Q: MyDual 450 MHz G4keeps crashing when I try to load one of my daughter's games. I
recently upgraded to OS X, and I believe the problem is
occurring when classic mode is booted. Can you help?
A: Sell your G4 and purchase a Mac
Plus with an external 800k floppy drive. You can currently
purchase a working Mac Plus loaded with the maximum RAM and two
floppy drives for about $30 including shipping. Selling your Dual
G4 would net you about $1,600+, and selling your monitor would get
you some extra cash as well. That means you come out at least
$1,570 in your pocket. This may sound like a ridiculous idea, but
here are ten good reasons to switch back:
Everything is much simpler when it's black and white. If
the world was black and white, life would be easier. The world has
32 million different colors, and your Dual G4 has just as many,
which makes it just as confusing. How can you tell the difference
between yellow #125325 and yellow #125326? Black and white is the
ultimate contrast, and thus the easiest to understand.
Hard drives are overrated. They are heavy, magnetic, and
burn out easily. The floppy drives on a Mac Plus allow you to run
the operating system on one disk your programs on the other! Floppy
disks are not indestructible, but they cost a whole lot less to
replace than a hard drive. If one disk or drive goes bad, the
others are not affected. When a hard drive goes bad you could lose
everything. These days you can even find free floppy disks at
garage sales or in people's trash (remember to ask
permission).
System 6 is blazingly fast. Because that annoying
multiprocessing "feature" is not present in System 6, programs open
instantly - and there are no programs in the background to crash
the program you're using in the foreground. You run what you want
to use, and there is nothing else to get in the way.
Thousands of free software titles are available with
Apple's amazing HyperCard software. Your daughter may want the
greatest and latest games like Quake III, Harry Potter, and Toy
Story, but I'll bet she will become addicted to classics like "Care
Bear's Great HyperCard Adventure", and "Magic Tricks HyperCard
Stack" and who can forget the ever popular, "Monty Python's
Multitude of Miscellaneous Multimedia HyperCard Stack ver 2."
Sound is as good as it has always been. You say your G4
has stereo 16-bit 44.1 KHz sound? Count the speakers on your G4.
Yeah, that's right - one. How many on the Mac Plus? One. Nothing
has really changed, unless Apple has somehow managed to get stereo
sound to come out of a single speaker.
Portability. The Dual G4 tower has handles, but the
computer alone weighs 30 pounds. If you have a monitor, you could
be looking at another 50 pounds. The Mac Plus has a handle and only
weighs 16.5 pounds including the monitor. You could probably even
sell your laptop, if you own one, because the Plus weighs so
little.
Less connectively can be good. If you have broadband,
then you may be connected to the Internet at all times. Who knows
what information is coming in and out of your Mac! With a Mac Plus
you know the answer: None. It is never connected to the Internet,
and you really never need to be. The Web is useless with a black
and white screen (except for a few sites like Luddite Mac). Email is 90% spam. Having a Mac
Plus means having the maximum security possible against Internet
hackers and the least amount of spam.
Compatibility. The Mac Plus is one of the few computers
from Apple that supports from System 1.1 through 7.5.5. The great
thing is if you ever need system 1.1 through system 7.1, you can
boot from a floppy with that system on it. No more mucking about
with hard drive partitions, Apple Startup Disk, and
reinstallation.
Cool as room temperature. The Dual G4 has a huge heat
sink, multiple fans, is noisy, blows enough heat to be considered a
space heater, and is 3.4 inches taller then the Mac Plus. The Mac
Plus, on the other hand, has no fans, no heat sink, is quiet, and
lets off very little heat.
Easy to fix. You may be able to open your G4 like a
microwave oven, but if something breaks you may be looking at a
huge amount of money to repair it. Your vacation money could be
drained by a millisecond of static electricity. The Mac Plus is
extremely hard to open, but if it breaks you can purchase
replacement for about $30 bucks fully loaded. That's half the cost
of the cheapest repair shop's hourly rate. And since all your data
is on floppies, you never need to worry about transferring data to
the new computer.
There you have it. Ten reasons to go back to the Mac Plus from
your Dual G4 Tower.
Tomorrow: Why a 2400 baud modem is all you'll ever need.
Not sure if you should upgrade your old Mac or
replace it? Check the
Mac Daniel index to see if we've already addressed
your problem.
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