*Have* a G3 Powerbook...

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odin wrote:
I'm looking into buying a secondhand PowerBook (WallStreet). I was wondering if anyone here has experienced using such a machine and how usable they still are in this day and age for some webbrowsing, typing and MP3 playing using OS X. Are they dog slow or is it still quite pleasant to use one of these beasts?

I would say my only concern with any mac is lack of CPU grunt. I would personally avoid a G3... I have a Via C3 800Mhz (mini-itx) which runs photoshop faster than my cousins G3 iMac.

If you just want to do day to day stuff though... I'll bet the G3 will cope.

On another note...how crap is OS 9.x exactly?

Until MacOS X 1.4 (AKA Tiger),  MacOS was not as useful as WindowsXP for me.

OS 9 is worse than AmigaOS 3.1 :-D

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NoFastMem wrote:
I've been considering getting an old G3 to stream audio to from my PowerBook. Seems better than spending money on an airport base when I already have a perfectly adequate internet router.

I wouldn't mind knowing where on Earth people are finding these machines for $10 each. ;-) eBay prices are at least 10 times that...

This is pretty chep... but then I wouldn't want it :-D
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=4606&item=5223687863&rd=1

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=4606&item=5223774352&rd=1

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odin wrote:
Right, I've offloaded 200EUR for a 400MHz G3 with USB on EBay. Sadly only 6GB HD and 128MB RAM. But that can be easily solved.

Can you send a link?

-Edit-
Upgrading te HD in a PowerBook requires a degree in Apple design...

http://www.pbfixit.com/Guide/

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NoFastMem wrote:

bloodline wrote:

NoFastMem wrote:
I've been considering getting an old G3 to stream audio to from my PowerBook. Seems better than spending money on an airport base when I already have a perfectly adequate internet router.

I wouldn't mind knowing where on Earth people are finding these machines for $10 each. ;-) eBay prices are at least 10 times that...

This is pretty chep... but then I wouldn't want it :-D
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=4606&item=5223687863&rd=1

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=4606&item=5223774352&rd=1

No Firewire though... No Firewire, no Tiger, apparently. A bit of an odd stipulation to introduce around revision 4, IMO. Mac staple or no.

It was the full firewire port that first made me look at getting a Mac Laptop! I couldn't live without one, since no PC laptop has full firewire port I didn't really have a choice.

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odin wrote:
Clickety-click

I'm fairly satisfied with what I got, only minor niggle is that the screen does have a dead pixel or two.

It only has IE5 on it.....:nervous:.

Not a bad price... any reason why you wanted a Mac?

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odin wrote:

bloodline wrote:
Not a bad price... any reason why you wanted a Mac?

200EUR was my budget and well, for 200EUR you can get about a P3600 256MB PC laptop. With this macthing the useability is about the same for the same price and I've always been interested in trying out the more recent macs. My experience with macs doesnt extend beyond OS7 on a 030 powerbook and OS8 on ShapeShifter (which ate my HD thankyouverymuch...).

So basically this laptop does what I want it to do (web, MP3s,  documents) and it has the added bonus of playing around with Macs.

You really should get OS X on it ASAP... not sure if they will fit on the 6gig HD though :-/

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odin wrote:
Victory! OS X.3, WLAN CardBus, 18 gig HD, 340MB RAM, CD-RW/DVD-ROM and a battery that runs for 3 hours!  Can't seem to burn yet, but I'm sure I'll be able to fix it. No more deskbound computing for me!

I might start using Ubuntu as main OS though, not sure if I like X..

I found OS X a bit annoying at first, but it grows on you...Then once I got OS X.4, I really started enjoying the experience.