My 17"era together.

[Anonymous Freak]

Alright, finally got them set up next to each other. The bookends of the 17" iMac line.

On the left is the July 2002 iMac G4 - 17". Running Mac OS 9.2.2, browsing with Classilla, this is my "Classic" gaming machine now. Runs Return to Castle Wolfenstein perfectly at native resolution, runs the entire You Don't Know Jack series. I use the original white Apple Pro Keyboard and a Kensington StudioMouse Wireless with it. (Unfortunately, the StudioMouse's shipped batteries are long since dead, I'm using replacement rechargeable of the same power, which the Kensington charger refuses to charge, so I have to take them out and charge them in a standalone charger on a regular basis.) I have the stock 80 GB hard drive partitioned in five, with the original software load on a partition labeled "Macintosh HD", and every later OS on its own partition named after itself. (Including an "Open Firmware hack-installed" Leopard.) It has been upgraded to 768 MB of RAM.

On the right is the "late 2006" iMac Core 2 Duo - 17". Running Mac OS X 10.7 Lion Server, browsing with Safari. This is my workhorse machine. I have a 22" 1920x1080 display connected, just off-frame to the right. The external is my normal primary display (the internal has half a dozen vertical 'stuck' sub-pixel columns, hard to see when you have something bright on screen (like a mostly-white-background web page,) but very distracting in photo and video editing. I use an Apple Bluetooth Keyboard (the first Aluminum model that takes three batteries,) a first-generation Wireless Mighty Mouse, and a Magic Trackpad. Upgraded to 3 GB RAM, this has its stock 160 GB internal hard drive (that I *REALLY* need to replace, I have a spare "green" 1 TB drive, just haven't gotten around to ripping the puppy open.) Plus an external USB 2 TB drive and a dual-bay "SATA drive dock" with two 1 TB drives in OS X soft-RAID-1. Those are hiding behind the iMac and external display. There is also a dual-dirve 1 TB drive hiding back there that is plugged in to my AirPort to be my backup target.

It's funny to think that at the time of the introduction of the one on the left, 17" was *HUGE*, with that ridiculously high 1440x900 resolution. Yet by the time of the one on the right, 17" was tiny, with a "way too small for serious work" 1440x900 resolution.

 

[trag]

I like the iLamp better. It just has such a cool form factor. Unfortunately, G4 is getting a little long in the tooth.

I bought my son the 800MHz G4/still-boots-OS9 version a few years ago as his first computer.

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

That's a nice semi-retro look you've got going there with that pair.

I always hated the iLamp design until I got two of them in a surprise package delivery in a barter deal with another comrade in the Trading Post. The 800MHz G4 that ran right out of the box is starting to grow on me. I guess it's only fitting, because I've had a little black desklamp under various desks over the years for maintenance & reconfiguration work on multiple Mac workstations and display/playstations that's always gone by the name PIXAR! [)] ]'>

I got this pair specifically to hack LEDs into appliqued panels on the backside of the LCD housing for indirect bedside lighting and angling out the bottom edge for reading, but I'm already using one with a wireless KBD/Mouse as a backup machine. They're one of two reverse-pictureframe hacks, which are no big deal, if not positively silly to bother with, at this point in time.

They're even beginning to convince me to get the NetWork Box out of move in to the new digs mode and the contents back into action . . .

. . . their early arrival (along with a product info tidbit passed on to me recently) has got me cracking on a couple of dormant Duo hacks! }