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Ugliest PowerPC Mac?
- Thread starter timidpimpin
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I think I shall refrain from naming my ugliest. My taste in PowerPC Macs is askew from most of the members here so I am likely to be pummeled for naming a Mac everyone else likes.
But know that there are other older Macs I think are far uglier, such as the abomination called the Macintosh LCII. It was worthless both in appearance and functionality.
In any case, most people know that I am absolutely not a fan of the styling of the iBook, iMac, PowerMac G5 and any G4 not named Quicksilver.
But know that there are other older Macs I think are far uglier, such as the abomination called the Macintosh LCII. It was worthless both in appearance and functionality.
In any case, most people know that I am absolutely not a fan of the styling of the iBook, iMac, PowerMac G5 and any G4 not named Quicksilver.
Beige Power Macs. Although anything beige is ugly, which was the color of 1990s computing for some reason. Everything tech became black in the mid 2000s, and now it's white/silver. But beige is really bad.
I actually liked the 9500s. I want one actually. Someday I will look for one. I think what does it for me is that sidecar extension on the right side. For whatever reason it invokes an image of "power" to me. Like Apple couldn't fit all that powerful technology in a case of normal size so had to push it out a bit. It's cool.
But at the time Apple made these I was a PC guy who built my own gray boxes so those 9500s would look damn good sitting next to my cheesy metal towers.
I'll go with the TAM. To me it just looks like an opened up laptop propped up vertically with a random subwoofer attached. Zero wow factor, especially considering the asking price.
My runner up to the iMac G5 would have to be the G3 All In One. It was an all in one version of the PowerMac G3 (beige) that was geared to the education market. It's a great concept... but with horrible aesthetic execution. Often called the "molar" Mac due to its similarity to a molar tooth.
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My runner up to the iMac G5 would have to be the G3 All In One. It was an all in one version of the PowerMac G3 (beige) that was geared to the education market. It's a great concept... but with horrible aesthetic execution. Often called the "molar" Mac due to its similarity to a molar tooth.
I liked that one actually and never understood the hate it got, I think eMac is by far more ugly.
Molar mac gets my vote. It has not aged well and looked bad when new. The combination beige and clear was just crazy. Either Jony Ive wasn’t involved or he was just on something very bad when it was designed.
The iMac G5 is simply a slab, a computer in its purest form (a display and a stand). It has no style, but it can’t be ugly because it is so plain. 111
The iMac G5 is simply a slab, a computer in its purest form (a display and a stand). It has no style, but it can’t be ugly because it is so plain. 111
I would vote molar mac as 'Most Strange'. It's not really ugly to me, just different. If I HAD to pick an ugly PPC, it would probably be one of the beige boxes. They're just bland and generic.
Beige is beautiful, unless you're a Power Mac 4400. That was the beige one made to look like a PC clone, as a Mac clone reference model.
I think the beige cases lost their way a bit after the Quadra 700 (IIvx case, specifically), when they had to be boxier to handle a then-gigantic internal CD-ROM drive.
Then the Power Mac 9600 had the "drawbridge" case with almost hidden green plastic hinges that the beige G3 and Blue and White beyond inherited, which tilted things back towards usability and much better aesthetics.
I think the beige cases lost their way a bit after the Quadra 700 (IIvx case, specifically), when they had to be boxier to handle a then-gigantic internal CD-ROM drive.
Then the Power Mac 9600 had the "drawbridge" case with almost hidden green plastic hinges that the beige G3 and Blue and White beyond inherited, which tilted things back towards usability and much better aesthetics.
This may ruffle some feathers... but here goes. The iBook G3 clamshell is the ugliest PowerPC laptop in my opinion.
Good grief! Someone found a way to make one even uglier!
Good grief! Someone found a way to make one even uglier!
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This may ruffle some feathers... but here goes. The iBook G3 clamshell is the ugliest PowerPC laptop in my opinion.
Yanno, I prefer those to something like the black Lombard or Wall Street.
Why did you have to post that? Now I really want one. I think that's beautiful. All lovely. swooping curved edges. Gorgeous.
I always dislike that chin, all iMacs since G5 have it. It irritates me so much every time I see it. May be because it could look better without it but Apple decides to keep it to differentiate it from a Cinema Display.
I vote for the eMac. It's the only one of Apple's designs that I find visually offensive. The all-in-one G3 is pretty unattractive as well although from certain angles it looks like a decent updated interpretation of the Color Classic. I can at least see what Apple was trying to do.
The Apple Network Server was a PowerPC machine, although it wasn't a Macintosh. As a server it wasn't supposed to be attractive, but even so it's a perfunctory tower box sitting on an ugly, mismatched power supply section. In contrast the later XServes are stunning.
Of the beige PowerPC models none of them offend me although the late pre-G3 all-in-one models look like a stack of boxes glued together. Even the cost-reduced clone-era Tanzania models - e.g. Power Mac 4400/7220 - look okay from the front. Ditto the iMac G5, which is essentially a giant iPod. I remember thinking at the time that was a logical step from the iMac G4. Apple had been moving from the postmodern translucent plastic look to sober minimalism and the G5 made sense at the time, although nowadays the bezel looks huge. As For This points out above the G5's chin looks massive.
The original Mac Mini G4 looked great when it was new, but the plastic on the top had a habit of yellowing, which means that most of the units I see on eBay look ugly nowadays, as if the owner was a heavy smoker.
The 17" PowerBook G4 is mostly great - but the keyboard and trackpad look tiny compared to the rest of the machine. I remember seeing the 17" model for the first time and thinking that the proportions were odd. If Apple had moved the keyboard closer to the front of the machine or enlarged the trackpad it would have looked much better.
Stretching the brief, the Vertegri ImediaEngine looks godawful. It was a luggable PowerPC Macintosh clone from the brief period when Apple allowed Macintosh clones. I can't find a single picture of it in the wild so I imagine sales were tiny.
The original, not-a-Macintosh-but-at-least-of-the-PowerPC era Apple Studio Display looks like a generic clone:
https://everymac.com/monitors/apple/studio_cinema/specs/apple_studio_display.html
The Apple Network Server was a PowerPC machine, although it wasn't a Macintosh. As a server it wasn't supposed to be attractive, but even so it's a perfunctory tower box sitting on an ugly, mismatched power supply section. In contrast the later XServes are stunning.
Of the beige PowerPC models none of them offend me although the late pre-G3 all-in-one models look like a stack of boxes glued together. Even the cost-reduced clone-era Tanzania models - e.g. Power Mac 4400/7220 - look okay from the front. Ditto the iMac G5, which is essentially a giant iPod. I remember thinking at the time that was a logical step from the iMac G4. Apple had been moving from the postmodern translucent plastic look to sober minimalism and the G5 made sense at the time, although nowadays the bezel looks huge. As For This points out above the G5's chin looks massive.
The original Mac Mini G4 looked great when it was new, but the plastic on the top had a habit of yellowing, which means that most of the units I see on eBay look ugly nowadays, as if the owner was a heavy smoker.
The 17" PowerBook G4 is mostly great - but the keyboard and trackpad look tiny compared to the rest of the machine. I remember seeing the 17" model for the first time and thinking that the proportions were odd. If Apple had moved the keyboard closer to the front of the machine or enlarged the trackpad it would have looked much better.
Stretching the brief, the Vertegri ImediaEngine looks godawful. It was a luggable PowerPC Macintosh clone from the brief period when Apple allowed Macintosh clones. I can't find a single picture of it in the wild so I imagine sales were tiny.
The original, not-a-Macintosh-but-at-least-of-the-PowerPC era Apple Studio Display looks like a generic clone:
https://everymac.com/monitors/apple/studio_cinema/specs/apple_studio_display.html
I've always been a function-over-form kind of guy, so I can't really think of any that I truly hate, but I'm not much of a fan of the looks of the Snow iBook G3. The semi-translucent keyboard just looks dumb to me with the all-white case. I think the opaque plastic keyboard introduced with the aesthetically (almost) identical iBook G4 matches the feel of the machine much better.
There's a picture and description of this heroic creation on page 8 of this Brazilian Mac magazine. It looks like a prime candidate for being the prototype of the fabled PowerBook G5.
http://files.datassette.org/revistas/macmania34.pdf
Aside from the beige powermacs, which are obviously not aesthetically appealing like most PCs of that era; it's hard for me to really think of any I find "ugly". I think apple did a pretty good job of making some pretty machines in the post 1998 era.
If I had to pick something, I would have to say the imac G3. Particularly the original Bondi one. I love the design, and compared to the beiges it is a beautiful machine. But, comparing it to any G4 or newer it is definitely nowhere near as good looking. I suppose you could say the same about the clamshells, but I've never owned one.
If I had to pick something, I would have to say the imac G3. Particularly the original Bondi one. I love the design, and compared to the beiges it is a beautiful machine. But, comparing it to any G4 or newer it is definitely nowhere near as good looking. I suppose you could say the same about the clamshells, but I've never owned one.
In all honesty, I can't think of any PPC Mac that I really dislike.
The G3 AIO does get a lot of hate, and while it's certainly DIFFERENT I don't think it's a bad looking computer. From a functional perspective, I appreciate how much power it packs and how upgradable it is, especially compared to its direct successor, the iMac G3.
Most of the beige Macs don't look that bad to me unless they're badly yellowed, but that's a different story.
Looking around the room I'm sitting in now, I can see all three styles of G4 tower, a B&W G3, a couple of Pluses, a Cube with an acrylic CRT, a first gen Intel iMac(very similar to a G5 iSight), a Mini, a 6500, and an SE. I have to say that the worst looking of the bunch-to my eye-is the SE, although I'll probably catch some flames for that. Among compact Macs, I like the clean lines and simple design of the M0001 Macs(128K, 512K, 512Ke, Plus) and even though they're crummy computers I like the rounded "90s look" of the Classic/Classic II. In general, I like the Snow White computers, but it just doesn't do it for me on the SE.
The Performa 5xx and 5xxx do have to get honorable mentions from me, though-I don't find them particularly attractive, and they're also just not very good computers.
The G3 AIO does get a lot of hate, and while it's certainly DIFFERENT I don't think it's a bad looking computer. From a functional perspective, I appreciate how much power it packs and how upgradable it is, especially compared to its direct successor, the iMac G3.
Most of the beige Macs don't look that bad to me unless they're badly yellowed, but that's a different story.
Looking around the room I'm sitting in now, I can see all three styles of G4 tower, a B&W G3, a couple of Pluses, a Cube with an acrylic CRT, a first gen Intel iMac(very similar to a G5 iSight), a Mini, a 6500, and an SE. I have to say that the worst looking of the bunch-to my eye-is the SE, although I'll probably catch some flames for that. Among compact Macs, I like the clean lines and simple design of the M0001 Macs(128K, 512K, 512Ke, Plus) and even though they're crummy computers I like the rounded "90s look" of the Classic/Classic II. In general, I like the Snow White computers, but it just doesn't do it for me on the SE.
The Performa 5xx and 5xxx do have to get honorable mentions from me, though-I don't find them particularly attractive, and they're also just not very good computers.
Are you not aware of the capacitor issue that iMac G5's have? They all use capacitors that turned out to be flawed. These same capacitors were also used in the MDD PSU, and are the reason many of those die.
???? I quoted your post about the G3 AIO. I think the iMac G5 was smart looking and having recapped an SE as well as repairing its seized floppy drive am not in the least fazed about getting my hands dirty. No pain, no gain.