Modern Computing: First Impressions of a $10 PowerBook G3
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- 2006.04.26
A few days ago, I was talking with a friend of mine at work. We were talking about computers, and I was told him about how I acquired my Apple Lisa (You can read more about that in my article Retro Computing: First Impressions of a Newly Acquired Apple Lisa).
Anyway, when I told him how I acquired my Lisa, he piped up and said, "Hey, Ted, I have an old G3 Mac laptop that I bought from a friend of mine for $20, but I have no use for it. Do you want it?"
The first question that I asked myself was, "I wonder how he got it for so cheap?" So I asked him, and he said that his friend got it from his Dad, who had used it at his office. His friend didn't want it, so he sold it.
I figured it was either a Kanga or a WallStreet. Wondering which one it was, I asked him if it had a solid white Apple Logo on the top. He said it did, so I was sure it had to be a Wall Street.
Then I asked him how much he wanted for it. I'd given him $5 earlier so he could get some lunch, since he forget his wallet at home, so he said, "Give me another $5, and we'll call it even."
I said, "Cool, sounds great."
So the next day I went over to his house and picked it up - little did I know what I was getting.
I got a laptop bag,
power adapter, and a Lombard PowerBook
G3. I was really surprised that it was a Lombard, so I knew I
got a good deal from a really good friend - it's the 400 MHz model
with 320 MB RAM, 6 GB hard drive, and DVD.
Mike, if you're reading this, thank you again. It means a lot. Now I can be working (or playing) while I'm on the road. For instance, I'm writing this at the dentist's office while my sister is getting her teeth cleaned.
It only has a few problems:
- There is a dent on the screen near the bottom. It looks like someone might have dropped something on the screen. It's not bad though.
- Graphics performance in OS X isn't great due to no 3D acceleration (see Rage at Being Left Behind for more on that topic),
- The battery is dead. That's not a really big problem, but it's so dead that the computer doesn't even stay asleep on battery power - the battery has so little power that the 'Book shuts off. I'm sure I can find an inexpensive used battery that works on eBay.
Even with those problems, you can't beat it for $10.
Anyway, I can't wait to watch DVDs, surf the Web, play games,
and write articles while I'm on the road. All I have to do is get a
working battery. 
Recent Vintage Mac Living articles
- If a Mac Plus can run System 7.5.5, why can't an 800 MHz G4 run Leopard?, 10.19. Apple supported the Mac Plus for over 10 years after its introduction. Why should Leopard cut off support for Macs released 4-6 years ago?
- 60 Mac models left behind: The ridiculously high cost of Leopard, 10.17. Mac OS X 10.5 officially doesn't support any G3 Macs, most G4 Power Macs, most titanium PowerBooks, half the G4 iMacs, early eMacs, or the first 12" G4 iBook.
- What a waste! Some schools would rather store old computers than put them to use, 09.12. Denver Public Schools is one example of a school district so ready to buy new computers that it has tens of thousands of old, usable computers sitting in storage.
- More in the Vintage Mac Living index.
Recent Content on Low End Mac
- Mac Pro overclocking, Windependence with Darwine, Blu-ray for Macs, and more, Mac News Review, 07.04. Also more on running Leopard on non-Apple hardware, Ubuntu on a Mac mini, the first autofocus webcam with Zeiss optics for Macs, and more.
- Wouldn't life be great with an iSlate?, John Hatchett, Recycled Computing, 07.04. PDAs and smartphones are too small for some tasks, full-fledged Tablet PCs are overkill, and ebook readers are too limited. Apple has the tech to own this niche.
- Mac of the Day: Original iMac G3/233, Aug. 98 - The Bondi blue wonder that bounced Apple back to profitability and into the public eye.
- List of the Day: Mac Pro List is for those using a Mac Pro.
- July 5 in LEM history: 98: The iMac: First of a family? - iMac Perfect for schools - 00: Apple is not your friend - 01: 75 Mac Advantages - Do you trust me? - 02: The joy of X with Classic - The good, the bad, and the intrusive - 05: No Quartz Extreme for Pismo - A brief history of NeXT - 06: Education iMac - iTunes and the French interoperability law - TopXNotes - Apple's secret battery reset utility - Misleading hard drive capacity
- The Macintosh Portable started a notebook revolution, Carl Nygren, Classic Macs in the Intel Age, 07.03. Before Apple introduced the Mac Portable, notebook computers were text-based and ran MS-DOS. Ever since, graphical interfaces have been the norm for laptops.
- More links in our archive.
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