The Productive Mac

Yes, You Can Still Be Productive with Classic Macs

- 2005.11.11

Hello everyone. My name is Thomas Ahart, and I one of Low End Mac's new writers.

When I heard Dan Knight was looking for people to cover older hardware (because most of the others had moved on to newer things), I jumped at the chance. I visit Low End Mac a lot, and I figured I'm on this website enough, so I might as well write something for it.

I've lived in Kansas City all my life and used Macs since about 1996. I owned a Gateway PC before I got my first Mac, and it was so troublesome I was just fed up and wanted to try a new platform. I tried a Mac and loved it instantly.

Macintosh LC III A little while later I bought my own Mac so I wouldn't have to leave home to use one. That was an old LC III. Now I'm up to a titanium PowerBook G4, Graphite Power Mac G4, 2 Blue and White Power Mac G3s, 6 tray-loading iMacs, 2 slot-loading iMacs, 2 iBooks, a beige Power Mac G3, and way too many older Macs.

In The Productive Mac I'll probably be covering older Macs the most. I really like OS X and new Macs, but I love older machines just because there's still a lot you can do with them. They don't cost much either, so it's always easy to add more to your collection.

I'll also write about somewhat newer Macs - although the Macs I consider "newer" are what Apple calls "older hardware" - so the computers I write about will probably considered old by many of you.

I'm a big Classic user, so what I write about will mainly be programs for Systems 7, 8, and 9. But as I said, I also use OS X, so I may cover some newer things as well.

I look forward to writing for Low End Mac, and I hope all of you enjoy my column.

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Recent Productive Mac articles

Why You Should Use Mac OS 7.6 to Get the Most Out of Vintage Macs, 2009.01.29. Although you may be able to run OS 8 or 9 on your old Mac, you'll generally find better performance using Mac OS 7.6.
New homes for 3 WallStreet PowerBooks, 2006.04.07. Although they may need a little restoration work, these are fine machines for using the classic Mac OS in the field.
Would you believe I picked up a decent old PowerBook for just $26?, 2006.02.21. If you're looking for a low-cost, low-power laptop for light use, there are some real steals out there. Like this Powerbook 520c....
More in the Productive Mac index.

Links for the Day

Mac of the Day: Mac IIfx, introduced 1990.03.19. This 'wicked fast' 40 MHz Mac trumped the 33 MHz DOS world.
February 13 in LEM history: 01: Layoffs may hurt Mac market - 02: Unix for the Mac - Rage against the Macintosh - 03: Options to move data from PCs to Macs - 04: Low cost RAM for older 'Books - 06: Apple, IBM, and Intel - 07: Picking the right cheap computer, new or used - 08: I needed to find an older Mac

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The Productive Mac articles copyright ©2005-06 by Thomas Ahart. Low End Mac is an independent publication and has not been authorized, sponsored, or otherwise approved by Apple Inc. Entire Low End Mac website copyright ©1997-2012 by Cobweb Publishing, Inc. unless otherwise noted. All rights reserved. Apple, the Apple logo, Macintosh, iPad iPhone, iMac, iPod, MacBook, MagSafe, Mac Pro, Apple TV, and AirPort are registered trademarks of Apple Inc. Additional company and product names may be trademarks or registered trademarks and are hereby acknowledged.
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