Surviving With A Powerbook

[Dronecatcher]

I'm now on my 2nd week away from the UK, in Nova Scotia, Canada - my only companion being my 12" Powerbook - ok, I have my Lumia Windows 10 phone but that's used for txt, calls, taking snaps and WhatsApp and an iPhone 4S that's used for iOS music apps only.

So far, I've been able to get by using a number of solutions, for web browsing, Leopard Webkit with a clutch of different user agents quickly available from the Develop menu is good though a little crash prone - it freezes at 100% CPU before I have chance to switch the UA.
TenFourFox is much more stable but as you'd expect, quickly strips away my meagre 768Mb RAM.
I use dedicated Fluid instances for BBC News and Gmail and wicknix's excellent Facebook and Twitter apps too.
As ever, I'm spoilt for choice for Youtube playback but tend to go with Omniweb for instant low res playback.
All standard media consumption is still handled by iTunes/MPlayer/Coreplayer but my most useful tool is my newly acquired Subsonic account.
For a mere $12 I have direct access to my media loaded iMac back in my UK apartment - with 2 Fluid powered apps I have instant playback access to my 13,000 track iTunes library and can stream or download from my movie collection too - which has already proved very useful - much better that lugging a 1 Tetrabyte HDD around.

What can't my Powerbook do? So far, ripping a DVD and some video conversion have proved impractical - I'd rather not have the Powerbook cranking away at 100% for six hours!

All in all, it's mission accomplished though...and it's less of a responsibility travelling with a £11 laptop

 

[Amethyst1]

Always awesome to see the venerable PPCs still standing up Three more-or-less off-topic questions so apologies in advance:

1. Would you mind sharing the wallpaper?
2. Which Lumia are you using (ex-1520 user myself)?
3. Why not upgrade to 1.25 GB of RAM?

 

[swamprock]

I'm now on my 2nd week away from the UK, in Nova Scotia, Canada - my only companion being my 12" Powerbook - ok, I have my Lumia Windows 10 phone but that's used for txt, calls, taking snaps and WhatsApp and an iPhone 4S that's used for iOS music apps only.

So far, I've been able to get by using a number of solutions, for web browsing, Leopard Webkit with a clutch of different user agents quickly available from the Develop menu is good though a little crash prone - it freezes at 100% CPU before I have chance to switch the UA.
TenFourFox is much more stable but as you'd expect, quickly strips away my meagre 768Mb RAM.
I use dedicated Fluid instances for BBC News and Gmail and wicknix's excellent Facebook and Twitter apps too.
As ever, I'm spoilt for choice for Youtube playback but tend to go with Omniweb for instant low res playback.
All standard media consumption is still handled by iTunes/MPlayer/Coreplayer but my most useful tool is my newly acquired Subsonic account.
For a mere $12 I have direct access to my media loaded iMac back in my UK apartment - with 2 Fluid powered apps I have instant playback access to my 13,000 track iTunes library and can stream or download from my movie collection too - which has already proved very useful - much better that lugging a 1 Tetrabyte HDD around.

What can't my Powerbook do? So far, ripping a DVD and some video conversion have proved impractical - I'd rather not have the Powerbook cranking away at 100% for six hours!

All in all, it's mission accomplshed though...and it's less of a responsibility travelling with a £11 laptop

View attachment 831271

Nice. I recently moved away from Subsonic, as my new router, no matter what I did, refused to open the port needed to stream my collection. I went to Apple Music instead, and can access my collection from there, as well as dump Spotify.

Fluid or TenFourFoxBox with jamstash.com worked great for Subsonic, though. I do miss it, and the price was right.

 

[Dronecatcher]

Always awesome to see the venerable PPCs still standing up Three more-or-less off-topic questions so apologies in advance:

1. Would you mind sharing the wallpaper?
2. Which Lumia are you using (ex-1520 user myself)?
3. Why not upgrade to 1.25 GB of RAM?

Wallpaper attached.
It's a Lumia 650, not particularly high spec but fine for my needs - if Windows Phone 10 hadn't died a death I would've got a more sophisticated model.

I never felt the need to upgrade, from experience, there's not that much of a leap between those figures.
[doublepost=1554823606][/doublepost]

Nice. I recently moved away from Subsonic, as my new router, no matter what I did, refused to open the port needed to stream my collection. I went to Apple Music instead, and can access my collection from there, as well as dump Spotify.

Fluid or TenFourFoxBox with jamstash.com worked great for Subsonic, though. I do miss it, and the price was right.

It's the ease of remote access I like and like you said, at a modest price.

 

[amagichnich]

I went to Apple Music instead, and can access my collection from there, as well as dump Spotify.

Spotify on a PPC? Or are you talking about early Intels?

 

[swamprock]

Spotify on a PPC? Or are you talking about early Intels?

I used Subsonic on all of my devices, but now use Apple Music to stream from my phone or Intel Macs. Unfortunately, I can no longer stream from a PowerPC machine since I no longer use Subsonic. Had I been able to fix my router issues, I would have kept Spotify and Subsonic. With Apple Music, I no longer need Spotify.

 

[z970]

I've got an iBook G4 that's been an absolute trooper on optimized Leopard. It can play videos with TenFiveTube with little to no trouble. It can browse the Internet (very well) with TFF, it can open and search a subject in 5 seconds with WebKit. It can open up a LibreOffice document without hesitation.

With a maxxed 1.5gb RAM, 32gb SSD, and repasted heatsinks + optimized cooling, it actually comes pretty close to my DLSD. And that's not bad at all for 32mb VRAM.

Now, if only the left speaker worked...

 

[Dronecatcher]

I've got an iBook G4 that's been an absolute trooper on optimized Leopard. It can play videos with TenFiveTube with little to no trouble. It can browse the Internet (very well) with TFF, it can open and search a subject in 5 seconds with WebKit. It can open up a LibreOffice document without hesitation.

With a maxxed 1.5gb RAM, 32gb SSD, and repasted heatsinks + optimized cooling, it actually comes pretty close to my DLSD. And that's not bad at all for 32mb VRAM.

If only the left speaker worked...

I could've easily have packed my 1.33 12" iBook instead - performance would've been on par.

It's funny, I've been 'rescuing' the crappy old laptops with Lubuntu for the folks I'm with - they're Core 2 Duo units with more than twice the power of my humble Powerbook

 

[z970]

I could've easily have packed my 1.33 12" iBook instead - performance would've been on par.

It's funny, I've been 'rescuing' the crappy old laptops with Lubuntu for the folks I'm with - they're Core 2 Duo units with more than twice the power of my humble Powerbook

Especially when considering the iBook has a better graphics chip, and RAM ceiling of 1.5gb, 25% more than the PowerBook's, so if only it had a 1.5 cpu and 64mb VRAM... Even the 14" had 32mb VRAM.

Unless they're on less than 1gb of RAM, you don't need to put Lubuntu on a C2D. Depending on what the folks are used to, Linux Mint or elementary OS will do wonderfully, even on a Pentium 4.

I just got done putting Linux Mint 19.1 (w/ Cinnamon) on some folks' Core 2 Duo, and it performs much nicer than Windows XP ever did. Their computing life has never been simpler, and easier to grasp and make use of.

 

[amagichnich]

I used Subsonic on all of my devices, but now use Apple Music to stream from my phone or Intel Macs. Unfortunately, I can no longer stream from a PowerPC machine since I no longer use Subsonic. Had I been able to fix my router issues, I would have kept Spotify and Subsonic. With Apple Music, I no longer need Spotify.

Ah okay, how does Apple Music perform compared to good old Spotify in terms of cpu usage and battery life?

 

[mzs.112000]

Especially when considering the iBook has a better graphics chip, and RAM ceiling of 1.5gb, 25% more than the PowerBook's, so if only it had a 1.5 cpu and 64mb VRAM... Even the 14" had 32mb VRAM.

Unless they're on less than 1gb of RAM, you don't need to put Lubuntu on a C2D. Depending on what the folks are used to, Linux Mint or elementary OS will do wonderfully, even on a Pentium 4.

I just got done putting Linux Mint 19.1 (w/ Cinnamon) on some folks' Core 2 Duo, and it performs much nicer than Windows XP ever did. Their computing life has never been simpler, and easier to grasp and make use of.

Linux Mint works so well on almost any hardware with more than 2GB of RAM...
Sadly however, I have had some issues running Linux on ancient hardware, there are some Pentium 4 computers that I rescued with Lubuntu because it was the only thing that would run at even semi-usable speeds due to the crappy Graphical Media Decellerator chip on that computer.

 

[z970]

Linux Mint works so well on almost any hardware with more than 2GB of RAM...
Sadly however, I have had some issues running Linux on ancient hardware, there are some Pentium 4 computers that I rescued with Lubuntu because it was the only thing that would run at even semi-usable speeds due to the crappy Graphical Media Decellerator chip on that computer.

Just speaking from experience...

 

[Amethyst1]

Graphical Media Decellerator

That's a good one

 

[z970]

That's a good one

I just now realized what "Graphical Media Decellerator" means...

@mzs.112000

Get a good graphics card instead. Don't let a singular component bog down the rest of the system.

 

[skinniezinho]

Ah okay, how does Apple Music perform compared to good old Spotify in terms of cpu usage and battery life?

Sorry to hijack this thread, but how does one run apple music on a powerpc?
I just installed omniweb and roccat but I keep on getting invalid certificate, any solution? TFF and Leopard webkit work nice.

 

[swamprock]

Wallpaper attached.
It's a Lumia 650, not particularly high spec but fine for my needs - if Windows Phone 10 hadn't died a death I would've got a more sophisticated model.

I never felt the need to upgrade, from experience, there's not that much of a leap between those figures.
[doublepost=1554823606][/doublepost]

It's the ease of remote access I like and like you said, at a modest price.

Funny thing- I just reinstalled Subsonic, and now it works. Opens up the correct port and connects no problem. Weird. I noticed that Apple Music won't play certain artists in my collection that they don't stream themselves, so I'll probably dump that if Subsonic keeps running...
[doublepost=1555821287][/doublepost]

Ah okay, how does Apple Music perform compared to good old Spotify in terms of cpu usage and battery life?

It's a bit of a hog on my phone, but I keep it plugged in. I might be dumping it, as Subsonic works again, and there are some issues with certain artists that AM doesn't stream that I can't stream from my own collection.

 

[Appleuser201]

I'm now on my 2nd week away from the UK, in Nova Scotia, Canada - my only companion being my 12" Powerbook - ok, I have my Lumia Windows 10 phone but that's used for txt, calls, taking snaps and WhatsApp and an iPhone 4S that's used for iOS music apps only.

So far, I've been able to get by using a number of solutions, for web browsing, Leopard Webkit with a clutch of different user agents quickly available from the Develop menu is good though a little crash prone - it freezes at 100% CPU before I have chance to switch the UA.
TenFourFox is much more stable but as you'd expect, quickly strips away my meagre 768Mb RAM.
I use dedicated Fluid instances for BBC News and Gmail and wicknix's excellent Facebook and Twitter apps too.
As ever, I'm spoilt for choice for Youtube playback but tend to go with Omniweb for instant low res playback.
All standard media consumption is still handled by iTunes/MPlayer/Coreplayer but my most useful tool is my newly acquired Subsonic account.
For a mere $12 I have direct access to my media loaded iMac back in my UK apartment - with 2 Fluid powered apps I have instant playback access to my 13,000 track iTunes library and can stream or download from my movie collection too - which has already proved very useful - much better that lugging a 1 Tetrabyte HDD around.

What can't my Powerbook do? So far, ripping a DVD and some video conversion have proved impractical - I'd rather not have the Powerbook cranking away at 100% for six hours!

All in all, it's mission accomplshed though...and it's less of a responsibility travelling with a £11 laptop

View attachment 831271

It's amazing what can still be done with a G4 ibook/powerbook. what was the processor speed of the powerbook you took along with you?
Fix the problems with Webkit yet, crashing when you try to switch the UA?

 

[DouglasCarroll]

What can't my Powerbook do? So far, ripping a DVD and some video conversion have proved impractical - I'd rather not have the Powerbook cranking away at 100% for six hours!


View attachment 831271

You might try an Elgato Turbo.264 USB accelerator for your DVD conversions, I use one with my Powerbook G4 and it makes a huge difference in conversion time. Plus, they’re pretty darn cheap these days!

http://www.notebookreview.com/notebookreview/elgato-turbo-264-media-encoding-accelerator-review/

 

[Jordan XP]

I'm now on my 2nd week away from the UK, in Nova Scotia, Canada - my only companion being my 12" Powerbook - ok, I have my Lumia Windows 10 phone but that's used for txt, calls, taking snaps and WhatsApp and an iPhone 4S that's used for iOS music apps only.

So far, I've been able to get by using a number of solutions, for web browsing, Leopard Webkit with a clutch of different user agents quickly available from the Develop menu is good though a little crash prone - it freezes at 100% CPU before I have chance to switch the UA.
TenFourFox is much more stable but as you'd expect, quickly strips away my meagre 768Mb RAM.
I use dedicated Fluid instances for BBC News and Gmail and wicknix's excellent Facebook and Twitter apps too.
As ever, I'm spoilt for choice for Youtube playback but tend to go with Omniweb for instant low res playback.
All standard media consumption is still handled by iTunes/MPlayer/Coreplayer but my most useful tool is my newly acquired Subsonic account.
For a mere $12 I have direct access to my media loaded iMac back in my UK apartment - with 2 Fluid powered apps I have instant playback access to my 13,000 track iTunes library and can stream or download from my movie collection too - which has already proved very useful - much better that lugging a 1 Tetrabyte HDD around.

What can't my Powerbook do? So far, ripping a DVD and some video conversion have proved impractical - I'd rather not have the Powerbook cranking away at 100% for six hours!

All in all, it's mission accomplshed though...and it's less of a responsibility travelling with a £11 laptop

View attachment 831271

Apple menu --> About this Mac screenshot please...

 

[z970]

Apple menu --> About this Mac screenshot please...

He has this one.

https://everymac.com/systems/apple/powerbook_g4/specs/powerbook_g4_1.33_12.html

 

[Dronecatcher]

Fix the problems with Webkit yet, crashing when you try to switch the UA?

The problem wasn't switching the UA - it's was the website crashing the browser before I could turn off script/change the UA.
[doublepost=1566247348][/doublepost]

You might try an Elgato Turbo.264 USB accelerator for your DVD conversions, I use one with my Powerbook G4 and it makes a huge difference in conversion time. Plus, they’re pretty darn cheap these days!

http://www.notebookreview.com/notebookreview/elgato-turbo-264-media-encoding-accelerator-review/

Yes, I already have one but didn't take it with me - I talked about it here:
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/elgato-turbo-264.1984850/