So i got a used apple...

[rickweasel]

why because it was only 200 bucks. its an old G4 powerpc 500MH 1gig of ram, 160GB of storage. i am kind of new to apple so i just wanted to know any tip or tricks i should know for using an apple. The only program i know how to use is photoshop and illustrator. any thing would be helpful.

[tokenuser]

MacOS 8 or 9? I doubt it will have the horsepower to run OSX particularly well. You *might* want to consider a PPC based Linux distro for it.

[digdiggnation]

why because it was only 200 bucks. its an old G4 powerpc 500MH 1gig of ram, 160GB of storage. i am kind of new to apple so i just wanted to know any tip or tricks i should know for using an apple. The only program i know how to use is photoshop and illustrator. any thing would be helpful.

Yeah here's a tip. Get a PC.

[samureye]

Judging from the title of this thread I would say second hand fruit is a bad idea.

[rickweasel]

Yeah here's a tip. Get a PC.

I was wondering who was going to be the first one to say that. looks like you won.

FYI i do have one, i just thought i would mess with an apple.

[iccanui]

I hate to tell you this, truly, but if its not OSX your missing the whole experience that is mac. Good news is...

http://www.apple.com/macosx/upgrade/requirements.html

You can put it on if you dont have it.

What kinda stuff you like to do? Im kinda new myself, well not n00b new anymore, but i still have a lot to learn too. Ok let me do this then...


First off get quicksilver.

http://quicksilver.blacktree.com/

Single most important program on the mac in OSX. So powerful, so slick.

Secondly ...

http://www.twit.tv/mbw

Macbreak Weekly. Best mac podcast i know of. They get a little banterish sometimes, but trust me, the tips and recommended software are worth it alone. I kinda like the silly banter that goes on anyway. Im geek like that i guess.

Any finally... giving support to GigaOM

http://gigaom.com/2005/09/03/10macapps/

This is just one list, i would utilize google and see what you find out there for your own needs. Unfortunetly everything is kinda moving to intel based, but im sure you can still find a plethora of apps for the PPC still. But i cant stress enough that if you end up liking this, get a intel based mac.


Thats all i can think of off the top of my head. Good luck bro. I cant say macs are for everyone, but i can say this. Im a MSCA certified PC tech and i switched to mac and have not once regretted it. Not once. In fact i stopped my certs and am looking to move into mac certs. Its more niche, but its more enjoyable.

[rickweasel]

MacOS 8 or 9? I doubt it will have the horsepower to run OSX particularly well. You *might* want to consider a PPC based Linux distro for it.

Its running 10.4 and then i got it updated so yeah i guess thats why its loud as hell. Cool i will look it up.

[rickweasel]

I hate to tell you this, truly, but if its not OSX your missing the whole experience that is mac. Good news is...

http://www.apple.com/macosx/upgrade/requirements.html

You can put it on if you dont have it.

What kinda stuff you like to do? Im kinda new myself, well not n00b new anymore, but i still have a lot to learn too. Ok let me do this then...


First off get quicksilver.

http://quicksilver.blacktree.com/

Single most important program on the mac in OSX. So powerful, so slick.

Secondly ...

http://www.twit.tv/mbw

Macbreak Weekly. Best mac podcast i know of. They get a little banterish sometimes, but trust me, the tips and recommended software are worth it alone. I kinda like the silly banter that goes on anyway. Im geek like that i guess.

Any finally... giving support to GigaOM

http://gigaom.com/2005/09/03/10macapps/

This is just one list, i would utilize google and see what you find out there for your own needs. Unfortunetly everything is kinda moving to intel based, but im sure you can still find a plethora of apps for the PPC still. But i cant stress enough that if you end up liking this, get a intel based mac.


Thats all i can think of off the top of my head. Good luck bro. I cant say macs are for everyone, but i can say this. Im a MSCA certified PC tech and i switched to mac and have not once regretted it. Not once. In fact i stopped my certs and am looking to move into mac certs. Its more niche, but its more enjoyable.

dude thanks for that. i will check it out as soon as i leave this hell hole called work. I just wanted to get a taste of a mac to see if i would fully cross over. it was only to bills so what the hell i said. if love it i am thinking of getting a mac book pro. i feel like i have so much to learn.

[magunwarrior]

http://www.revision3.com/forum/showthread.php?t=331

[helen]

I'm sure that, after several frustrating hours of searching, prying, poking and scrying, you'll eventually find the button to turn it on.

But good luck getting the ****ing cd drive open.

[heyseuss]

I'm sure that, after several frustrating hours of searching, prying, poking and scrying, you'll eventually find the button to turn it on.

But good luck getting the ****ing cd drive open.

My mac came with an 'eject' button. A physcial one and a few on the screen.

[rickweasel]

I'm sure that, after several frustrating hours of searching, prying, poking and scrying, you'll eventually find the button to turn it on.

But good luck getting the ****ing cd drive open.

haha very funny, but i passed that phase a few years back. :)

[rowlodge]

safari doesn't work well, i would get camino or firefox too. mine went south and just didn't wanna work so i changed it, so far it seems like it's 10 times faster load times.

[rickweasel]

safari doesn't work well, i would get camino or firefox too. mine went south and just didn't wanna work so i changed it, so far it seems like it's 10 times faster load times.

I tired camino this pass weekend, but i <3 firefox.

[phatlip12]

I'm sure that, after several frustrating hours of searching, prying, poking and scrying, you'll eventually find the button to turn it on.

But good luck getting the ****ing cd drive open.

How is turning a Mac on any different from turning a PC on?

[rabidbadger]

Dude, have fun. I had an older mac than that til just last year. Ran Tiger fine, and on half the Ram you got.

Thing about OSX is you can try anything and do little to no damage. Download a bunch of freeware, or demos of higher end stuff. Just play. On a Mac if you think something should work a certain way, chances are it will...and if it don't work it will just "bounce back" and not crash anything.

Hell, I traded my 400mhz sawtooth G4 for a (rather expensive) tile floor in my bathroom.

But like said above. Without the newer Intel Macs, you are definately missing certain things, core video, core graphics, etc. And if you are a designer, those really speed sh!t up.

[deathblossom]

best tip is to re-sell it and buy a pc :D

[rickweasel]

Dude, have fun. I had an older mac than that til just last year. Ran Tiger fine, and on half the Ram you got.

Thing about OSX is you can try anything and do little to no damage. Download a bunch of freeware, or demos of higher end stuff. Just play. On a Mac if you think something should work a certain way, chances are it will...and if it don't work it will just "bounce back" and not crash anything.

Hell, I traded my 400mhz sawtooth G4 for a (rather expensive) tile floor in my bathroom.

But like said above. Without the newer Intel Macs, you are definately missing certain things, core video, core graphics, etc. And if you are a designer, those really speed sh!t up.

I will eventully get a new one but i got this as a trial run before i buy the real thing but so far i haven't turn my pc back on since. haha. My friend came over and showed me a few freeware and stuff so i am getting the hang of it.

a question for anyone to answer, if i buy and external hard drive to back up my data like videos, music, pictures, then plug that external HD to my mac will i be able to see my videos, pictures and hear my music? I was going to call this weekend on The KFI tech guy with leo laporte but why not ask here.

[tokenuser]

I will eventully get a new one but i got this as a trial run before i buy the real thing but so far i haven't turn my pc back on since. haha. My friend came over and showed me a few freeware and stuff so i am getting the hang of it.

a question for anyone to answer, if i buy and external hard drive to back up my data like videos, music, pictures, then plug that external HD to my mac will i be able to see my videos, pictures and hear my music? I was going to call this weekend on The KFI tech guy with leo laporte but why not ask here.
Make sure the drive is formatted as FAT32 and you will be fine (NTFS should work, but I have heard of security glitches with read/write, so KISS).

[rickweasel]

Make sure the drive is formatted as FAT32 and you will be fine (NTFS should work, but I have heard of security glitches with read/write, so KISS).

Cool thanks.

[scienceking]

Another good way is to use an ext2 or 3 filesystem, for which you can get drivers to work on any platform, windows or any unix that can do FUSE. The nice thing about this open source FS is that being open, you don't have to worry about the bugginess of using NTFS on other platforms, while also getting the benefits of a modern filesystem over FAT32 which is outdated.

[tokenuser]

Another good way is to use an ext2 or 3 filesystem, for which you can get drivers to work on any platform, windows or any unix that can do FUSE. The nice thing about this open source FS is that being open, you don't have to worry about the bugginess of using NTFS on other platforms, while also getting the benefits of a modern filesystem over FAT32 which is outdated.

And the nice thing about FAT32, despite being "outdated" is that it is still transportable between Linux, MacOS (X or earlier), and Windows without needing to install those ext2/3 drivers first.

Care to explain why FAT32 is outdated and how it really matters in this case for essentially a removable media device?

====
Sidenote: I bought another 25 used AAPLs today at a little under $147 each (anyone else remember when you could use @ as shorthand for each?). I could now sell them for a bit over $153.50 each. Today was a good day :). THankyou Stevie J and the Apple Cultists.

[masherscf]

It's a bit of irony that, while building perhaps the most robust and long-lived machines in the computer business, Apple doesn't actually support older machines that well. Upgrading older Macs is nearly impossible. I like Linux...

[scoobydiesel]

my friend got an old Ibook for 50 bucks last month...it was like 2003 or something, but she can use it for email o_O.

[deegraww]

First off get quicksilver.

http://quicksilver.blacktree.com/

Single most important program on the mac in OSX. So powerful, so slick.


Give me the run this I've checked the Wiki but I want to hear it from someone I would actaully listen to.

[rickweasel]

Another good way is to use an ext2 or 3 filesystem, for which you can get drivers to work on any platform, windows or any unix that can do FUSE. The nice thing about this open source FS is that being open, you don't have to worry about the bugginess of using NTFS on other platforms, while also getting the benefits of a modern filesystem over FAT32 which is outdated.

I dont think i have heard of ext2. I will look this up.

[tokenuser]

I dont think i have heard of ext2. I will look this up.Ext2 is primarily a Linux based media format.

[windowsrookie]

why because it was only 200 bucks. its an old G4 powerpc 500MH 1gig of ram, 160GB of storage.

That's not a very good deal. You can get a 700mhz G4 Quicksilver for $200 now.

For a 500mhz G4 I'd stick with Mac OS X 10.3, 10.4 loves to eat up RAM. 10.5 will not run very well, if at all on a 500mhz G4.

[windowsrookie]

It's a bit of irony that, while building perhaps the most robust and long-lived machines in the computer business, Apple doesn't actually support older machines that well. Upgrading older Macs is nearly impossible.

That is completely wrong. The current version of Mac OS X (10.4) Supports PowerMac G3's from 1999. The older PowerMacs are easily upgradeable software and hardware wise, they will run Mac OS X, and they use standard PC RAM, Hard Drives, CD Drives, etc.

[denebola]

That is completely wrong. The current version of Mac OS X (10.4) Supports PowerMac G3's from 1999. The older PowerMacs are easily upgradeable software and hardware wise, they will run Mac OS X, and they use standard PC RAM, Hard Drives, CD Drives, etc.

I have to agree. There are websites out there with upgrade options like www.macsales.com, www.smalldog.com and others. Also, check out, ifixit.com - I think that's the site. I got a new "foot" for my iBook G4 so it won't wobble when I type and they have other stuff for other Macs too.

Also, if you're new to mac, check out www.myfirstmac.com and also www.softwarefor.org - good stuff for a new Mac user.