In praise of old PowerBooks...

[Redstone]

I'm typing this on my old faithful 1998 Bronze Keyboard PB G3/400, updated just today with a MacSense PCMCIA wireless card (highly recommended; buy one, more on that later).

I bought the card so I could use Betsy (1998) for stuff like posting on DU, in order to give the TiBook a break. the Ti Book is kind of like an Italian sports car: Fast and fun, but fragile.

And the stuff you've read about the titanium and aluminum Powerbooks suffering in wireless performance (because the geniuses at Apple put the antenna inside a metal casing) is absolutely correct: I'm getting at least three times the range with this PC-card adapter than I do with the TiBook's internal antenna.

So, anyway. I've owned six PowerBooks, and still have three: A 520C that I still use to read floppies, the 1998 G3, and the TiBook. I like them all, but for sheer durability, you can't beat the old black 'Books.

Just thought I'd mention this.

Redstone

[politicat]

1. Have you seen the Road Warrior Lombard?

Cool machine at Mac Mods.

Be careful with the Lombard's hinges, though. We have one sitting here that works fine... except for that plaid screen of death problem. We use it hooked up to an external monitor.

When those hinges go, the baby gets sick.

(As I type on my TIBook, which, yeah, has not so great wireless range, but is turning out be less delicate than I thought. A good case makes a hell of a difference, and amazingly, Target sells a great case for it.)

[benburch]

2. I have an original tangerine plastic iBook...

with the wireless antenna in the carrying handle. LOVE IT.

I have 160 MB of RAM in it, but only the original 4 GB drive, so I stick with MacOS 9. I can use MacVNC to connect to the Apple Remote Desktop on my OSX machine, though, so I can use almost any OSX software I need to, even from the local cybercafe where I sometimes go for lunch.

[OSX]

3. don't forget the pismo...

G3 @ 400 or 500 MHz (apple's first laptop w/ firewire). my wife is using her's as I write this.

-osx

[LifeDuringWartime]

4. durability

the aluminum powerbooks are very durable. i've seen them take quite a few spills that would have decimated a tibook.

[politicat]

5. yeah... well....

When I needed the upgrade to a 1 Ghz, the alBooks weren't out yet. And since Apple has gone to the dark side, this will probably be my last computer from them.

Though we did find that genesi is producing ppc laptops for 2006....

[emulatorloo]

6. "dark side"? You are not going to know the difference - OS X = Mac

You will not know the difference between OS X running on ppc vs intel. The OS is all that matters, not who makes the processor. In my humble opinion IBM people were unwilling/couldn't deliver anything for a powerbook, and what was steve gonna do, stay w G4s forever?

[elfin]

7. Still use my Wallstreet

when I have any problems with Powerbook G4 (as in a hard drive crash) -- so sturdy, AND it was the last one with the multi-colored Apple logo.