Ugliest PowerPC Mac?

[for this]

On the powermac g4 (I have the 1.25 Ghz single G4 model, though I haven't booted it up in years), the mirrored drive covers are springloaded flaps. When you eject a CD, the tray pushes the mirrored flap out of the way.

The way the Zip drive ejects is not as smooth as an optical drive and would make the door open just a little which may give a feeling of unfinished design. I think every Mac with a Zip drive doesn't have the door for it.

 

[Anarchy99]

Out of curiosity, what product had the Power branding before it had a PPC chip? There was Performa...

you know what I think old age is getting to me, you're right i could have sworn there were power models pre-PPC :S
its the other way around some PowerMacs maintained Performa branding in some markets.

I think the Mac branding is stronger than Power.

I kinda of agree, kinda not

If iMac wasn’t such an iconic brand, just Mac would make more sense.

since both power and "i" got replaced with mac the iMac should be the MacMac

I guess it’s more about nostalgia than logic

probably right i just feel power flowed better as did "i"

 

[weckart]

On the powermac g4 (I have the 1.25 Ghz single G4 model, though I haven't booted it up in years), the mirrored drive covers are springloaded flaps. When you eject a CD, the tray pushes the mirrored flap out of the way.

If you think about it, the tray of the optical drive pushes the sprung flap out of the way and has enough grunt in its motor to do so. Zip drives have no moving trays only an internal slot into which you have to introduce the Zip disk. On ejecting the Zip disk, it comes out partially and you have to remove it yourself. It would be the same with slot drive DVD units. There would be no motorised tray to open and close the flap and in any case, the motors in Zip drives are pretty feeble compared with DVD drives. They would probably burn out trying to get those large flaps open.
[doublepost=1549827174][/doublepost]

Out of curiosity, what product had the Power branding before it had a PPC chip? There was Performa...

I think the Mac branding is stronger than Power. I never understood why a PowerBook or iBook wasn’t a Mac. PowerMacBook? If iMac wasn’t such an iconic brand, just Mac would make more sense. I guess it’s more about nostalgia than logic

Well, PowerBooks obviously. My 68k PowerBook 520 even had a lovely red sticker on the bezel proclaiming it was PowerPC ready as in this stock photo.

 

[sunapple]

you know what I think old age is getting to me, you're right i could have sworn there were power models pre-PPC :S
its the other way around some PowerMacs maintained Performa branding in some markets.


I kinda of agree, kinda not


since both power and "i" got replaced with mac the iMac should be the MacMac


probably right i just feel power flowed better as did "i"

The Apple MacMac... LOL. Don't forget MacPhone and MacPad. I believe those were at some point rumored names, wasn't really into the rumors back then... iBook and iBook Pro? Mac Performa? PowerWatch S2. I'm confused

 

[fuchsdh]

Which PowerPC Mac do you think is the ugliest?

I would have to go with the iMac G5. It just has no character to my eyes. All I see is an ugly white slab of plastic.

It's certainly not great, but stands as a testament to the heat of the G5 chips The intel iMac that followed looks so much better just by virtue of slimming it down.

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!

Yeah, I'd have to agree. The iMac G3s still look great, but the aesthetic didn't really translate to notebooks (or at least not with the limitations of notebooks at the time.) The white G3s and G4s looks superior in every way.

I would have to vote for the mirrored drive doors G4 towers. The G4 started as a nice update of the G3 tower - a bit more "pro" in grey shades. And then they started adding bits to it, culminating in the mirrored drive doors which just look like someone took out the standard drives and replaced them with some whacky third-party drives. They are so bizarre and out of place, and then it has the weird air intakes underneath.

Quicksilver? Great. Sleek.
MDD? Yikes

I can see why people like the QS over the MDD, but I'd take the latter every time. The MDD's front feels almost... unfinished, to me? Like a plate is missing compared to the MDD or the antecedent pinstriped look.

Also, I'll fight all of you who say the eMac For a CRT, it absolutely looked sleek and gorgeous for the time. Felt more like a high end Trinitron than the entry-level machine it was.

 

[Anarchy99]

iBook and iBook Pro

Considering Apple's current lineup these make more sense, I definitely would choose these over MacBook and MacBook Pro

 

[sunapple]

Considering Apple's current lineup these make more sense, I definitely would choose these over MacBook and MacBook Pro

But then there's my mom who still calls a MacBook (Air/Pro) an iMac

 

[jazz1]

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!

I owned the orange one. Purchased it with my own funds while working in higher ed. I had a meeting with the Dean and showed it off proudly. He called it a toilet seat! Wish I still had it for "on the go"
[doublepost=1549828689][/doublepost]

The eMate isn't a PowerPC system but is still RISC, and was kinda the first netbook. It is also from the PowerPC era being released in 97 and discontinued in 98. This has a 25MHz ARM CPU.

It looks like something out of a scifi film. I both love and hate the look.

Had it!

 

[bobesch]

Leaving aside the beige era, I’ve always thought the PowerBook G3s were really ugly. They look like cheesy faux-luxury 90s crap. I particularly think the bronze keyboard on the Lombard, while unique, just doesn’t look good.

Just skeuomorphism - reminiscence to smoky computer equipment ...

 

[Mac4Brains]

Which PowerPC Mac do you think is the ugliest?

I would have to go with the iMac G5. It just has no character to my eyes. All I see is an ugly white slab of plastic.

unless you need to open it than it instantly becomes themes beautiful thing in the world. About of all of the flat panel iMacs, this was by far the easiest to work on.

 

[Anarchy99]

But then there's my mom who still calls a MacBook (Air/Pro) an iMac

thats ok.

apple can change MacBook and MacBook Pro to iBook and iBook Pro and your mom can still call them a iMac.

heck she'd even be closer to the right name
[doublepost=1549846006][/doublepost]

Out of curiosity, what product had the Power branding before it had a PPC chip? There was Performa...

i retract my previous retraction i was right, just forgot it was the laptops 1st not towers.

early PowerBooks used Motorola 68k's before PowerPC

so not as crazy/getting old as i was worried

 

[AphoticD]

thats ok.

apple can change MacBook and MacBook Pro to iBook and iBook Pro and your mom can still call them a iMac.

heck she'd even be closer to the right name
[doublepost=1549846006][/doublepost]
i retract my previous retraction i was right, just forgot it was the laptops 1st not towers.

early PowerBooks used Motorola 68k's before PowerPC

so not as crazy/getting old as i was worried

So did Apple name the 601 “PowerPC” because they wanted to make a “Power Macintosh” to coincide with their “PowerBook” product, or was it a Motorola product name that was accidentally a tidy fit?

 

[Anarchy99]

So did Apple name the 601 “PowerPC” because they wanted to make a “Power Macintosh” to coincide with their “PowerBook” product, or was it a Motorola product name that was accidentally a tidy fit?

considering PowerPC was created by the cabal of Apple, Motorola and Later IBM i always assumed Apple pushed for the Power name cause it sounded powerful and PC chips sound like serial numbers

of course it also matched up with the Power name of the Laptops and then desktops

 

[Anonymous Freak]

Out of curiosity, what product had the Power branding before it had a PPC chip? There was Performa...

The PowerCD!

No computer used "Power" branding before there was a PowerPC model, but a few late 68k came with an "Ready for PowerPC Upgrade" sticker on them. (PowerBook 500-series being a notable one, see

.)

 

[Mac4Brains]

So did Apple name the 601 “PowerPC” because they wanted to make a “Power Macintosh” to coincide with their “PowerBook” product, or was it a Motorola product name that was accidentally a tidy fit?[/QUOTE

power mac line came out in March 94 with a 601
powerbook line came out in October 91 with a 68000 bur the first

The PowerCD!

No computer used "Power" branding before there was a PowerPC model, but a few late 68k came with an "Ready for PowerPC Upgrade" sticker on them. (PowerBook 500-series being a notable one, see

.)

every mac laptop prior to the powerbook 500 was called powerbook in the prior 17 models with a 68K chip

 

[retta283]

Yeah... That guy who sells those modified clamshells is terrible... He's moving to corner the market on snow G3's as well I've seen. Wish people like him would be banned. I've been looking for a good deal on clamshells but he has jacked the prices up.

My vote for ugliest PPC Mac would probably go to the 14" iBook as well. Just doesn't look right.

 

[Mac4Brains]

fine Ill put my two cents in to this conversation;

its a tossup between the

The Apple Network Server 500 (604PPC chip)
The Apple G4 Cube

Both a fairly Fugly

 

[jerwin]

considering PowerPC was created by the cabal of Apple, Motorola and Later IBM i always assumed Apple pushed for the Power name cause it sounded powerful and PC chips sound like serial numbers

of course it also matched up with the Power name of the Laptops and then desktops

IBM's RS/6000 computers used a set of chips known as the POWER1 cpu.

The POWER cpus are still made today; the latest incarnation is the power9. (12 or 24 cores, 96 threads, 120 MB of L3 cache, etc etc). A power10 is planned for 2020.

The RS/6000 started appearing around February 1990.

A multichip cpu is pretty expensive-- the power pc was intended as a single chip variant.

The wikipedia article suggests that IBM designed the chip, Motorola had mass production expertise, and Apple was to be the major customer.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PowerPC
I really would like to know more about Apple's Aquarius design,,

 

[MultiFinder17]

Out of curiosity, what product had the Power branding before it had a PPC chip? There was Performa...

I think the Mac branding is stronger than Power. I never understood why a PowerBook or iBook wasn’t a Mac. PowerMacBook? If iMac wasn’t such an iconic brand, just Mac would make more sense. I guess it’s more about nostalgia than logic

The PowerBook line had been around since 1991, well deep into the 68k days.

 

[MAGdaddy]

The G3 All-in-one is very ugly compared to the G5, i think

 

[CooperBox]

Reading some of the above, it just proves that 'beauty' is certainly in the eyes of the beholder.
Or, if you'd seen the dreadful women a friend of mine married, beauty is certainly in the eyes of the beer-holder......
Despite some of the remarks in previous posts from a few heretics, among my favourite looking Macs are the G4 iMac, the G4 Cube and iBook Clamshell. All superb, stimulating designs, and imho defines 'thinking out of the box'.
But I guess it's a bit like Dali or Picasso, you either love 'em or hate 'em.
I was never a lover of Salvador Dali until we visited the Dali Theatre Museum recently in Figueres, Spain. Simply mind-blowing. Now I can't help wondering how he would have interpreted a new-look Mac!

 

[MAGdaddy]

Reading some of the above, it just proves that 'beauty' is certainly in the eyes of the beholder.
Or, if you'd seen the dreadful women a friend of mine married, beauty is certainly in the eyes of the beer-holder......
Despite some of the remarks in previous posts from a few heretics, among my favourite looking Macs are the G4 iMac, the G4 Cube and iBook Clamshell. All superb, stimulating designs, and imho defines 'thinking out of the box'.
But I guess it's a bit like Dali or Picasso, you either love 'em or hate 'em.
I was never a lover of Salvador Dali until we visited the Dali Theatre Museum recently in Figueres, Spain. Simply mind-blowing. Now I can't help wondering how he would have interpreted a new-look Mac!

Haha, i love your beer reference.

 

[Ih8reno]

Not quite a Mac but a close cousin in some ways. My PowerComputing Power Center 150. Physically in much better shape then any of my Macs from the same era. Not a beaut by any means and easily lost in a wave of beige towers. Perhaps only beaten by my Motorola Mac clone.

 

[timidpimpin]

Power Computing were the best of the Mac clones by a mile.