So with everyone always sharing what they've done with a PowerPC Mac recently, I thought I'd add a fitting companion into the mix. Although I've had the idea (and rudimentary contents) for making a relatively simple thread like this since April, it wasn't until I saw this guy on reddit that I decided to finally post it as a Wiki full-stop.
Not only that, considering the rampant consumerism that tends to carry such influence over your average Joe today, hopefully the information within will make random passerby think twice about tossing their old Macs out after querying online as to if they're even still usable in 2022 and beyond, a whole 16 years (and counting!) after the last model rolled off the assembly line.
As goes without saying of course, feel free to add truckloads of more activities as necessary.
1. Rip CDs, listen to music, and play Internet radio with iTunes
2. Watch DVDs and QuickTime movies from Cornica with QuickTime and DVD Player
3. Create your own songs and audio tracks with Garageband and Logic
4. Organize your photo and video libraries with iPhoto, assemble them into short clips with iMovie, then burn them to disc with iDVD
5. Download countless long-since-abandoned games, applications, and package suites from Macintosh Garden and burn them to disc (like legends such as Quake III Arena, Halo: Combat Evolved, Myst, Bugdom, and many, many more!)
6. Chat with other users on the Macintosh Garden, Mac OS 9 Lives!, or System 7 Today forums on Netscape Navigator 4, Internet Explorer 5, or Safari 1.0
7. Cruise the modern Web with Links2 or AquaWeb micro, or browse through the Web 1.1 landscape with old versions of Safari
8. Grab video URLs with AquaWeb micro (or Iteroni.com) and watch, download, and process YouTube videos with PowerPC Media Center 7
9. Write a story, do homework, or file TPS reports in TextEdit, Pages, or Microsoft Word
10. Draw fabulous pictures with Adobe Illustrator; turn them into a book with InDesign
11. Maintain a simple website with Macintosh Garden Hosting, and add it to the Web 1.1 directory
12. Keep an expansive information database with Address Book, Numbers, or Microsoft Excel
13. Play retro games and watch iconic videos on reFlash
14. Try out a PowerPC-compatible alpha of Snow Leopard before the architecture was dropped
15. Install Sorbet Leopard and experience firsthand what Mac OS X 10.6.8 would have been like on PowerPC
16. Install the Debian, Ubuntu, Void Linux, and OpenBSD alternative UNIX-like operating systems and see how modern software runs
17. Build your own personalized version of TenFourFox, then take it out for a spin
18. Play a special PowerPC-optimized version of Minecraft 1.5.2 on hardware 10 years older than the game
19. Play a special PowerPC-native version of Super Mario 64, originally derived from the SM64EX project
20. Emulate classic consoles like the NES, SNES, N64, Genesis, PS1, Game Boy, Game Boy Color, Game Boy Advance, and Nintendo DS
21. Emulate a Mac Plus running System 7.5 with Mini vMac
22. Run Windows 2000 with Microsoft Virtual PC
23. Create advanced 3D objects and environments with the Maya, SketchUp, or Blender modeling packages
24. Get connected to your Home-Network via ScreenSharing/RemoteDesktop or FileSharing (AFP/SMB/FTP). Make your PPC a really fat client for using a fast Mac/PC for file-access or remote/screen-control
25. Share an iTunes-Music-Library. Build a multi-room-musik-system using iTunes/AirPlay/old AirPortExpress and connected active speakers
26. Recover footage from old DV-Camcorders through USB and iMovie. (Same for analog-Camcorders using old EyeTV-video-grabbing hardware.)
27. Go to System Preferences > Speech > Text to Speech. Open TextEdit, type a sentence, Command + A, right-click, and select Speech > Start Speaking. Have hours of fun.
28. Download widgets from Macintosh Garden and style your Dashboard to look like a desktop version of iOS 1 / iPhoneOS 1.0
And the list goes on ...
PowerPC | Power to the Pro
Not only that, considering the rampant consumerism that tends to carry such influence over your average Joe today, hopefully the information within will make random passerby think twice about tossing their old Macs out after querying online as to if they're even still usable in 2022 and beyond, a whole 16 years (and counting!) after the last model rolled off the assembly line.
As goes without saying of course, feel free to add truckloads of more activities as necessary.
1. Rip CDs, listen to music, and play Internet radio with iTunes
2. Watch DVDs and QuickTime movies from Cornica with QuickTime and DVD Player
3. Create your own songs and audio tracks with Garageband and Logic
4. Organize your photo and video libraries with iPhoto, assemble them into short clips with iMovie, then burn them to disc with iDVD
5. Download countless long-since-abandoned games, applications, and package suites from Macintosh Garden and burn them to disc (like legends such as Quake III Arena, Halo: Combat Evolved, Myst, Bugdom, and many, many more!)
6. Chat with other users on the Macintosh Garden, Mac OS 9 Lives!, or System 7 Today forums on Netscape Navigator 4, Internet Explorer 5, or Safari 1.0
7. Cruise the modern Web with Links2 or AquaWeb micro, or browse through the Web 1.1 landscape with old versions of Safari
8. Grab video URLs with AquaWeb micro (or Iteroni.com) and watch, download, and process YouTube videos with PowerPC Media Center 7
9. Write a story, do homework, or file TPS reports in TextEdit, Pages, or Microsoft Word
10. Draw fabulous pictures with Adobe Illustrator; turn them into a book with InDesign
11. Maintain a simple website with Macintosh Garden Hosting, and add it to the Web 1.1 directory
12. Keep an expansive information database with Address Book, Numbers, or Microsoft Excel
13. Play retro games and watch iconic videos on reFlash
14. Try out a PowerPC-compatible alpha of Snow Leopard before the architecture was dropped
15. Install Sorbet Leopard and experience firsthand what Mac OS X 10.6.8 would have been like on PowerPC
16. Install the Debian, Ubuntu, Void Linux, and OpenBSD alternative UNIX-like operating systems and see how modern software runs
17. Build your own personalized version of TenFourFox, then take it out for a spin
18. Play a special PowerPC-optimized version of Minecraft 1.5.2 on hardware 10 years older than the game
19. Play a special PowerPC-native version of Super Mario 64, originally derived from the SM64EX project
20. Emulate classic consoles like the NES, SNES, N64, Genesis, PS1, Game Boy, Game Boy Color, Game Boy Advance, and Nintendo DS
21. Emulate a Mac Plus running System 7.5 with Mini vMac
22. Run Windows 2000 with Microsoft Virtual PC
23. Create advanced 3D objects and environments with the Maya, SketchUp, or Blender modeling packages
24. Get connected to your Home-Network via ScreenSharing/RemoteDesktop or FileSharing (AFP/SMB/FTP). Make your PPC a really fat client for using a fast Mac/PC for file-access or remote/screen-control
25. Share an iTunes-Music-Library. Build a multi-room-musik-system using iTunes/AirPlay/old AirPortExpress and connected active speakers
26. Recover footage from old DV-Camcorders through USB and iMovie. (Same for analog-Camcorders using old EyeTV-video-grabbing hardware.)
27. Go to System Preferences > Speech > Text to Speech. Open TextEdit, type a sentence, Command + A, right-click, and select Speech > Start Speaking. Have hours of fun.
28. Download widgets from Macintosh Garden and style your Dashboard to look like a desktop version of iOS 1 / iPhoneOS 1.0
And the list goes on ...
PowerPC | Power to the Pro
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