ComputerBase: iMac G4 Retro Test

[amagichnich]

German site ComputerBase has a section for "retro" computing called "Tested 15 years ago" where they highlight some of their test objects. It's published weekly on saturdays and this week they highlight the iMac G4 2003.

If you speak (and read) german, see here:
https://www.computerbase.de/2018-06/apple-imac-g4-test-rueckblick/

The article itself is written quite bad, the author never has seen such a device and never came to appreciate it's qualities or see it's flaws. So do many of the commenters... I had to write a little sum up of the things I had to justify to do the iMac G4 right

 

[bobesch]

I wouldn't spend to much effort trying to convince a biased audience about the qualities of an old but capable Mac. (and in the worst case of being successful prices for old Macs would run into a speculative bubble ... )
I remember 2003, when "I had been a PC" (now I'm both) - I've got a top-line Travelmate-800 notebook with 256MB RAM, BT, WLAN, optical DVD-drive along with a mandatory Windows Server-Client-ecosystem.
The Travelmate did cost about 1900,- €, which comes close to the price of the iMac-G4, especially if you add the software comparable to iWorks and iLife.
The Travelmate still lives, now enhanced with an mSATA-IDE-converter and 512MB-RAM.
Travelmate's screen is much darker, sound is worse compared to my 1,25GHz 17" Lamp, which really shines bright like brandnew ...
And, well, when it comes to current usability, webKit5Leopard/TFF/TFFbox is still capable, whilst the Travelmate struggles on 32bit-Win7pro despite of the mSATA.
Nevertheless I both like Travelmate and the Lamp.
Admirers of each side very often do not look for the roses between the thorns, when looking over their fence. A lot of things are just a matter of habits.
But obviously Macs seem to be sturdier to survive ... but I may be biased and wrong too.

 

[amagichnich]

and in the worst case of being successful prices for old Macs would run into a speculative bubble

Last thing I wanted
It's just... I really like these devices and I'm proud that I keep them alive and I do show off with them especially when people complain about their 4 year "old and slow" laptop and then I give them a demonstration of what really is old and how well it does in 2018. Then someone comes along and "bullies" a poor iMac G4 and 30 other people immediately join the bully... someone has to help this poor little flexible slow retired Mac and tell the others what he once was capable of, long before they were born, and what he still is capable nowadays

 

[Dronecatcher]

Then someone comes along and "bullies" a poor iMac G4 and 30 other people immediately join the bully... someone has to help this poor little flexible slow retired Mac and tell the others what he once was capable of, long before they were born, and what he still is capable nowadays

I feel the same about the endless tide of Youtube vids of the "gee, look how this old Mac sucks..." variety - I comment for the tiny fraction of viewers who might want to investigate further instead of just blindly massaging the ill informed author's ego.

 

[Amethyst1]

Hoping this doesn't sound too dismissive (I don't mean it to), but while I wholeheartedly agree with the point of trying to show others what these machines were and still are capable of even to this day, I try not to be too bothered by this kind of videos, biased/badly done "reviews" or whatever because it doesn't affect the machine's capabilities or the fun I get out of using them and I don't really care about what others say. It's their opinion, and it's as good as mine.

 

[Dronecatcher]

It's their opinion, and it's as good as mine.

I agree if someone says something like, "I think this Mac is useless" - it is their opinion and they're entitled to it. But if someone says, "You can't go on the internet with a Powerbook" then that's just plain wrong. When I can be bothered, I comment with solutions/alternatives because even if only one person takes an interest, that expands that PPC community and improves the chances of further development...there might be some whizzkid coder out there who wants to get involved with the development of Webkit/TFF/Classilla etc.

 

[bobesch]

because even if only one person takes an interest, that expands that PPC community and improves the chances of further development...there might be some whizzkid coder out there who wants to get involved with the development of Webkit/TFF/Classilla etc.

That's a good, if not the best point to get involved into any bashing kind of discussion - thumbs up!

 

[z970]

even if only one person takes an interest, that expands that PPC community and improves the chances of further development...there might be some whizzkid coder out there who wants to get involved with the development of Webkit/TFF/Classilla etc.

ATTENTION ALL WHIZKID CODER GUYS!

APPLY WITHIN!