I use a PBG4 12" as a multimedia machine when I'm at home for DVDs and music. Unfortunately I need power so the main machine has become a maxed out '11 MBP
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Does Anyone Use a PPC as a Daily Driver?
- Thread starter AmazingHenry
- Start date
-
- Tags
- powerpc macs
- Sort by reaction score
Yeah, I've been spoiled by the Intel Macs I use on a daily basis. But that doesn't mean I don't try to find any excuse to use my G4 Cube setup (upgraded with a Sonnet single 1.8 GHz G4 and running 10.4.11 nicely, but TFF is pretty slow even to someone who is used to running it on a dual G5).
PowerPCs are not my main computers, since I started to use Macs in 2009 beginning with an intel MacBookPro 13".
I got hands on my first PowerPC about 2 1/2y ago (an iBookG4 12") and since nearly 50% of the computing is done on PowerPC - basicallly batch-scanning/ocr, foto- and video-related stuff is intel-only.
The G4 books are pretty handsome and with TFFbox browsing still does work decently even with pages that do not work on webkit anymore.
With Office 2004/2008, LibreOffice, PageSender Fax-Center, standard Mail-client, SOHO-organizer, screen-sharing, TeamViewer, file-sharing, webDAV, connecting to a beamer and setting up a local-hotspot for controlling the beamer-connected iBook I can nearly do all my daily stuff and it's fun to swap machines ...
Even preserving and offline use of my old Win2k environment is working fine.
Today it has been the first occasion to fire up my PowerMacG5 with 2x2GHz which I got a year ago. Someone close by sold it for 50 bucks and I couldn't resist that opportunity. At that time I was completly exhausted when I had to carry the heavy machine over a longer distance to the car under heavy rain and I really thought that was one of my most stupid ideas of the year.)
But whow, I'm so amazed about about the G5 and it's speed and in combinations with the acrylic cinema display it's an eye catcher. Sure, it's a bit noisy compared to the G4 Books but beeing not my daily driver it doesn't matter that much.
With only 1GB RAM performance is slightly limited and I' looking forward to upgrade to 4 or 8GB for video-editing of old DV-Videos...
So it's time to say many thanks again to all folks here at the forum for their great help and inspiring ideas making PPC a great experience for me - Cheers!
I got hands on my first PowerPC about 2 1/2y ago (an iBookG4 12") and since nearly 50% of the computing is done on PowerPC - basicallly batch-scanning/ocr, foto- and video-related stuff is intel-only.
The G4 books are pretty handsome and with TFFbox browsing still does work decently even with pages that do not work on webkit anymore.
With Office 2004/2008, LibreOffice, PageSender Fax-Center, standard Mail-client, SOHO-organizer, screen-sharing, TeamViewer, file-sharing, webDAV, connecting to a beamer and setting up a local-hotspot for controlling the beamer-connected iBook I can nearly do all my daily stuff and it's fun to swap machines ...
Even preserving and offline use of my old Win2k environment is working fine.
Today it has been the first occasion to fire up my PowerMacG5 with 2x2GHz which I got a year ago. Someone close by sold it for 50 bucks and I couldn't resist that opportunity. At that time I was completly exhausted when I had to carry the heavy machine over a longer distance to the car under heavy rain and I really thought that was one of my most stupid ideas of the year.)
But whow, I'm so amazed about about the G5 and it's speed and in combinations with the acrylic cinema display it's an eye catcher. Sure, it's a bit noisy compared to the G4 Books but beeing not my daily driver it doesn't matter that much.
With only 1GB RAM performance is slightly limited and I' looking forward to upgrade to 4 or 8GB for video-editing of old DV-Videos...
So it's time to say many thanks again to all folks here at the forum for their great help and inspiring ideas making PPC a great experience for me - Cheers!
Just pointing this out, every webpage that works in Safari 10 on Sierra should work in Leopard-WebKit. Just note that if you go to the main project page on SourceForge, the main download button is for an older version. However, as of right now it says the last update was 6 days ago. Go to "Files" and locate the newest version there. Then it should work with every website you can throw at it. Thanks @Hack5190! He's the one to share this with me.
Last edited:
Thanks for that hint. Now webKit/PPC is miles ahead of Safari for Lion (on my whilte intel iMacs at work).
When it comes to Google maps webkit seems to run a different view compared to TFF and the TFF-version with advanced foto-options doesn't work with webkit. To be honest: I prefer the faster version without overload of xtras on the G4 Books and I' happy, functionality of buttons etc. is back again with that new webkit version. I really enjoy that - thanks!
To answer the first post, I do not use a PowerPC as a daily computer. On weekdays I use my MacBook Air at work and school, then on weekends I'll use my i7 machine and play some games if I get bored. If I feel thrifty I'll hook up the G5 Quad and use that for a bit.
I look at many multimedia websites (YouTube, Netflix, news websites, facebook, etc) and the websites are just too web-heavy to feel comfortable using on my G5. If they loaded up quickly and didn't tax the G5 all that bad I would be half tempted to use the G5 more often but I can't.
I look at many multimedia websites (YouTube, Netflix, news websites, facebook, etc) and the websites are just too web-heavy to feel comfortable using on my G5. If they loaded up quickly and didn't tax the G5 all that bad I would be half tempted to use the G5 more often but I can't.
My primary machine is a SP 1Ghz QS, my 24/7 server is a DP GE 400 Mhz and my wiring machine is a powerbook 1,3 Gz 12".
So I would say that in my life powerpc is still alive.
Cant see the point of moving my self for a x86 machine, BTW I have one but just for gaming, the rest of time is turned off.
So I would say that in my life powerpc is still alive.
Cant see the point of moving my self for a x86 machine, BTW I have one but just for gaming, the rest of time is turned off.
Same for me... I see no reason to switch to Intel when my PPCs do everything I need. I even use my G5 for gaming.