Just Got: Apple iMac G3/600mhz (Summer 2001)

[LazarusNine]

Cant you get one from ebay for like 5$? EDIT: Oh does it have to be a special apple pcmcia card?

Yeah, money wasn't the issue. They're still cheap. But there's a specific list of sorts that definitely works with Mac OS 9 and X. As you can imagine, it's actually not that long of a list. Also, drivers tend to be an issue. Luckily, I scored a Cisco card for like £3, but it was my second or third attempt. Here's a LEM article about PCMCIA and OS 9:

http://lowendmac.com/2009/wifi-pc-cards-for-powerbooks-running-mac-os-9/

 

[QuicksilverMac2001]

I have one of those that I use as an iTunes jukebox on 9.2.2 when it's not storming; got it the iSub and it plays music far louder than my neighborhood can handle-got a Summer 2000 iMac DV SE 500 Snow for the bedroom and as soon as I got the Graphite one an iSub I had to get the iSub for the DV SE Snow and now I just sit back and enjoy the music & casual gaming on the one, and those two things plus DVD movies on the third. Life really gets to be good sometimes; especially when the Sawtooth I just bought tries to draw power to a monitor I'm not using and couldn't hold up with the desks I have (one of those 17-inch Graphite CRT Studio Displays would collapse any and all of the desks I can set computers on...) and the iMac in question is the ultimate companion to the Quicksilver I set my user name to.

 

[Schmoburger]

Welcome mate. I have a snow 600 I built from parts of about 5 different machines and a graphite 500 DV SE I took back to a bare chassis and CRT and rebuilt due to the internal plastics being splintered and demolished... Theyre definitely two of my favourite machines in the collection. They really are a timeless classic design, even if they are fairly fringe in their usefulness now. I have them set up currently side by side in my bedroom and the Snow gets used to crank tunes at night as the daily-driver G5 tower in the office needs it's own substation to run and leaving it on all night would probably become pricey in the power bill department. And I can stick the iMac in the loungeroom and it still looks just as cool as it did 15 years ago... still gets people talking too.

I'll one day get around to owning a QS but space is becoming a premium. lol

 

[gdanie]

I have the 700 mhz graphite.  The best OS for these computers is 9.2.2.  I wish that they still maintained the Classilla project.  If they had, they'd really be fully capable, nice machines, really.  The sheer amount of free, completely usable abandonware available for 9.2.2 makes it worth having one on a desktop at home.  It sucks having to boot into Mac os X to run TenFourFox to use the modern web.  I just like to have one around just because these computers basically saved Apple in the early 90s when they were first introduced.  Not quite a collectors item, the way the compact 68ks are, but that could change in the future.

 

[TheWhiteFalcon]

Classilla was updated recently.

 

[AichEss]

That's because the old AirPort card supports WEP or WPA only, and WPA is only under OS X. Most modern networks use WPA2 security.

WEP only with Mac OS 9, and that is a limitation of the OS, not the card. There may be drivers to make it better but I don't know of them.

WPA2 Personal with OS 10.2.8 and at least 10.4.11. Probably all pre-Intel. Native.

 

[gdanie]

Classilla was updated recently.

October of 14.  I talked to Cameron Kaiser about this issue.  He said that while its still in production, its basically on the back-burner, because TenFourFox has been given top priority over it.

 

[TheWhiteFalcon]

He's written a new JS engine for TFF, so now that that is in beta things should improve soon.

 

[gdanie]

He's written a new JS engine for TFF, so now that that is in beta things should improve soon.

Great news thanks

 

[Schmoburger]

Makes sense for TFF to be given priority I guess as realistically G5-based machines are still perfectly viable daily grinders and fully capable of swallowing all the modern internet has to offer... the only thing that would stop them is software support. Most machines that can't comfortably run 10.4 and by default therefore can't run TFF (essentially G3 and slower G4 machines) realistically don't have the hardware capabilities to function as well on the modern internet... not to say that they are in any way useless, just that they are not quite as useful and therefore at a guess i would say not really that commonly used as daily drivers in 2015. I guess Clasilla more caters for the hobbyist in this respect and whilst there is a little room for improvement, it is still close to as functional a it can be on the hardware that it is primarily designed for. Like, for what it's worth, I couldn't possibly ask anymore of it on my G3/400-powered PM9600... Sure, it doesnt do youtube and has the odd hiccup with one or two pages, but the fact it negotiates and renders the internet even in a 90% usable fashion on 18 year old hardware and a 14 year old OS is to me, nothing short of an astounding achievement and a credit to the developers.

 

[Schmoburger]

That said... it is great to hear of movement at the station again on the Clasilla front nonetheless.

 

[XBHS1997]

Nice G3! I have 4 Graphite ones and 4 600 Mhz ones. One of them could be yours, 600 Mhz Graphite. It was my second G3, and the second old mac too. I got it with the idea of replacing the broken plastic of the 400 Mhz Graphite, but then felt bad for it and shortly after started to collect these things.

Yeah, the original HDD in the later iMac G3 seem to be more quiet that in the older ones (for example, my Summer 2000 DV SE Graphite 400 Mhz has a really noisy HDD).

I was always interested by using G3s regularly instead of letting them become dusty on their shelf, because as some of you already said here, that'd make them pretty much useless... and that's exactly what mine are. A fileserver would be a nice idea (and to be honest, I don't really have any other idea to make them useful), but I don't know what I should store on them. I mean, I've all my stuff on the iMac i5, therefore no need for a fileserver...