Best 68k Powerbook for heavy use (development)

[Godzil]

As my only 68k powerbooks are not the easiest to use (my two Macintosh Portable are a bit big and slow, and my PB145 is too broken for now) I'm looking for a 68K powerbook with good capabilities, potentially a 680(LC)40 one or a 68030 with a color screen (active would be the best). 

I'm looking for a computer where I could use development tools like Codewarrior / Think C and Hypercard (I need to have Hypercard running on all my compatible mac.. )

I know that the latest one is the 190cs, but it's not that easy to find and it look too close to my 5300 and I'm not really a fan of that form factor.

I really like the Duo line, and wonder about the 270c and 280c with the Dock of course when at home. I have plenty of desktop computer, but I like working on a laptop and the Duo are i think a good choice for that (even if battery life is not that great with a new battery)

What would be your device of choice for such a use? (I already have a PB G3 but I need a real 68K laptop )

 

[Carboy7]

I got my 520c over here. It's a good computer, but a little slow. How about a 540 or 540c?

 

[TheWhiteFalcon]

The 1xx series (minus the 190) are still easy enough to get batteries for. Perhaps a 180c?

 

[Godzil]

The 540c have a nice form factor I like them! (I found one for a reasonable price, I may get it)

 

[techknight]

Yup I recommend the 520/540 blackbirds. However, there is a caveat: the front LCD cover plate, and sometimes the hinge supports will crack/fall apart. As with any vintage laptop plastic these days, but at least these models dont seem nowhere near as bad as the 1XX series. Yet... Oh, and the fact that it has a SCSI HDD so you would need the SCSI2SD powerbook version if you want to stay going for any length of time. That goes for all 68K laptops with the exception of the 190 and 150. 

Duo line, you need the 280/280c to gain 040 support. I do have one available. But the dock is real iffy so I would plan on obtaining another dock. However if coding/programming which means typing is going to be your thing, then a Duo really isnt for you. the keyboards are flat out awful even though they outperform most modern cheap laptop keyboards these days. But not by much. Maybe a hair-thin. And this is only in "key-travel". But this is all relative/subjective anyway. I digress...

 

[Carboy7]

Oh yes, that brittle plastic. The front microphone cover and display bezel are offset in mine, and the mic cover is cracked in the inside. But the plastic isn't as bad as my Dell... The 2 layers making up the little display cover have cracked apart and the hinges don't work anymore.

(RANDOM WARNING: The plastic is so brittle in the Apple machines, so be careful. Seriously. They call it Spindler for a reason!)

 

[Godzil]

Really all the 68K line suffer the shitty ABS plastic that crack with time?

@techknight: Yeah I plan to test the SCSI2SD, at least on the PowerBook 145 I already have (but in really bad plastic conditions) I may use it later on some of my desktop mac too, because the 50pin SCSI in good condition start to be difficult to find, really difficult And a 500MB harddrive is quite small, even for that day if you want to have multiples version of the System software, or just install heavy tools like C compilers. Even the earliest version of codewarrior that can run on a 68k computer take 200 to 300MB of HD space, which is really HUGE! (not for today standard of course)

For the keyboard, really I don't mind, the current keyboard (in the Macbook Pro 15" I have) is quite shitty compared to even the worst of the old PowerBook I ever use before.

How does the Duo keyboard compare with a PB G3 Bronze (or the iBook G4 as it's virtually the same keyboard)?

 

[Byrd]

What are you developing?

The Powerbook Duo keyboard is truly awful, it requires firm pressure to register a key press.  Makes for a tiring and frustrating experience, especially if you plan on doing a lot of typing/coding on it.  Older, more used Duos will have looser keyboards but the machine itself will probably be pretty worn out too.

540c is a great machine, the plastic quality varies on them from batch to batch, but they are rugged overall and look much better than a 190.

JB

 

[Godzil]

Oh joy, I got a 540c with two battery and no power adapter...

And of course it's another one of these stupid connector that no one use anywere SH*T

Hidge is going to break, the lock tab is broken (and wasn't specified in the ad)

I can't really complain for the price I paid for and I don't have my tools to opening it so I don't even know how it is inside...

I will need to find spare part for the broken one

Byrd: I'm working on a graphic lib that should work on both Quickdraw and Color Quickdraw as I want to have a toolset to work on speed compo (game/demo) that could run on most of the Mac hardware.

 

[techknight]

Yup those bricks are proprietary as hell, but at least the voltages are known and not hard to make a semi ugly retrofit.