Your Go-To Portable PowerPC

[AphoticD]

Which PORTABLE PowerPC is your go to?

Again, it doesn't need to be your daily driver, but if you are going to use a PowerPC Mac laptop, which is your first choice?

EDIT: Changed poll to allow for multiple choices. Go for a top 3!

> View sibling poll for PowerPC DESKTOPS

 

[Hater]

I own a 12" AlBook and a TiBook.

AlBook every time due to portability.

 

[xdanieldzd]

My 15" AlBook has basically become my go to laptop, period. My last "modern" laptop died on me ca. 2 years ago (Asus X5DAB from 2009), after that I went back to a ca. 2003 Dell Latitude C640 I already used before I got the Asus, and now I'm pretty happy with the AlBook.

The Dell still works but is slow, I still kinda want to get a modern laptop again, but for the moment my AlBook plus smartphone and tablet do their jobs fine.

 

[YYsMD]

Pismo. I mostly play with the classic MacOS on my older machines, and that really feels to be the best of the portables that can take it. There are things about it such as the lever operated battery/CD drive bays that I love too.

 

[AphoticD]

Pismo. I mostly play with the classic MacOS on my older machines, and that really feels to be the best of the portables that can take it. There are things about it such as the lever operated battery/CD drive bays that I love too.

I second that. I just installed an mSATA SSD in my Pismo. It is my second choice after the PB12". The Pismo is absolutely silent with the SSD and low-heat compared to any G4. With a new battery, the Pismo also provides a solid 3-4 hours of real use, which is pretty amazing for a turn-of-the-century Mac.

 

[eyoungren]

17" Powerbook 1.0 Ghz, A1013.

First Mac laptop that ever caught my eye and the only one I really care for. I had a TiBook 400 but it was a gift. Never really cared for it. The 15" AlBooks are nice, but still too small and my wife's old 12" PB is ridiculous. I feel like the walls are closing in having to use that keyboard.

 

[AphoticD]

17" Powerbook 1.0 Ghz, A1013.

You've got the first vote for the 17!

I have the standard res 1.67, but hardly ever go for it. It's a thing of beauty, but not my first choice for a backpack.


I find the 12" is the perfect fit for my mobile office:

First Mac laptop that ever caught my eye and the only one I really care for. I had a TiBook 400 but it was a gift. Never really cared for it. The 15" AlBooks are nice, but still too small and my wife's old 12" PB is ridiculous. I feel like the walls are closing in having to use that keyboard.

When you put it that way, 1024x768 really can't compete with 6x 2560x1600 or whatever you're crunching.

 

[eyoungren]

You've got the first vote for the 17!

I have the standard res 1.67, but hardly ever go for it. It's a thing of beauty, but not my first choice for a backpack.


I find the 12" is the perfect fit for my portable office:

View attachment 726221



When you put it that way, 1024x768 really can't compete with 6x 2560x1600 or whatever you're crunching.

I have a tool bag that used to belong to a telecomm company. Got it for like $10 at the Goodwill in I think 2003 or 2004 or so.

It can hold two 17" laptops.

And yes, I've done that. I have pictures of two 17" PowerBooks on a table at Starbucks.

 

[AphoticD]

I have a tool bag that used to belong to a telecomm company. Got it for like $10 at the Goodwill in I think 2003 or 2004 or so.

It can hold two 17" laptops.

And yes, I've done that. I have pictures of two 17" PowerBooks on a table at Starbucks.

That would be a sight! I'm picturing a small rounded coffee table fully loaded with PowerPC greatness + COFFEE.

 

[amagichnich]

I use my 12" iBooks over the 15" PB because it's much cooler and the fan is only running when under load whereas the PBs fans are always running to not let it overheat. I don't know what Apple did there, but it was a mistake to make the PBs portable heaters.
Only problem with the iBook is that the new battery is wrong calibrated and 20% are actually 0%

 

[LightBulbFun]

Which PORTABLE PowerPC is your go to?

Again, it doesn't need to be your daily driver, but if you are going to use a PowerPC Mac laptop, which is your first choice?

EDIT: Changed poll to allow for multiple choices. Go for a top 3!

> View sibling poll for PowerPC DESKTOPS

I alternate between my 17 inch and 15 inch DLSD for when I need some portable PPC grunt, more times then not I go for the 17 inch DLSD much for the same reasons @eyoungren does

then I have my G4 Pismo which is my "jack of all trades" PowerBook, its fairly speedy and it can run/I can make it run many OSs and its very easy to swap all the hardware in and out of it (for example, I recently upgraded it to a 40GB Spinner from an ATV1 and chucked Jag on it for the Power Macintosh 4400 Project)

and then finally I have my Kanga which is my OWR Bridge mac I use for getting stuff to and fro my Macintosh SE

 

[amagichnich]

it can run/I can make it

 

[Lastic]

I started my Retro computing in 2011 with an iBook G4 12" , added a Newertech Battery and boom 6-7 solid hours of battery life.
However the touchpad and plastic keyboard threw me off until I bought a PB G4 12" 1.33Ghz Boxed.

I was very impressed but again no right click or bluetooth so I bought an PB G4 1.5 Ghz in almost prestine condition, maxed out the RAM, found a Newertech battery for it, installed a PATA SSD and this is the machine warming my lap gently whilst typing this.

I bought a second identical PB G4 12" 1.5 Ghz just to have one for spare parts.

Only thing beating it is my Lenovo Thinkpad X220 that I bought to use at work running Fedora 26 but heck I just tried all our management WebGUI's from work on the PB G4 12" whilst checking rdesktop and our work WIN2008 , out of 6 , 4 of them work, one only works with Java 1.8 on IE and the other one needed FlashPlayer. (which was also a hassle on Fedora).

I once for a joke brought my PB G4 12" to my previous job right when the 12" Macbook had just come out, connected it via SSL VPN to startup a Citrix Desktop and put the Virtual Desktop on my bigger monitor and used it.
All my colleagues thought I had bought the new Macbook LOL.

 

[bobesch]

Yeah, I also started with an iBook G4.
As a beamer-companion 'cause as a PPC it ought to be a kind of virus-proof...
I use two "Books" for that task: one connected to the beamer and offering an airport-wireless-network, and the second one to connect to/control that beamer-connected iBook.

Then the PPC virus took over...
My 12"PowerBookG4 is my favorite G4 Book. My Fax-machine. My everything about PPC.
Second a DLSD 15" G4 PB (which really needed some attention... used woodsticks, tape and refurbished perforated metal plates to keep the mSATA/converter in place and to fix the broke opening-mechanism, where the previous owner just fixed the HDD with duck tape - now my kind of rugged device to withstand all bumps and bruises ...)
Both Books got an mSATA-upgrade to make them fly.
Got 2 Ti-Books and make them one. Great for os9!
And a 12"SnowG3 and the Clamshells mainly to fiddle with os9 and Tiger. The Clamshell is a great music-machine combined with "soundsticks" and subwoofer...
Ha - too much stuff and no time!
[doublepost=1508459093][/doublepost]

I have a tool bag that used to belong to a telecomm company. Got it for like $10 at the Goodwill in I think 2003 or 2004 or so.
It can hold two 17" laptops.
And yes, I've done that. I have pictures of two 17" PowerBooks on a table at Starbucks.

I guess, everyone here would like to see those pictures - especially me!
[doublepost=1508460864][/doublepost]

I use my 12" iBooks over the 15" PB because it's much cooler and the fan is only running when under load whereas the PBs fans are always running to not let it overheat. I don't know what Apple did there, but it was a mistake to make the PBs portable heaters.
Only problem with the iBook is that the new battery is wrong calibrated and 20% are actually 0%

take a look at G4FanControl
[doublepost=1508461267][/doublepost]

I started my Retro computing in 2011 with an iBook G4 12" , added a Newertech Battery and boom 6-7 solid hours of battery life.
However the touchpad and plastic keyboard threw me off until I bought a PB G4 12" 1.33Ghz Boxed.

I was very impressed but again no right click or bluetooth so I bought an PB G4 1.5 Ghz in almost prestine condition, maxed out the RAM, found a Newertech battery for it, installed a PATA SSD and this is the machine warming my lap gently whilst typing this.

I bought a second identical PB G4 12" 1.5 Ghz just to have one for spare parts.

Only thing beating it is my Lenovo Thinkpad X220 that I bought to use at work running Fedora 26 but heck I just tried all our management WebGUI's from work on the PB G4 12" whilst checking rdesktop and our work WIN2008 , out of 6 , 4 of them work, one only works with Java 1.8 on IE and the other one needed FlashPlayer. (which was also a hassle on Fedora).

I once for a joke brought my PB G4 12" to my previous job right when the 12" Macbook had just come out, connected it via SSL VPN to startup a Citrix Desktop and put the Virtual Desktop on my bigger monitor and used it.
All my colleagues thought I had bought the new Macbook LOL.

I guess, as a novice, I'll have a lot of questions to the rdp-master-against-desaster about rdp-connections, as soon I'll have some spare time over the weekend ...

 

[eyoungren]

I guess, everyone here would like to see those pictures - especially me!

2010, my son would be seven.

PowerBook on the right is sharing internet to his iBook G3 as it had a very bad Airport antenna.

Same Starbucks today…where the trashcan is on the upper left would be where my son is sitting in the earlier photo.

We do not go to Starbucks anymore, much less this location.

 

[AphoticD]

I bet your boy wanted an upgrade from the iBook soon after witnessing this event!

 

[eyoungren]

I bet your boy wanted an upgrade from the iBook soon after witnessing this event!

That iBook was his first Mac (he got it when he was 5). He was just happy to have games to play and a Mac to use.

As needed things have been replaced. His second Mac was a $25 Titanium DVI 1Ghz that I swapped a screen with from my old TiBook 400. After that he got a 15" PowerBook with a failed ram slot (1GB max now).

This year because of highschool he got a Thinkpad.

Nothing he's ever gotten unfortunately has been brand new. eBay scores are all I can afford. But my kids have always had their computers where other kids just had cellphones.

Each step was earned. I don't give my kids stuff until I know they will take care of it. As far as phones go, he got a 4s last year (8GB) but was upgraded to mom's old 5 this year because of good behavior with the cell plan.

I got him an iPhone SE on Tuesday night for his birthday because I told him he'd get an upgrade if he was good for a year. We got him a phone because last year because we need to be able to get a hold of him now as my wife is back in school.
[doublepost=1508465654][/doublepost]For the record, the bag in question…

 

[1042686]

Powerbook17" SLSD as it's the only one I own at the moment

 

[amagichnich]

take a look at

I do that quite often it runs in the background so that I can adjust the fan speed when the PB feels too hot. I criticize that I have to regulate the fans to maintain a comfortable temperature when the iBooks fan mostly doesn't turn on at all

 

[ziggy29]

Well, you said pick up to three, but of the ones I have, if I had to pick only ONE to be the PPC PowerBook I had to always use, it would be my 1 GHz TiBook. I love my incredibly versatile and flexible Pismo to death, but even with a G4/550 it's too slow for a lot of things the TiBook can handle reasonably well. I also love that the TiBook natively supports 9.2.2 and Leopard; I have mine set up to boot 9.2.2, 10.4.11 and 10.5.8.

So I picked the TiBook and the Pismo.

I also have a 12" AlBook (1.33 Ghz) which is faster than the other two, but for some reason I just don't enjoy using it as much. Now if I had a 17" DLSD, I'd take the AlBook....

I used to have a 5300 -- bought it used for almost nothing around 1999 -- but not much later I traded it in to buy a Pismo when Apple was offering generous incentives to 5300 owners to get them out of circulation. Wouldn't mind having one for old time's sake, but not a priority and I already have too much old PPC stuff already.

 

[macgeek18]

PowerBook G4 12"!

 

[2984839]

PowerBook G4 12"!

This is my favorite as well. Great size, especially with a 4:3 aspect ratio.

 

[macgeek18]

This is my favorite as well. Great size, especially with a 4:3 aspect ratio.

I really like 4:3!

 

[macgeek18]

I forgot to mention. I actually use my PB 12" to support modern Mac users. A few of them when I pull it our go, "wow! I love the new MacBook Pro I want one!" Then they are amazed I can support then with a 2005 Mac.

 

[2984839]

I really like 4:3!

Nice! The T60 is the last laptop produced by anyone that I actually like.