My G4 powerbook (1.67 ghz hi-res) got me through High School, and has served as a back up laptop when my 2008 macbook died suddenly halfway through the start of my first year at Uni, until I got my Air for Christmas that year. It's a fantastic machine, and I love it to death and would hate to part with it.
Ergo, I've reached an impasse that I believe many a PPC owner who upgrade to intel has to face:
What do I do with the old machine?
I've contemplated these ideas:
1. File server.
Sounds nice in theory, but everything I need shared access between my 1,1, iOS devices, and Air for, I simply use iCloud for anyway. I suppose it's possible I could write a small script to have it automatically upload/download files from iCloud.com.
Also, in terms of redundancy, the Mac Pro can take up to 4 hard drives and I use 3. (Small SSD as start up disk, larger HDD as scratch, and a Windows install.) I could fill the last bay with a 3-4 tb hard drive and get the same effect.
This is the 'traditional' use of old hardware, but I'm just not sure I have a need for it.
2. Second monitor with ScreenRecycler
I won't have a lot of desk space soon, after I get a set of reference monitors for my desk, since I'll have a monitor, a PS4, a Mac Pro, and two reference speakers all sharing the same desk, so I don't really have room for a larger monitor. (I would love to get a cinema display in addition to my small Dell Monitor, but simply don't have the desk real estate this year.)
But, a small 15 inch laptop that can be put away when not needed that I can have at the side of my desk while I work in R Studio, write an essay, or make music in Garageband would be great.
I think this might be the most reasonable use case.
3. Distraction free writing machine
When I have essays do at University, I could lug this thing to the library and not deal with modern distractions (texting social media etc.).
Only issue is sometimes I need to statistical analysis in R, and I'm unsure of what IDEs are available for PPC, because RStudio doesn't seem to have an old UB version based on a cursory google search.
4. Expensive digital photo frame
Self explanatory.
So two questions then:
A. Which of these seem most reasonable to you?
and
B. Are there any other use cases I haven't considered? I'm not a big watcher of movies so using it for anything media doesn't really appeal to me - I use apple music for my music listening needs.
Ergo, I've reached an impasse that I believe many a PPC owner who upgrade to intel has to face:
What do I do with the old machine?
I've contemplated these ideas:
1. File server.
Sounds nice in theory, but everything I need shared access between my 1,1, iOS devices, and Air for, I simply use iCloud for anyway. I suppose it's possible I could write a small script to have it automatically upload/download files from iCloud.com.
Also, in terms of redundancy, the Mac Pro can take up to 4 hard drives and I use 3. (Small SSD as start up disk, larger HDD as scratch, and a Windows install.) I could fill the last bay with a 3-4 tb hard drive and get the same effect.
This is the 'traditional' use of old hardware, but I'm just not sure I have a need for it.
2. Second monitor with ScreenRecycler
I won't have a lot of desk space soon, after I get a set of reference monitors for my desk, since I'll have a monitor, a PS4, a Mac Pro, and two reference speakers all sharing the same desk, so I don't really have room for a larger monitor. (I would love to get a cinema display in addition to my small Dell Monitor, but simply don't have the desk real estate this year.)
But, a small 15 inch laptop that can be put away when not needed that I can have at the side of my desk while I work in R Studio, write an essay, or make music in Garageband would be great.
I think this might be the most reasonable use case.
3. Distraction free writing machine
When I have essays do at University, I could lug this thing to the library and not deal with modern distractions (texting social media etc.).
Only issue is sometimes I need to statistical analysis in R, and I'm unsure of what IDEs are available for PPC, because RStudio doesn't seem to have an old UB version based on a cursory google search.
4. Expensive digital photo frame
Self explanatory.
So two questions then:
A. Which of these seem most reasonable to you?
and
B. Are there any other use cases I haven't considered? I'm not a big watcher of movies so using it for anything media doesn't really appeal to me - I use apple music for my music listening needs.