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Why I still use an old PowerPC Mac

howtogeek.com

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Re: Why I still use an old PowerPC Mac

#51

Post by tengbretson »

barney54 wrote: post #38
tengbretson wrote: post #4

I'm not trying to be a downer, but there is absolutely no reason to do this. For $50 you can do so much better without really trying all that hard. Now I fully appreciate the draw of doing something like this as a hobby or something, but this article is talking about productivity. This is not an investment for productivity.

What would you suggest as an alternative?

This one would have a nicer keyboard and support modern software.

https://www.ebay.com/i/324223000220?chn=ps&norover=1&mkevt=1...

Re: Why I still use an old PowerPC Mac

#52

Post by walrus01 »

jandrese wrote: post #20

> In fact, for reasons I’m yet to discern, my iBook’s internal AirPort Wi-Fi card can’t connect to modern Wi-Fi networks—they simply confound it. WPA2 was standardized a year after his laptop was built. The ancient 802.11b card in it wants to do WEP. Getting driver support for a modern USB WiFi on that prehistoric version of OSX is no picnic either. It's a good thing he doesn't want to get it working.

> > In fact, for reasons I’m yet to discern, my iBook’s internal AirPort Wi-Fi card can’t connect to modern Wi-Fi networks—they simply confound it.

there's a huge number of 802.11b and 802.11g devices that simply won't operate at all on a 2.4 GHz radio of a 802.11n/11ac/11ax network that is set to "dual 40/20MHz" channel mode. And definitely not on a 40 MHz channel. Remember that in older wifi systems there was no such thing as a 40 MHz channel.

same thing for old 802.11a 5 GHz band devices, they don't understand anything other than a fixed 20 MHz channel.

And that's before you run into problems with modern usage of WPA2.

Re: Why I still use an old PowerPC Mac

#53

Post by dylan604 »

jeffbee wrote: post #15
icedchai wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My uncle was using a 25+ year old PC running DOS and WordPerfect up until he passed away last year. I think he enjoyed the distraction free environment.

Is there a word for such long-lived computers that aren't hobbies? "Retrocomputing" is people goofing around. A person who drives a 1995 Honda is probably not a "retromobility enthusiast". Maybe at some point in our future it won't seem weird to use a 25-year-old computer.

Luddite?

Re: Why I still use an old PowerPC Mac

#54

Post by dylan604 »

yelling_cat wrote: post #43

I used to have an old Windows 2000 laptop without onboard WiFi that I called "Deadline" and used for the same purpose. If you have work you can do without connectivity for extended stretches I recommend it.

why not set a timer and disable wifi/network for the duration of the time you are setting aside to work without distraction. Or, maybe just close the tab/app with the distracting alerts? lots of way to achieve the same result without limiting yourself to such ancient hardware. Modern Macs have Do Not Disturb mode. I use this frequently

Re: Why I still use an old PowerPC Mac

#56

Post by war1025 »

jandrese wrote: post #20

> In fact, for reasons I’m yet to discern, my iBook’s internal AirPort Wi-Fi card can’t connect to modern Wi-Fi networks—they simply confound it. WPA2 was standardized a year after his laptop was built. The ancient 802.11b card in it wants to do WEP. Getting driver support for a modern USB WiFi on that prehistoric version of OSX is no picnic either. It's a good thing he doesn't want to get it working.

I went to a job interview a year and a half ago where part of the interview was to give a walkthrough of my solution to short "homework" problem.

Got there and tried to connect my laptop to their wifi network. No dice. My laptop (2014-15 era) doesn't do 5ghz and they had no 2.4ghz access points. Ended up having to use a cellular wifi hotspot they had lying around to get anything to work.

Re: Why I still use an old PowerPC Mac

#57

Post by bacon_waffle »

jeffbee wrote: post #15
icedchai wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My uncle was using a 25+ year old PC running DOS and WordPerfect up until he passed away last year. I think he enjoyed the distraction free environment.

Is there a word for such long-lived computers that aren't hobbies? "Retrocomputing" is people goofing around. A person who drives a 1995 Honda is probably not a "retromobility enthusiast". Maybe at some point in our future it won't seem weird to use a 25-year-old computer.

Do we need a word for it? I've got a 1996 Toyota van and a 2ish year old Dell XPS, both serve my needs well enough. Some new tools are appreciably better than older ones, others aren't; I generally prefer to not spend extra money/time for things in the second category.

The 25-year-old car still takes a driver's time and some fuel, and moves stuff around just like a brand new one would. There's no hope of using a 1995 computer for compiling a big C++ project from a fancy IDE, while video chatting over WiFi. Remember that a computer from 1995 would've seemed a bit old in 1997 too.

Re: Why I still use an old PowerPC Mac

#58

Post by saagarjha »

war1025 wrote: post #56
jandrese wrote: post #20

> In fact, for reasons I’m yet to discern, my iBook’s internal AirPort Wi-Fi card can’t connect to modern Wi-Fi networks—they simply confound it. WPA2 was standardized a year after his laptop was built. The ancient 802.11b card in it wants to do WEP. Getting driver support for a modern USB WiFi on that prehistoric version of OSX is no picnic either. It's a good thing he doesn't want to get it working.

I went to a job interview a year and a half ago where part of the interview was to give a walkthrough of my solution to short "homework" problem. Got there and tried to connect my laptop to their wifi network. No dice. My laptop (2014-15 era) doesn't do 5ghz and they had no 2.4ghz access points. Ended up having to use a cellular wifi hotspot they had lying around to get anything to work.

> Got there and tried to connect my laptop to their wifi network. No dice. My laptop (2014-15 era) doesn't do 5ghz

Wow, that’s surprising…most laptops from like 2010 onwards have done 5 GHz. Did yours have a particularly old Wi-Fi card in it?

Re: Why I still use an old PowerPC Mac

#59

Post by grugagag »

dylan604 wrote: post #54
yelling_cat wrote: post #43

I used to have an old Windows 2000 laptop without onboard WiFi that I called "Deadline" and used for the same purpose. If you have work you can do without connectivity for extended stretches I recommend it.

why not set a timer and disable wifi/network for the duration of the time you are setting aside to work without distraction. Or, maybe just close the tab/app with the distracting alerts? lots of way to achieve the same result without limiting yourself to such ancient hardware. Modern Macs have Do Not Disturb mode. I use this frequently

Why not step back in time? That is an experience in itself, as the author points out the keyboard does make a difference. Why vehemently oppose that?
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