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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

#211

Post by jeffbee »

linguae wrote: post #28

One of the things I miss about older laptops is the keyboards. I would love to buy a laptop that is built like a PowerBook G4 or a ThinkPad X61 but with modern displays and modern internals, and with extra bonus points if it has user-replaceable batteries and user-serviceable storage and RAM. I've found the Thinkpad X62 ( https://geoff.greer.fm/2017/07/16/thinkpad-x62/ ) and X210 ( https://geoff.greer.fm/2019/03/04/t…

The X61t came out of the box with a modern display, a 1400x1050 AFFS-IPS panel that is still respectable. Unfortunately these machines still sell for much more than $50.

Re: Why I still use an old PowerPC Mac

#212

Post by Wandfarbe »

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…

If you can work with it, work with it.

Normally things do get better and even if its small, it accumulates.

Display resolution Display colors, refreshrate Battery lifetime Weight (x220 is much heavier then my x390) Thickness Techstandards like newer/better/faster wifi USB-C (I love! charging my laptop with the same cable as my switch and my smartphone. Makes travel easier etc.)

If you are happy with it, feel free to keep using it, but i don't get why it is a possitive thing to not update/upgrade anything at all.

Re: Why I still use an old PowerPC Mac

#213

Post by nwallin »

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 perfectly usable. (I also have an XPS13 with a 3200x1800 screen) Setting up the infinality font renderer basically negates the downsides of a low resolution screen.

TBH, in the future I'll preferentially opt for ~96 DPI when available. The 3200x1800 on my other system is completely overkill, and doesn't play particularly nice with a lot of websites or Steam.

Re: Why I still use an old PowerPC Mac

#214

Post by yelling_cat »

menybuvico wrote: post #75
dylan604 wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I run photoshop, after effects, premiere. Those tools are absolutely not going to run on older hardware. Anything media related would just a joke. Even tools like FFMPEG, ImageMagick would run like a turtle processing the media I'm processing on a daily basis. Just because I'm coding something doesn't mean that code isn't doing some heavy lifting that older hardware would be suffice.

If you need to do some heavy work then an older system obviously won't do. Editing files with Vim, on the other hand, works just fine with something like a Core 2 or Pentium M. Everyone's use case is different, but in many cases, older hardware simply isn't a limitation.

Absolutely, I just used Deadline for writing and light diagramming. As a bonus I actually liked Win2k, it was stable and didn't get in my way. The only thing it was missing was font smoothing.

Re: Why I still use an old PowerPC Mac

#215

Post by muxator »

toyg wrote: post #109
unixhero wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

a lot of phones have this sort of tethering disabled by carriers, who then sell "internet access dongles" as an add-on.

How do the carriers do it, at the technical level? Do they limit the IP TTL?

Re: Why I still use an old PowerPC Mac

#216

Post by toxican »

nordsieck wrote: post #74
emersonrsantos wrote: post #55

George R.R. Martin uses Wordstar 4.0 on DOS to write the Game of Thrones novels, he saves his work on floppy disks. Of course, he has a second computer for email and web browsing.

> George R.R. Martin uses Wordstar 4.0 on DOS to write the Game of Thrones novels A much better modern alternative is the Alphasmart Neo 2. * It was designed for elementary school children so it's decently rugged. * It runs a long time (months) on 2 AA batteries. * To get the text off the device, it impersonates a USB keyboard, making it compatible with basically every computer.

You're getting downvoted, but you raise a good point. There's an interesting Medium article[1] on it. Basically just a keyboard with an 4 line LCD above it so you can see some context as you type.

[1] - https://onezero.medium.com/this-35-keyboard-for-children-tra...

Re: Why I still use an old PowerPC Mac

#217

Post by touisteur »

menybuvico wrote: post #68
jeffbee wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I still use an old Acer laptop from 2008 as my private laptop. It's more than enough for my needs, but apart from it being good enough for my needs, there's not really any particular reason for using that specific machine (apart from the keyboard being amazing). It simply works fine, and I see no reason to replace it. I don't know why there would be any specific word for it. I just use it.

Nothing will ever beat the T430. Oh the keyboard, the trackpoint, the disabled trackpad...

Have one at work and doing everything I can to avoid the upgrade-bulldozer-team finding me.

Bought many refurbished in perfect state. I plan to hoard them till I die, one every ten year (worst case). Need to up my battery cell expertise level for that...

Heirlooms maybe.

Oh the glee of taking it /by the screen/, to not worry the thing's gonna break...

Re: Why I still use an old PowerPC Mac

#218

Post by duskwuff »

Voliokis wrote: post #189
mhd wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe "much better" when it comes to distraction-less writing, although I don't think a DOS computer offers more than that, and the portability only enables going to places where there's more going on… But a predilection towards WordStar isn't just about not having fancy icons and weird ribbons, as author Robert Sawyer[1] pointed out. The "long page" metaphor and a short-cut friendly environment should be somewhat un…

What exactly is the long page metaphor? He doesn't really explain what it is and I've never heard the term before.

Search on the linked page for "THE LONG-HAND PAGE METAPHOR".

Re: Why I still use an old PowerPC Mac

#220

Post by incanus77 »

I’ve recently revived a boxy, suitcase 386 and the biggest thing that jumped out at me was the lack of distraction and the similarity to an old tool. I blogged about it a bit recently:

https://justinmiller.io/posts/2020/06/17/project-386-part-4/

I mean, yeah, it’s not _capable_ of a whole lot, but it’s a refreshing perspective to look back at computing from then and to think about how much we did that wasn’t sitting at the computer as a nerve center of our lives.

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