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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

#31

Post by Retric »

jeffbee wrote: post #18
kitsunesoba wrote: post #17

It's nice to see old laptops get a new lease on life this way, but it's hard to deny the compromises that come with such an approach. As nice as the old 12-inch Powerbooks/iBooks, T60s, etc were, they leave a lot to be desired by modern standards. This brings me to wonder how difficult it would be to develop a notebook that is specifically designed to be a focused offline ultraportable, using the most power efficient…

How would such a computer meaningfully differ from either a Pixelbook Go or an iPad with a keyboard? They both have stupefying battery life and there's not many ways to extend it because at this point virtually all of the power goes into the screen.

It depends on what kind of sacrifices your willing to make, but if you really focus on low power you can build a laptop with multi day battery life. The upside of this is you end up with fewer charge cycles which increases battery lifespan in year 3+.

Re: Why I still use an old PowerPC Mac

#32

Post by mkeeter »

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…

Have you seen the MNT Reform?

https://mntre.com/media/reform_md/2020-05-08-the-much-more-p...

It's not as powerful as most modern laptops (uses an iMX8 SOM, rather than an x86 CPU), but it's got a full keyboard, trackball (!), replaceable batteries, etc.

Re: Why I still use an old PowerPC Mac

#33

Post by JohnTHaller »

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.

It's got an ethernet jack, so there's always that.

Re: Why I still use an old PowerPC Mac

#34

Post by [deleted] »

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.

[deleted]

Re: Why I still use an old PowerPC Mac

#35

Post by TimTheTinker »

JohnTHaller wrote: post #33
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.

It's got an ethernet jack, so there's always that.

A more modern Mac with an Ethernet jack could share its internet connection from WiFi to Ethernet with a couple of clicks on System Preferences.

Re: Why I still use an old PowerPC Mac

#36

Post by IggleSniggle »

sigjuice wrote: post #24
foobiekr wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except get security updates that are only ever packaged in newer OS releases, for one thing. I get where you're coming from, but this is the fundamental problem with network-connected devices. I'm an Apple fan, of sorts, and my whole family is part of the Apple ecosystem, but the company has a nasty habit of strategic obsolescence and doubly so around transitions.

Both Mojave and Catalina support MacBook Air models from 2012.

2012 is only 8 years ago tho

Re: Why I still use an old PowerPC Mac

#37

Post by yjftsjthsd-h »

api wrote: post #10
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 find flat more aesthetically pleasing but often harder to use, and I've seen data to back that up. Problem is that people tend to confuse the two and fool themselves into thinking pretty equals usable. Glossy vs matte screens are the classic example. Glossy looks pretty but has way more issues with glare.

> I find flat more aesthetically pleasing but often harder to use, and I've seen data to back that up.

I would very much like to see that data; I'd be interested to see if/how to objectively measure such a thing. (Also the results would be interesting)

Re: Why I still use an old PowerPC Mac

#38

Post by barney54 »

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?

Re: Why I still use an old PowerPC Mac

#39

Post by cellularmitosis »

mmphosis wrote: post #8

new web browser for PowerPC Mac: http://www.floodgap.com/software/tenfourfox/ new OS for PowerPC Mac: https://voidlinux-ppc.org/ or, a new PowerPC computer: https://www.talospace.com/

Tigerbrew is also worth mentioning https://github.com/mistydemeo/tigerbrew

Re: Why I still use an old PowerPC Mac

#40

Post by mrpippy »

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.

There are actually 10.4 drivers for some 802.11n-era Ralink USB chipsets. It’s not ideal since they fully bypass the OSes WiFi stack, but better than nothing
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