of use. Maxing the RAM is for sure, but the question is why do I need bigger hard-drive?

The machine will be internet-word processing-dvd watching maybe machine, if it has 10gb of storage...thats I guess is good...of the os takes only 3 gb that is
 
Well the blueberry ones only came with a 3gb one. I manged to get 10.3 on there with room for little else.

I am working myself into dismantling my lime 466. I have a training project right now to do a screen swap between 2 blueberries. When that is done I want to put a 120gb hard drive in my lime.

When you say "old macs" I wasn't even thinking about a clamshell. Those are only 7-9 years old. Old macs to me are ones that can't even run system 8. Finding fun things to do with those is a challenge. Getting one of those on the net is like driving a model-t on the freeway.
 
We've got two mobile labs full of clamshells where I work. Teachers use them during training seminars and video conferences. Many prefer them over the two mobile labs of brand new Dells we use. I know I do. You don't always need the newest, fastest machine. I would think that if all you needed to do was check your email, browse the web, type a document, heck, even do a presentation, the clamshell iBooks are certainly up to it.

regards,
-c.
 
wel thanx for everyone participation in the discussion
I will sure look into it
 
picture frame??

We had some neighbors move a few weeks ago and the husband was a teacher at the local university and he had a perfect 520c ( albeit the battery only lasts for a few minutes once unplugged ). complete with books, manuals and a little apple printer to go with.

He knew I was "into" computers, so he offered to give it to me. I was hoping to work to get it on the net, but honestly, just not worth my time. My second thought was maybe to set it up as a "photo frame" of sorts my disconnecting the LCD from the base and attaching the screen to a wall or just sitting on the counter.

but, it has only sat in the corner looking neglected
 
I've read that the NuPower batteries can give a clamshell 7 hours of real-world battery life! Definitely worth looking into if you want a good writing machine. My 12" Powerbook only gets about 4 hours and 90% of the time I'm just using it for word processing anyways.
 
Just look at my sig... Lots of old units, but all are still very useful and are running OS X. My main computer until last fall was a 1GHz iMac G4... My PowerMaac G4 Tower is my father's main computer, and I just acquired a Pismo which will soon be my backup mobile unit.

I even have a Mac Classic which I use for word processing and spreadsheets. My StyleWriter prints too, and that system is 19 years old! :eek:
 
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