Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Why I still use an old PowerPC Mac

howtogeek.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

171–180 of 262 posts

Re: Why I still use an old PowerPC Mac

#171

Post by walrus01 »

nwallin wrote: post #80
saagarjha wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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?

I bought a new laptop a few months ago that does not do 5GHz. It's a Dell Inspiron 3195, with a Qualcomm Atheros 9565 wireless card. The laptop is still available for purchase. When I purchased it it was on sale for $200. (not sure if the link is my exact model, but all the specs are the same, and this particular model does say 2.4GHz with no mention of 5GHz) https://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/2-in-1-laptops/inspiron-11…

Oh wow they're still selling 1366x768 screens in the year 2020.

Re: Why I still use an old PowerPC Mac

#172

Post by millerm »

RalfWausE wrote: post #122

Why not use old(er) Systems when they fulfill your needs? A computer is a tool, such as a typewriter, printing press, paintbrush or hammer. Would anyone argue about the age of a typewriter or hammer if its in good working condition? In fact, i am using an Atari 520ST as my main computer since my laptop died a while ago. It started as an experiment, but now "it just works". I got network connectivity, email and (limit…

My favorite computer of all time was my Atari 1040ST. Having built in MIDI meant so much for me when I was in my teens! Would love to have another.

Re: Why I still use an old PowerPC Mac

#173

Post by war1025 »

unixhero wrote: post #90
war1025 wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Couldn't you just use your phone as a mobile hotspot? I do that all the t I'll me instead of relying on whichever local it department coming up with solutions for me.

> Couldn't you just use your phone as a mobile hotspot?

At the time I had a 2010-era dumb phone which I only got rid of because Verizon said they were turning off the towers for it at the beginning of this year.

Re: Why I still use an old PowerPC Mac

#174

Post by millerm »

AdmiralGinge wrote: post #165
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 also fired up a 2006-era original MacBook fairly recently, running the first Intel version of macOS (I've always had a soft spot for Tiger, its version of Aqua is honestly one of Apple's prettiest interfaces in my mind), while it works with modern-ish WiFi all the certificates are long expired so few things actually connected. I'm not sure how bodge-able this problem is, I never had time to find a solution. It's a…

I miss Tiger as well. It was very pleasing to look at. It's one reason I dug OS X. If I have to stare at something all day, I want it to look nice. Full screen terminals running tmux do not do it for me. Now everything is literally flat and boring. boo.

Re: Why I still use an old PowerPC Mac

#175

Post by war1025 »

walrus01 wrote: post #171
nwallin wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I bought a new laptop a few months ago that does not do 5GHz. It's a Dell Inspiron 3195, with a Qualcomm Atheros 9565 wireless card. The laptop is still available for purchase. When I purchased it it was on sale for $200. (not sure if the link is my exact model, but all the specs are the same, and this particular model does say 2.4GHz with no mention of 5GHz) https://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/2-in-1-laptops/inspiron-11…

Oh wow they're still selling 1366x768 screens in the year 2020.

It's a perfectly adequate screen size for most things.

The only place I run into trouble is if I try to do anything work-related on this laptop because our web design team designed our web app on large, high-density displays.

Every website I actually use at home works perfectly fine.

Re: Why I still use an old PowerPC Mac

#176

Post by SyneRyder »

IggleSniggle wrote: post #36
sigjuice wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Both Mojave and Catalina support MacBook Air models from 2012.

2012 is only 8 years ago tho

I'm giving this an upvote, because I have a MacBook 1,1 from 2006 that runs Windows 10. That's 14 years of support & security updates from Microsoft, and they didn't even make the device.

Re: Why I still use an old PowerPC Mac

#177

Post by AnIdiotOnTheNet »

verytrivial wrote: post #126

Old games, old productivity software. If they were good when they were new, I've never understood how they become "bad" just because time passes. It's a weird marketing and social undermining of comfort and control. Sure there is the 'security' argument, and an accretion of various quirks, but people were often happy dealing with these quirks in the day, and as OP says, making interoperability frictionful has an defi…

Not to mention that a lot of that "old" productivity software is so much faster than its "modern" replacement that running it in a Electron-based VM is still faster.

Re: Why I still use an old PowerPC Mac

#178

Post by cyberdrunk »

nhlx2 wrote: post #127
CPAhem wrote: post #5

Maybe it's just me, but the user interface on that old PowerPC Mac looks gorgeous - way better than modern "flat" UIs

I am generally confounded by the flatness of Window 10. The ability to see which window is on top is gone!

> I am generally confounded by the flatness of Window 10. The ability to see which window is on top is gone!

It's the window which is not partially/fully obscured by the windows underneath it?

Re: Why I still use an old PowerPC Mac

#179

Post by SyneRyder »

tengbretson wrote: post #51
barney54 wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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...

That one doesn't include a hard drive, has several missing keys and mouse buttons, and doesn't include a battery or power adapter. The PPC Mac looks like the better value.

Re: Why I still use an old PowerPC Mac

#180

Post by ryl00 »

fps_doug wrote: post #147
RalfWausE wrote: post #122

Why not use old(er) Systems when they fulfill your needs? A computer is a tool, such as a typewriter, printing press, paintbrush or hammer. Would anyone argue about the age of a typewriter or hammer if its in good working condition? In fact, i am using an Atari 520ST as my main computer since my laptop died a while ago. It started as an experiment, but now "it just works". I got network connectivity, email and (limit…

colleague is using Windows Phone to "prevent distraction". He says the only usable app left is Mail.

Sounds like me. :) My non-replaceable battery is starting to go; otherwise my Windows 10 Mobile Phone is still giving me just enough (maps, weather, music player, MMS, email, web, camera) to get by.
Post reply on HN