A Quadra Will Do in a Pinch

- 2001.11.30

Last week I noted that I brought my PowerBook 5300cs with me to California so that I could get my email and access the Internet. Well, it turned out that the screen problem got so bad that even pressing on areas on the back of the screen would not make it go away. I did notice that it pretty much goes away when the screen is dominated by something white, such as a page in Microsoft Word or a clean spreadsheet in Excel. Thanks to a reader for pointing out that it could be a problem with the cable that connects the screen to the logic board and not a bad screen itself. I tried, but I could not live with this screen problem, so I ended up not using the 5300 much at all.

What did I use while I was away? Last time I was in California, I bought a Quadra 840av. This time I brought my software CDs and a CD-ROM drive, so I was able to load the Quadra with some software to get on the Internet and get my email. Not only did I use an older Mac for the past few days, I used a Mac that wasn't based on the PowerPC chip - the last time I seriously used a 68K Mac for real work was probably about a year ago, and even then only for a short time.

I was surprised to find that the 840av is able to do about 80% of what I do on my G4. This includes email and browsing the Internet. What do I do that the 840 can't do? I often play music while I work - the 840av can't and will never be able to play an MP3. But there are ways around that - if I were to install an internal CD-ROM drive, I would be able to play audio CDs on it. I also like to listen to Internet radio, and, as far as I know, that can't be done on the 840av.

Photoshop does run on the 840av. Even though the last version that runs on it is version 4.0, I can still edit images and change file formats. I would miss the way it handles fonts in version 6 (one of the best improvements in version 6 over previous versions), but it's not necessary to do image editing.

I can run Mac OS 8 on the 840av, and it happens to run quite well. It starts up faster than any first generation Power Mac and actually feels faster than some of the Power Macs that I have used running OS 8.

Am I disappointed that I can't run OS 8.5? Not very. I like 8.5 better than 8.1 in general, mostly because of some new features. I like the way 8.5 and higher show the full name of the application open, instead of just showing the icon in the application menu. The single click application switcher palette is a nice feature of OS 8.5, and I prefer the way the icons look smoother and show more colors in 8.5 and higher.

But on the Quadra's 14" monitor, stuck at 640 x 480, there would be no room on for the program titles in the application menu. There would also be no room for the app switcher palette, and most of the programs that run on the 840av don't have the 32-bit icons, so that feature of 8.5 wouldn't be used.

You don't need a high-end older Mac to be productive. About a year ago, while my G3 was having one of its hard drive problems, I used a Performa 475 as my main computer, probably for about 2 months. The 475 was a consumer "home computer," had a 25 MHz 68LC040 processor, RAM upgradeable to 36 MB, and a 160 MB hard drive. Mine had 20 MB of RAM, an ethernet card, and the original 160 MB hard drive.

I was running System 7.5.3. I experimented with different browsers, different email applications, and different word processors. I tried Internet Explorer 2.1 and 3.01, and Netscape 2.0, 3.0, and 4.08. For email I tried using Netscape's built in email client, Claris Emailer, Eudora, and finally Outlook Express. Using the Quadra 840av reminded me of how I was also able to do most of what I would do on a newer Mac using a Performa.

Office 4.2.1 (featuring Word 6, Excel 5, and PowerPoint 4) runs pretty well on the 475. I happen to be one of the few people that actually liked Word 6. It wasn't bad at all if you were running it on a fast 68040-based Mac. (It seems as if Microsoft didn't pay attention to what processor people had in their Mac. Word 6 did run poorly on anything 68030-based, which is what many people had in 1994). It lets me do most of the things I would do with a newer version of Office. If you like ClarisWorks, version 4 and 5 both run well. I prefer them to 6, which seems slow and has a different interface (it matches OS X better), which I don't like as well.

I found that older programs don't necessarily run better on older machines. Netscape 3 ran much better and was a bit faster than 2, even though it used three times the RAM. Outlook Express ran just as well as the much older Claris Emailer and Eudora, but it offers more features and an interface that I prefer.

You can't just sit down in front of your older Mac and expect it to be as fast as a new G4. If I thought that the 840av or 475 was going to be as fast as a G4, or even an older PowerMac, I would be frustrated beyond belief. The trick when using an older Mac is to assume that what you are going to do is going to take a long time (face it, some things do even on a newer Mac - ever try importing a 95 MB mailbox into Entourage?), and it might not work at first. That way, if anything does go wrong, it would have been within your expectations. If it works fine the first time (as it often does), you will be pleasantly surprised.

This is probably why they still can amaze me: For what they are, older Macs can do a lot and do it without much hassle. An older Mac won't always be fast, but it will get the job done.