Had to show off my iMac

"jminer" (jminer) 08/17/2020 at 14:24 • Filed to: None

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I am green with envy due to ttyymmnn and his new !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! so I decided to pull my iMac out of the basement and show it off.

It is a state of the art circa 2001 600 MHz PowerPC G3 iMac. I bought it 2008 to make me daily drive a mac a bit and learn it as I was supporting it during my job.

It got used some but eventually put back in a box in the basement and it stayed there until a couple months ago as I was cleaning out my basement as Apple left the IBM powered machines behind in their Intel transition.

As this thing has a 15" CRT build in it is gigantic on my desk and also puts out a ton of heat.

The keyboard is surprisingly not bad, especially for a 20 year old membrane keyboard. The hockey puck mouse is a horrifying misadventure in ergonomics though.

It does have an interesting thing of a multi-colored ball the same color as the mouse plastic so it flashed when being used.

Also even though USB had existed for a while now it was not really widely used until after this machine. It made excellent use of it with decent IO and a built in hub in the keyboard to plug in the mouse or other devices.

When was the last time you used a Firewire port?!

Man do you forget how slow a mechanical hard drive is until you try to use one again. This thing takes minutes to boot up and the hard drive chunks along making a ton of noise like they always used to. It was downright fast to use even 15 years ago with the 512 mb of RAM and a 60 gb HDD.

There are a lot of things about this machine I didn’t talk about - it really was super-cool when new. I’m no Mac historian so I can’t do it justice, but they really were revolutionary.

Well I hope you enjoyed this random trip down memory lane with me - now she goes on CL for someone else to enjoy/let it take up space.

If only EssExTee could be so grossly incandescent > jminer 08/17/2020 at 14:26

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Whoever came up with the puc k mouse needs to be shot

davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com > jminer 08/17/2020 at 14:28

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Nice.

If I’d bought AAPL stock instead of the Power Mac G5 I bought in 2003, it’d be worth $1,238,461.53 today.

facw > If only EssExTee could be so grossly incandescent 08/17/2020 at 14:30

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A true crime against usability

E90M3 > jminer 08/17/2020 at 14:34

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We got one of those in 2001 and I used that keyboard up until 2015 when I accidentally killed it with a beer.

facw > jminer 08/17/2020 at 14:39

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They were neat. Though I’m still in the camp that all-in-ones are bad, since the lifespan of a monitor should be longer than the lifespan of a computer.

And as I’ve noted in this space before , it’s somewhat annoying that mainstream motherboards are still loaded down with legacy ports that have been obsolete for two decades. Apple might have moved too early to kill legacy ports but probably only by a few years at most. I think all of my pre-USB stuff was out by 2005.

jminer > If only EssExTee could be so grossly incandescent 08/17/2020 at 14:44

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Yes, they were disgusting.

Just Jeepin' > davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com 08/17/2020 at 14:44

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Shit, thanks for reminding me.

I remember in 2008, I believe due to the GAAP reporting principles Apple was following at the time, the market hadn’t really caught on yet to just how big an impact the iPhone was having, and their stock was significantly undervalued.

I had no money, but told anyone who’d listen that they should buy it.

Now I wish I’d borrowed, or stolen, the money.

Tripper > E90M3 08/17/2020 at 14:45

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“when I accidentally killed it with a beer.”

Killed a G3 iBook the same way.

jminer > facw 08/17/2020 at 14:46

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At the same time they hardly take up any space and provide usability and flexibility to users. I'm on board for more ports not less.

jminer > E90M3 08/17/2020 at 14:47

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I was pleasantly surprised at how nice it was to still use today.

davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com > Just Jeepin' 08/17/2020 at 14:48

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Yeah, that would’ve been an okay buy.

412GTI > jminer 08/17/2020 at 14:48

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Hell yeah! I have a lime green one I bought for nostalgia back at my parents house. It’s fun to play around on it but honestly I’m just a sucker for that era design.

I should probably take it before it gets thrown away lol 

jminer > 412GTI 08/17/2020 at 14:50

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They do look sweet, even today.

After I wrote this up I checked cl/fb and they're pretty much worthless. Ones in better shape than this are going for $50...

E90M3 > Tripper 08/17/2020 at 14:52

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I poured a coke on my Macbook Pro the the Monday of week before finals. That was a fun finals week. We used to party on Monday nights, but that Monday I was studying, I took that as a sign I should’ve been drinking. It was sort of my thing that semester, didn’t really care about Friday or Saturday night, I lived for Monday nights that semester. 

E90M3 > jminer 08/17/2020 at 14:52

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I liked a lot, would still have it if it wasn’t for my mishap. 

Discerning > jminer 08/17/2020 at 14:53

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M y dad has always built his own PC’s. Growing up in the 90's, we always had custom IBM and Dell units. We had about 4 computers of varying performance levels due to his work and him being able to scoop up defunct towers and customize them. I dont know nearly as much about computers as he does, but I recall the G3 not being held in high regard.

As a young kid, I thought it looked amazing compared to the massive boxy machines we had. But apparently whatever we had was faster and better. Still just looked like a massive slab of concrete to young me.

jminer > Discerning 08/17/2020 at 15:00

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There was definitely a limited amount of things you could to modify this guy but performance wise it was solid.

The issue was compatibility unlike today where Macs run Intel processors which can also run windows these ran RISC IBM chips which are a completely different instruction set. So they could only run MacOS.

PyroHoltz f@h Oppo 261120 > jminer 08/17/2020 at 15:13

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D oes it fold?

jminer > PyroHoltz f@h Oppo 261120 08/17/2020 at 15:28

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No she does not, n oone develops anything for ppc Mac anymore.

ttyymmnn > jminer 08/17/2020 at 16:31

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I worked at the UT music school’s computer lab while I was in grad school. We had a table with a few of those iMacs on it. At the time, they were quite the little machine. Amazing how dated it looks now. I bought my first G4 around that time, and I still have it. And FWIW, I did not hate the puck mouse. The first generation sucked, but when they added the dimple to the button it made it much simpler to keep it oriented properly in the hand. The click motion was pleasant. I used one for a very long time, and probably still have one.

While I don’t have an old iMac, I do have an old eMac, the all-in-one iMac’s flat CRT big brother. I bought it for my kids to play games on, and it’s dual boot Mac/Windows. I haul it out every once in a while to play MacMAME games on it. I’ve got tons of old ROMS. I’ll have to haul it out some time and fire it up.

Now, if you want horribly dated Apple hardware from the early 90s, you have to go here:

I never used one, but it would be interesting to see one in action now. I’m sure the specs were tolerably good for the day. But a lot has changed in 30 years. My first G4 came with a 10G HD and I thought I was living so large. It also had a dial up modem, though, so there’s that. 

ttyymmnn > jminer 08/17/2020 at 16:36

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It made excellent use of it with decent IO and a built in hub in the keyboard to plug in the mouse or other devices.

This is one of the things that has really pissed me off about Apple and their newer machines. I still have a wired extended keyboard (I use it for music typesetting because you really need a number pad; you can see it tucked under the iMac in my post ), and one of the things I really like about it is the two USB ports in the keyboard. Apple always rightly conceived of the mouse as an extension of the keyboard, not something with a 40-foot long cable that plugs into the back of the tower. And having that USB port right there to plug in a thumb drive or whatever was SO handy. Now, with everything wireless and wafer thin, it’s disappeared. One of the knocks against Apple IMO  has always been that they tend to ditch functionality in favor of looks. I love the looks, but I’d rather have the USB slot.

RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars > jminer 08/17/2020 at 16:44

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I’ve seen a lot of people mod the retro-cool cases for these and put modern guts and an LCD screen in them!

PyroHoltz f@h Oppo 261120 > jminer 08/17/2020 at 16:50

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That was a bad attempt at a joke .

jminer > ttyymmnn 08/17/2020 at 16:54

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I thought the eMac was still Power PC so couldn’t boot windows but I’m not that familiar with the PPC era of Macs. I supported a minority of Mac users back then so have passing familiarity with the G4 towers and repaired a few G4 Powerbooks, they were difficult to fix compared to other laptops of the day.

I’ve never enjoyed using any apple mice from the last 20 years, I have large hands that really like ergonomic mice and their being able to use in either hand equally design never worked well for me along with that tiny ball in the mighty mouse just seemed difficult to use.

jminer > ttyymmnn 08/17/2020 at 16:56

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I’m with you there- it’s why I still use a thinkpad over a macbook.  Give me multiple full size USB ports and a HDMI so I can use the thing without a pile of dongles!

jminer > RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars 08/17/2020 at 16:57

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I’ve seen a few of them and they’re cool as hell.

ttyymmnn > jminer 08/17/2020 at 16:57

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Mac mice (mouses?) have never been great, and the latest Magic Mouse™ is a disaster. Well, at least I think it’s garbage, I’m sure there are some out there who like it. It doesn’t fit the hand, it has sharp edges, it’s hard to know where to swipe on the top for trackpad-like gestures. It’s also very  heavy. I’ve used a trackpad for years, and will never go back to a mouse. If I need one, I just use an old plastic Logitech. 

ttyymmnn > jminer 08/17/2020 at 17:00

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And Apple also got rid of the mag safe power cable. IMO one of the greatest inventions of the laptop era. Brilliant. But they dumped it.

Back to your iMac and the original USB. I still remember asking the computer lab administrator if it was safe to unplug the keyboard without first turning off the machine. 

jminer > ttyymmnn 08/17/2020 at 17:34

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Yep magsafe was brilliant - while USB C/ Thunderbolt is also pretty cool it’s a lot more fragile.

You’ve thrown me back a good bit reminding me of non hot swappable devices, rebooting to make a keyboard work and having to flip the power switch after shutting down windows!

ttyymmnn > RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars 08/17/2020 at 18:08

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And then there’s this:

RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars > ttyymmnn 08/17/2020 at 19:05

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Haha, yeah...

404 - User No Longer Available > jminer 08/17/2020 at 20:24

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That’s the wrong mouse for this machine... the Graphite iMacs came with the Pro Mouse , not the puck.

jminer > 404 - User No Longer Available 08/17/2020 at 20:29

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I knew that mouse didn’t come with this machine as it’s blue but didn’t realize it came with that mouse.

Those are beautiful mice with the black body set in the acrylic shell.

404 - User No Longer Available > jminer 08/17/2020 at 21:32

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The way tell is the colour, the presence of Firewire ports and the colour of the power button glow (white vs green) .

Chariotoflove > jminer 08/17/2020 at 21:54

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I’m not going to say the puck was good, but I got used to it, and it wasn’t that bad. I wou ld palm it and use the proximal part of my fingers to click the button. Things only went wrong when I would try to use my finger tips.

jminer > Chariotoflove 08/17/2020 at 21:59

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Maybe that’s why I never liked it as I tried to use it like a real mouse.

jminer > E90M3 08/17/2020 at 22:31

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If you want it I can ship this keyboard to you. Looking at prices for them used this imac isn’t worth hardly anything so I might as well send parts to a good home.

ToeMotor > davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com 08/17/2020 at 23:27

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I think that often about the PowerMa c 6100 I bought back in 1995.
“ I wonder how much Apple stock would be worth today”......
But then I dont figure it out, because I dont want to get depressed......lol

Nauraushaun > jminer 08/18/2020 at 05:13

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What version of OSX she running?

E90M3 > jminer 08/18/2020 at 08:09

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Sure why not, I’ll take it. e90m3oppo@gmail.com is my handshake email. Let me know if you send an email and I’ll check it and get back to you with my normal email. 

jminer > Nauraushaun 08/18/2020 at 09:28

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Tiger 10.4

jminer > E90M3 08/18/2020 at 09:52

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Email sent!

Nauraushaun > jminer 08/18/2020 at 16:33

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Ooh I actually thought it might predate the X!

jminer > Nauraushaun 08/18/2020 at 16:42

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It shipped with 9, but supported up to 10.4 so that’s what I upgraded it to.