The worst mac ever

[ErikCLDR]

Possibly the macbook air.

1 USB port in the year 2008. What is this 1996?

I don't want to start a big fight here but the macbook would be 2x better if it had 2-3 USB ports and a FireWire port. For a company that loves it I am surprised they didn't throw it on.

 

[zap2]

Possibly the macbook air.

1 USB port in the year 2008. What is this 1996?

I don't want to start a big fight here but the macbook would be 2x better if it had 2-3 USB ports and a FireWire port. For a company that loves it I am surprised they didn't throw it on.

🙄🙄

With all that extra room the MacBook Air has unused! Why not 3 USB, 2 FireWire, VGA, DVI, HDMI, Floppy Drive, DVD Drive....the works!

 

[Lord Blackadder]

Possibly the macbook air.

1 USB port in the year 2008. What is this 1996?

I agree that a single USB port is less than ideal, but that thing is tiny. Everyone who complains about missing features has, I'll warrant, never tried to design a machine like that. I couldn't imagine shoehorning a laptop into that svelte little case.

I rarely use both USB ports on my PowerBook at the same time, so I doubt I would miss one of them too much. It's convenient, but not absolutely necessary.

 

[Killyp]

Possibly the macbook air.

1 USB port in the year 2008. What is this 1996?

I don't want to start a big fight here but the macbook would be 2x better if it had 2-3 USB ports and a FireWire port. For a company that loves it I am surprised they didn't throw it on.

You are joking? You realise for what the MacBook Air is intended for, those connections are never going to be used.

The only problem with the MacBook Air is it's price, not the 'lack of connections'. It's waaay overpriced...


Worst Mac ever? 20th anniversary Mac...

 

[Cromulent]

followed at a close second by Mac OS 10.0.x and then 10.5.x.

What makes you think Leopard has been the second worst Apple product of all time? I'm seriously interested. Its been rock solid stable for me and the added features are very useful (and no I am not talking about the pretty GUI).

If you think it is worse than Mac OS 7.5.5 then there is something seriously wrong with your computer 🙂.

 

[Lord Blackadder]

I just though of one...

In terms of sales, the Apple Network Server was a failure, so you might include that in the "Worst Macs" category, though it wasn't a Mac (it ran AIX). It's successor, the Xserve, has done much better. The Apple Workgroup Servers were never big sellers either IIRC.

Worst Mac ever? 20th anniversary Mac...

I disagree on that one - to me Apple has always been about form factor design and ergonomics over everything else, and the 20th Anniversary Mac is basically a stunning design concept brought to life with off-the shelf PowerBook parts.

It was never a hardware powerhouse, even when new, but that was never its purpose. It was a design exercise that (as we have seen) pointed the way forward in Apple desktop design.

Take the Twentieth Anniversary Macintosh, stretch it to hold a 20" or 24" display, put modern innards in it and you'd have a nicer all-in-one design than any PC maker has ever produced (outside Apple itself). The basic design concept has not aged at all, the only clue being the small display.

In terms of value for money or performance, of course the TAM is nothing to write home about, but that's missing the point.

 

[Eric Lewis]

iBook Clamshell? sick design

no video out? WTF

 

[Lord Blackadder]

iBook Clamshell? sick design

no video out? WTF

Those were built like tanks though...the design has aged less well than many others from Apple, but they were more rugged than the white iBooks.

Video out wasn't a dealbreaker on a consumer grade laptop of that period IMHO. PC vendors have convinced people that they need lots of features they really don't. I use video out on my PowerBook but not so much that I couldn't live without it...and the contemporary PowerBooks have it anyway.

More importantly, the clamshell iBooks came with an integrated wifi card before PC laptops did, and it gets excellent reception.

 

[iMpathetic]

What makes you think Leopard has been the second worst Apple product of all time? I'm seriously interested. Its been rock solid stable for me and the added features are very useful (and no I am not talking about the pretty GUI).

If you think it is worse than Mac OS 7.5.5 then there is something seriously wrong with your computer 🙂.

Well, for one thing, I am very impressed that people aren't mindlessly flaming me. Anyway, I run it on my 12" 1.33GHz iBook G4 with 1GB RAM, and it doesn't run very well. My machine may be seriously fracked up, I know, but it seems fine. It's reasonably stable. The speed, however, is atrocious. I can't watch videos anymore. I can' t scroll in a web page without tons o'lag. Leopard reduced my Geekbench score from 800 to 598, to start with. I actually used a ThinkPad for a while, a month or so ago, when the iBook was plain unusable. I don't particularly like Leopard's look to much, either. Now, I am going to use my 867MHz TiBook with Tiger as much as possible.

It's really, really, REALLY sad. I adore my iBook, and me and the iBook aren't going down without a fight. It was my first Mac, and I am not going to let it die. *tears up*

 

[Lord Blackadder]

It's really, really, REALLY sad. I adore my iBook, and me and the iBook aren't going down without a fight. It was my first Mac, and I am not going to let it die. *tears up*

I haven't run Leopard yet, but I sense that Tiger is a better match for most G4s..it runs very fast on my 1.33GHz PowerBook G4 and 1.4GHz PowerMac G4.

...And in response to Cromulent - I think OS 7.5.5, while no speed demon, was a HUGE improvement over 7.5.3, which has to be one of Apple's most unstable OS releases. I'm running it on my PowerBook 180c and PowerBook 170 (lost my OS 7.5.5 disk and never bothered to dowload the updater), and it's craptastic.

 

[Everythingisnt]

I understand where you're coming from in terms of your response, iMpathetic..

This reminds me of when I decided to upgrade my old iMac G3 to OSX (I think it was cheeta..). Kernel panics, freeze ups, lag, TERRIBLE ghosting (I've never figured that out.. I mean, it was a CRT display! 😕).

Still, OSX Leopard is definitely a solid operating system. While it isn't as much of a leap from OS9 to OSX, I think that it's the excessive eye-candy that's doing your iBook in. My (very unreliable) guess is that your graphics card isn't able to cope with everything that Leopard demands of it. Either that or something is wrong in your machine (it turned out that my iMac was pretty seriously broken)

 

[elppa]

The worst Mac ever is always, let me repeat, always,

the upgrade that comes out right after you buy yours.

Actually I beg to differ. When the MacBooks were updated for the first time (I brought the first revision) I was quite happy the computing power had not be drastically increased over the model I brought.

Ughhh...Power Macintosh 5260's. Worst. Product. Evar. Between the network problems, bus problems, plus the fact they were just slow as ****, they stanked, bad.

And my school still, to this day, has several in operation. Scary stuff.

So they can't be that bad if they still work… 😀

 

[ReanimationLP]

The white iBook G3s.

God, the logic board is such s***.

Mine had to be replaced twice, and now the replacement program is over, and guess what? ITS DEAD AGAIN. 😡😡😡😡

I mean, look at the tons of auctions for them on eBay that are broken. I personally dont see why anyone buys them, its like taking a gamble on how long it'll last before it croaks.

Personally, if you ask me, Apple should have replaced all of them that went in with G4s.

 

[kkb]

I hope I don't get flamed for this, since a lot of people here seem to love the machine that gets my vote.

667mhz TiBook.

Paint peels off so that it looks like s**t, and anytime I looked at a website that had animation on the page which would make the CPU usage go up to 40-50% or more, the fan, which sounds like a blow-dryer on high speed, would kick in.

I was much happier with my Powerbook G3 500mhz Pismo. Never heard the fan, still looked great after 6 years, and outlasted the TiBook (which was 2.5 years younger) by a year.
I miss my G3 PB.

 

[~NeonFire372~]

Don't flame me for this since it's just my opinion, but I'm not that fond of the new Macbook Air. I mean come on! It's missing features every laptop has - an optical drive, replaceable battery, etc. However it does look freaking awesome!

 

[forafireescape]

Don't flame me for this since it's just my opinion, but I'm not that fond of the new Macbook Air. I mean come on! It's missing features every laptop has - an optical drive, replaceable battery, etc. However it does look freaking awesome!

I agree - the lack of features is definitely not worth the jacked-up price.

 

[Plymouthbreezer]

The hockey puck was pretty awful.

Apple TV (first generation) was kinda lame and over priced.

TAM was one of *MY* personal favorites, but I know from a usability standpoint, it was limited.

Humm, I know some of the Network Servers never took off... But Apple was at its low point around their height.

 

[sushi]

Don't you eva get on my level! 😀 Seriously though, a lot of 'Net sites are dissin' the Cube now. What happened to acceptance of its stunning beauty? Don't care though, I'm doing yard work for a friend of my mom's over spring break and he's going to give me a Cube with a Sonnet 1.6GHz dual processor upgrade and 1.5GB RAM!!! 😱😱😱

Sounds like a good machine. Sonnet Tech processor upgrades rock.

Worst Mac ever? 20th anniversary Mac...

I just felt your dagger in my gut! 😛

Personally, I really like mine. Very cool.

I disagree on that one - to me Apple has always been about form factor design and ergonomics over everything else, and the 20th Anniversary Mac is basically a stunning design concept brought to life with off-the shelf PowerBook parts.

And a Power Macintosh 5500's motherboard.

Take the Twentieth Anniversary Macintosh, stretch it to hold a 20" or 24" display, put modern innards in it and you'd have a nicer all-in-one design than any PC maker has ever produced (outside Apple itself). The basic design concept has not aged at all, the only clue being the small display.

That's true.

TAM was one of *MY* personal favorites, but I know from a usability standpoint, it was limited.

😀

 

[Lord Blackadder]

Humm, I know some of the Network Servers never took off... But Apple was at its low point around their height.

I think they failed because they ran AIX, which made them just another box. Xserves run OS X, which distinguish them from competing hardware. They might not be the top performers out there, but they're very good.

 

[iMpathetic]

I haven't run Leopard yet, but I sense that Tiger is a better match for most G4s..it runs very fast on my 1.33GHz PowerBook G4 and 1.4GHz PowerMac G4.
.

I wouldn't have installed Leopard if I didn't have to do a review...

I understand where you're coming from in terms of your response, iMpathetic..

This reminds me of when I decided to upgrade my old iMac G3 to OSX (I think it was cheeta..). Kernel panics, freeze ups, lag, TERRIBLE ghosting (I've never figured that out.. I mean, it was a CRT display! 😕).

Still, OSX Leopard is definitely a solid operating system. While it isn't as much of a leap from OS9 to OSX, I think that it's the excessive eye-candy that's doing your iBook in. My (very unreliable) guess is that your graphics card isn't able to cope with everything that Leopard demands of it. Either that or something is wrong in your machine (it turned out that my iMac was pretty seriously broken)

I really hope not! It has a Radeon 9550, so it should be fine. Sory to hear about your iMac, but Cheetah... yuck. Ah well, you have a MP, so no worries eh? 😀

I hope I don't get flamed for this, since a lot of people here seem to love the machine that gets my vote.

667mhz TiBook.

Paint peels off so that it looks like s**t, and anytime I looked at a website that had animation on the page which would make the CPU usage go up to 40-50% or more, the fan, which sounds like a blow-dryer on high speed, would kick in.

I was much happier with my Powerbook G3 500mhz Pismo. Never heard the fan, still looked great after 6 years, and outlasted the TiBook (which was 2.5 years younger) by a year.
I miss my G3 PB.

That was my favorite portable ever! Except... um... when I had to smack it to see anything on the display.. It was also blindingly bright in one corner.

Not technically a flame. Do hate that fan though. Did you have the GA or DVI model? Apparently that makes a lot of difference. My main computer now is an 867 TiBook, and it's great aside from the fan thing, so it may have just been your machine.

 

[iMpathetic]

I haven't run Leopard yet, but I sense that Tiger is a better match for most G4s..it runs very fast on my 1.33GHz PowerBook G4 and 1.4GHz PowerMac G4.
.

I wouldn't have installed Leopard if I didn't have to do a review...

I understand where you're coming from in terms of your response, iMpathetic..

This reminds me of when I decided to upgrade my old iMac G3 to OSX (I think it was cheeta..). Kernel panics, freeze ups, lag, TERRIBLE ghosting (I've never figured that out.. I mean, it was a CRT display! 😕).

Still, OSX Leopard is definitely a solid operating system. While it isn't as much of a leap from OS9 to OSX, I think that it's the excessive eye-candy that's doing your iBook in. My (very unreliable) guess is that your graphics card isn't able to cope with everything that Leopard demands of it. Either that or something is wrong in your machine (it turned out that my iMac was pretty seriously broken)

I really hope not! It has a Radeon 9550, so it should be fine. Sory to hear about your iMac, but Cheetah... yuck. Ah well, you have a MP, so no worries eh? 😀

I hope I don't get flamed for this, since a lot of people here seem to love the machine that gets my vote.

667mhz TiBook.

Paint peels off so that it looks like s**t, and anytime I looked at a website that had animation on the page which would make the CPU usage go up to 40-50% or more, the fan, which sounds like a blow-dryer on high speed, would kick in.

I was much happier with my Powerbook G3 500mhz Pismo. Never heard the fan, still looked great after 6 years, and outlasted the TiBook (which was 2.5 years younger) by a year.
I miss my G3 PB.

That was my favorite portable ever! Except... um... when I had to smack it to see anything on the display.. It was also blindingly bright in one corner.

Not technically a flame. Do hate that fan though. Did you have the VGA or DVI model? Apparently that makes a lot of difference. My main computer now is an 867 TiBook, and it's great aside from the fan thing, so it may have just been your machine.

 

[Prof.]

Oh, lord. I feel like such a n00b🙄

My 2.16GHz MacBook was my first Mac so I can't say which was the worst mac cause I never experienced them.🙁

 

[jsystem]

Id have to say the new macbook air is the worst mac ever. Im not saying its worse than others in the past what im saying is that at this moment in time. Anyone even remotely considering this laptop is completely ignorant/conceited. Compared to a macbook pro which is only 1/4 of an inch bigger (whoops did i just drive the macbook airs claim to fame into the ground?) and the regular macbooks are only about a 1/3 of inch bigger. Now onto the stats. They are complete ********. The processor is the same as in all the macbooks but with a worse speed. The air was origionally supposed to have the new 45nm chipsets designed to save battery and even allow apple to pump up the processing speed, but the air got stuck with a 65nm chip shoved into a slot designed for the 45 lol. Video card is ridiculous. 3500 gma grpahics is lame and most games for mac will not be able to run on these graphics (not compatible at all but that odesnt mean they arent bad). I could go on but i have some buisiness to take care of so ill try and end with a few comments. The macbook air is marketed as an ultraportable but it is far from it with a massive 13 inch screen (plus apple still hasnt gotten rid of those ugly oversized edges around the screen that are also on the regular macbooks and not on the pros). Also whats with the stupid gross black keys?

 

[themadchemist]

Id have to say the new macbook air is the worst mac ever. Im not saying its worse than others in the past what im saying is that at this moment in time.

I'm sorry, but this doesn't even logically follow. How can something be the worst thing ever, but not be worse than others in the past?

Anyone even remotely considering this laptop is completely ignorant/conceited.

Isn't it a bit conceited to label anyone who considers purchasing something you don't like as "ignorant/conceited"?

I don't even disagree with your analysis of the Macbook Air's specs, but the above comments make your post somewhat nonsensical.

 

[SkyBell]

Those were built like tanks though...the design has aged less well than many others from Apple, but they were more rugged than the white iBooks.

I can attest to that. These things just don't break! (In fact, I think I remember a keynote where SJ said something about the case being made out of the same material as bullet proof vests?)