For me, price and design. I've worked in a company that have imported apple for 20+ years and i always wanted to own at the time, but could not afford: G4 Cube (now have), iMac G4 "iLamp" (looking!), Powermac G4 (have), Powermac G5 (have), Powerbook 15" (have), iBook G3 Clamshell (have). G4 macs are very well suited for general usage today.
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What keeps you on the PPC platform?
- Thread starter monkeybagel
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Why PPC? I got completely and totally fed up with PCs by 2004, and switched to Linux. Unfortunately, I had to keep a PC around to allow me to continue using Photoshop. By early 2006 my mixed Linux/PC environment was making me crazy and the last generation G5s were out. I got a 2.3 GHz Dual Core with Tiger and fell in love with Apple all over again (had used them at work up until 1997, when my company decided that Windows 95 was "good enough" and took all our Macs away and replaced them with PCs).
There was something "magic" about that G5 - the quality, the smoothness of the GUI, all the functionality... it was amazing. In 2008 I upgraded to the highest end (8 Core, 3.2 GHz) Mac Pro and Leopard, and subsequently Snow Leopard. A blindingly fast box, but it lacked the "magic".
Several months I started hunting in eBay and eventually found myself a used G5 Quad for only $385! It had 8 GB of RAM and the Quadro 4500 video card. A steal at twice the price. I bought it, upgraded it with two new disks, one of which (the boot volume) was an SSD, loaded Tiger, and put my Mac Pro on holiday. I have been using the G5 Quad ever since. Equipped with an SSD, it is *almost* as snappy feeling as my Mac Pro... and it has all that G5 "magic". I have resurrected many favorite old apps that were only available for PPC and just love the total experience of being on PPC again - living PPC in an Intel world... I think different ...just like all of you!
I used to have a Powermac 7500/100 back in the late 1990's at work, and I started trolling eBay again a few weeks ago. I just picked up a complete Powermac 7500/100 system for $300, replete with an Apple 17" monitor, system unit, original keyboard and mouse, and most of the manuals. I am getting one of the 200 MHz PowerPC 604e upgrade cards for it, and I will have a fine old antique on my hands when done. It is running Mac OS 8, and I have managed to bring back to life a whole bunch of old stuff I was still hanging on to from back in the late 90's - fun!
Why PPC? Its all in the "magic". Plus... my G5 Quad is almost a screamer. A very fast and very capable box. Apple builds good kit!
There was something "magic" about that G5 - the quality, the smoothness of the GUI, all the functionality... it was amazing. In 2008 I upgraded to the highest end (8 Core, 3.2 GHz) Mac Pro and Leopard, and subsequently Snow Leopard. A blindingly fast box, but it lacked the "magic".
Several months I started hunting in eBay and eventually found myself a used G5 Quad for only $385! It had 8 GB of RAM and the Quadro 4500 video card. A steal at twice the price. I bought it, upgraded it with two new disks, one of which (the boot volume) was an SSD, loaded Tiger, and put my Mac Pro on holiday. I have been using the G5 Quad ever since. Equipped with an SSD, it is *almost* as snappy feeling as my Mac Pro... and it has all that G5 "magic". I have resurrected many favorite old apps that were only available for PPC and just love the total experience of being on PPC again - living PPC in an Intel world... I think different ...just like all of you!
I used to have a Powermac 7500/100 back in the late 1990's at work, and I started trolling eBay again a few weeks ago. I just picked up a complete Powermac 7500/100 system for $300, replete with an Apple 17" monitor, system unit, original keyboard and mouse, and most of the manuals. I am getting one of the 200 MHz PowerPC 604e upgrade cards for it, and I will have a fine old antique on my hands when done. It is running Mac OS 8, and I have managed to bring back to life a whole bunch of old stuff I was still hanging on to from back in the late 90's - fun!
Why PPC? Its all in the "magic". Plus... my G5 Quad is almost a screamer. A very fast and very capable box. Apple builds good kit!
For me it's the charisma.My first mac was a Dual Usb Ibook G3 12' (maybe in 2009 loool), I loved it.
After it died and my Hp DV9575ep died bought a macbook white and a Powermac G4 400Mhz was given to me, since then I try to give it some cheap upgrades so it can be a viable backup machine.
Unfortunately cpu upgrades worth more than the whole powermac.
After it died and my Hp DV9575ep died bought a macbook white and a Powermac G4 400Mhz was given to me, since then I try to give it some cheap upgrades so it can be a viable backup machine.
Unfortunately cpu upgrades worth more than the whole powermac.
Unfortunately cpu upgrades worth more than the whole powermac.
Of course a brand new CPU daughter card is going to be more than an 11 year old computer. You're looking at it wrong.
naturally
instead of buying a new cpu daughter card its far cheaper to buy a used card/more powerful same gen macwe are truly a frugal bunch us ppc users
I continue to use a PowerPC based Mac because I too just don't have the money to spend on a new Intel system. I also have this nice 17" MacBook Pro that my mom got me as an early Christmas present, so I'm definitely ok in the software compatibility department. Maybe one day, I'll "upgrade" from my Power Mac G5 to one of the variants of the Intel Mac mini. I have an ADC to DVI adapter, so I can still use my nice 17" Studio Display.
I love the fact the new mini has an new fast processor, but have no idea why Apple dropped the optical drive on a desktop computer...
I have a 2010 version and it is great. It is also silent.
I have a 2010 version and it is great. It is also silent.
naturally
we are truly a frugal bunch us ppc users
I know, that's why I am searching for one, but still @80eur it's worth more than the powermac itself
But as soon as I have more money and use more the powermac I'll buy one.
It's a lovely desktop.
hehe.. I just got one!
I was running a older AMD64 x2, but it has passed it life as the PSU and Motherboard went out. So I started to look into building a new one. Priced some parts together on newegg and started to look for cases. Well really didn't like the look of any of them. So looked on CL for a G5 case ( love the look ) ended up picking up a G5 7,3 DP 2.3 2gig ram 80gig HD for around $175. I was going to get the case ready to start building my new system but before I did that I wanted to play around with it. Just to make this a bit shorter, I'm now looking to getting a Mac Pro in the future but this G5 is pretty awesome and it serves my needs as of now.
Also I ended up buying a Airport Card and Antenna for it, Add 4 more gigs of ram(6gig total now), and a 250gig hard drive (Ram and HDD) from old system.
I was running a older AMD64 x2, but it has passed it life as the PSU and Motherboard went out. So I started to look into building a new one. Priced some parts together on newegg and started to look for cases. Well really didn't like the look of any of them. So looked on CL for a G5 case ( love the look ) ended up picking up a G5 7,3 DP 2.3 2gig ram 80gig HD for around $175. I was going to get the case ready to start building my new system but before I did that I wanted to play around with it. Just to make this a bit shorter, I'm now looking to getting a Mac Pro in the future but this G5 is pretty awesome and it serves my needs as of now.
Also I ended up buying a Airport Card and Antenna for it, Add 4 more gigs of ram(6gig total now), and a 250gig hard drive (Ram and HDD) from old system.
I have a intel imac and a macbook pro but i still use my iBook g4 for general light internet browsing. I use the intel macs for more power hogging things like netflix and video editing.
After finally getting iMac G4 15" (was looking for 1-1.25Ghz model with 20" screen but..) it just shows how much ahead apple have been in design for years and years. There is NONE PC that has the same "magic" and thought put on design, useability and the whole package. That machine seriously rocks! (even lacks on speed today).
For Me ...
It is a few things ...
First off design - My three PowerPC Macs so far are the Clamshell iBook, the Pixar Lampstyled G4 iMac and the G4 Cube - these computers are simply unique and wonderful to use.
I am a new comer to PowerPC Macs and admired them in my youth when I had no money at all - now these once expensive machines are very low cost.
For example walking down the street in LA I noticed the G4 iMac sitting there for sale - 40 bucks!!! - works like new - great condition - what a steal - now it is in a good home and will have many more years of life.
I also love having a Mac that runs OS 9.2, 10.0, 10.1, 10.2, 10.3, 10.4 and 10.5 my G4 Cube fits the bill nicely
So yea PowerPC Macs are fun to have around
It is a few things ...
First off design - My three PowerPC Macs so far are the Clamshell iBook, the Pixar Lampstyled G4 iMac and the G4 Cube - these computers are simply unique and wonderful to use.
I am a new comer to PowerPC Macs and admired them in my youth when I had no money at all - now these once expensive machines are very low cost.
For example walking down the street in LA I noticed the G4 iMac sitting there for sale - 40 bucks!!! - works like new - great condition - what a steal - now it is in a good home and will have many more years of life.
I also love having a Mac that runs OS 9.2, 10.0, 10.1, 10.2, 10.3, 10.4 and 10.5 my G4 Cube fits the bill nicely
So yea PowerPC Macs are fun to have around
I have a Quicksilver 2002, but I recently got a new mid-2011 Mac Mini. To my delight, the Mini sits perfectly on top of the Quicksilver tower. I share an LED monitor between the two with no need for a KVM, as the Quicksilver is connected via VGA, and the Mini is connected via HDMI, using the monitor's built-in ports. And I have a nice VGA cable that fully supports 1920x1080 on the Quicksilver, so there's no resolution difference when switching. I use TenFourFox for browsing on the Quicksilver, and Firefox on the Mini. Almost all the same extensions and plugins work on both platforms.
Basically, what I'm trying to say is that my PowerPC and Intel machines are getting along quite well with each other, and co-existing peacefully.
Basically, what I'm trying to say is that my PowerPC and Intel machines are getting along quite well with each other, and co-existing peacefully.
For me it's several things. The design is awesome. They do everything I need them to do and are cheap enough that I can learn how to fix computers on them.
When Apple first came out with the iMac G3's in fruit colors one of my coworkers got one in tangerine because she refused to "do Windows." I took one look at it and really, really wanted one like it. Everybody told me to stick to Windows, so my next computer was an HP with a white monitor in a similar shape, because I still really wanted one like hers.
Now I have three of them--a grape DV 400 slot loading one, an indigo one just like it, and an indigo one from Summer 2000. I also have an eMac g4, a loaded Power Mac g5 that I got dead cheap at a yard sale because it was "one of those Mac things" and they didn't know how to see if it worked, and a nice Power Macintosh 7600/132 running OS 8 that I paid $15 for and will never upgrade because I love the retro-ness of it.
When Apple first came out with the iMac G3's in fruit colors one of my coworkers got one in tangerine because she refused to "do Windows." I took one look at it and really, really wanted one like it. Everybody told me to stick to Windows, so my next computer was an HP with a white monitor in a similar shape, because I still really wanted one like hers.
Now I have three of them--a grape DV 400 slot loading one, an indigo one just like it, and an indigo one from Summer 2000. I also have an eMac g4, a loaded Power Mac g5 that I got dead cheap at a yard sale because it was "one of those Mac things" and they didn't know how to see if it worked, and a nice Power Macintosh 7600/132 running OS 8 that I paid $15 for and will never upgrade because I love the retro-ness of it.
Intel macs? I thought there was only one mac, and if AppleCare you are part of PowerPC computer club?
PowerPC refers to the CPU architecture Apple used from 1993-2006. Since then they use Intel CPU's
Macs.
Yes please, I need to join PowerPC club b/c I choose Macs over windoze - sometime I use boot camp but that is only for Flash since Macs can't be using the Flash. OHF! -- is this making me ineligible?
I wish there was a site we could redirect him to
Yes please, I need to join PowerPC club b/c I choose Macs over windoze - sometime I use boot camp but that is only for Flash since Macs can't be using the Flash. OHF! -- is this making me ineligible?
I wasn't aware of such a club lol. Intel macs can use flash, and IMO there's nothing wrong with using windows.