I'm running late, but I am enjoying reading all of this #Marchintosh stuff. It's making me feel that I should poke my own PowerMac with a stick, too.
I have a Graphite PowerMac with dual 450 MHz G4s and a clean install of OS 10.4.6. I am also nearly entirely unfamiliar with this era of Macs. Is there a safe and reasonable way to get applications on here over the Internet anymore? Or am I stuck with ferrying software over at USB 1.1 speeds?
@thomasfuchs I am more excited about listening to "Chicago Transit Authority" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_Transit_Authority_(album)), streamed over my network and played through the system speaker, than is likely reasonable. Thank you for your suggestion.
And, @MuseumJoe, I hit up Macintosh Garden for a lightweight MP3 player (I don't want to figure out how to use iTunes right now) and found MacAmp Lite X. Downloaded it directly onto the G4's hard drive, added it to my Applications folder, and it works like a charm.
Oh how I lusted after that machine back when it was new. (Ended up getting a 533Mhz single core G4, AGP graphics as my first machine)
My first suggestion would be a network share as an intermediary.
If you have a drive that supports FireWire, that might be the next best thing. Otherwise, go looking for a used USB 2.0 PCI card?
@IrrationalMethod I absolutely did *not* lust after this Mac when it was new (well, aside from the fantastic case design). It was so far out of my price range back then, it wasn't even worth thinking about.
But, one of the regular vendor tables at the MIT Flea has a group that refurbishes and sells old, working Macintoshes for stupid cheap. I wasn't even in the market for one, and then their person called out, "CAN I INTEREST YOU IN A DUAL G4 TOWER?"
@IrrationalMethod I hadn't even gotten to the "o" in "No, thank you" when they followed up with "It's $20."
I'm not made of stone. There was no way it wasn't coming home with me.
Well that's an amazing bargain.
@IrrationalMethod Seriously! I've ended up chatting with them a few times now, they're genuinely cool people.
They all work across from an electronics recycling drop-off location. The public is allowed to take away anything that hasn't started intake and processing, and they stroll over at lunchtime and get their pick of G3-G5 towers and early Intel systems. They give them a fresh OS install, then sell them cheap so as to keep them out of the waste stream. All mine needed was a new battery.
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