I want to make the switch from messy x86, but I'm not sure where to start. I'm currently using GNU/Linux on an X60s with Libreboot, but with whatever i'd end up using, I'd like to use OpenBSD/NetBSD.
Should I just buy a Powerbook/iBook? Is PPC a meme at this point? Should I just wait for EOMA68 and get an ARM computer card and laptop enclosure?
Elijah Adams
It is a meme, but the hardware itself is pretty nice, back when apple was form and function not form over function.
Most G4 Macs (the cheapest ppc consumer stuff) are handily beat by basically any snapdragon and can not run Youtube or ddr2 ram. Otherwise they are cheap as balls and the only practical alternative to x86 machines for desktop use, they also have heaps of professional abandonware for protools like purposes.
A powerbook g4 is $20-60 max if you avoid the 17" model if you just want to test one
Ryan Hernandez
Yeah I miss the "good 'ol" days of apple. IMO the titanium ones are smexy af, though i thought i remember reading about build quality issues there. If I were to pick up a g4 mac I wouldn't be running os x. Either NetBSD or OpenBSD.
I see, I'll take a look at that. I prefer smaller laptops anyway, so avoiding that is fine. I read that there were some pretty notable build quality problems with those. Should I worry about that? - I'm guessing I'm probably going to end up waiting for EOMA68. It'll be pricey, but i've been loving the concept since the project first launched. Only things it's lacking are adequate storage, it could do with a bit more ram.
James Davis
where is this video from and why is he crying?
Oliver Russell
Low effort webm
Caleb Perry
apple was always form over function you zoomer shit they have never in their entire history given a shit about function
That's really cool, but will you have trouble finding comparable ram for some thing that old? Or was this before Apple went full kike and made upgrading Apple hardware intentionally obtuse.
Jace Cook
>Or was this before Apple went full kike and made upgrading Apple hardware intentionally obtuse. this exactly. I have a broken G4 somewhere that I could do a teardown for you. I can also show you the G5 internals, since that's easy Based 800 series thinkpad user Where'd you get it from?
Owen Jones
Besides diversity, what would be a net benefit of having a PPC computing device? Would it be better than say, modern ARM? t. never had access to one of them
Adrian Gray
All macs with upgradable RAM just use normal RAM. All laptops have specific requirements of RAM. But yes this was almost a decade before they started soldering on the ram if that's what you mean. It's just normal 155 pin (iirc) DDR SDRAM.
Aiden Miller
Would anyone be interested in a PPC single board computer?
Tyler Clark
Your threads would benefit from not being PPC threads, but rather Alternate ISA threads, like said
Lincoln Lopez
Yes
Jacob King
The last PowerBook uses DDR2 and YouTube is botnet.
Luis Gonzalez
Idk honestly. I thought they were like $40. The iBook G4 I had was totally unusable it was so slow. They were a horrible design. But yeah they'll be cheaper (ugly imo).
Lincoln Price
would they really be that slow, cant you upgrade the ram, sides, not like you would be doing anything of real performance on them anyways lmao
Xavier Gonzalez
depends what you want them for. anything with JS is a nightmare
Literally nothing other than being botnet free (relative to x86). They seem to be immune to almost all branch prediction bugs, since the G4s are super simple. They're too old by this point, and this is coming from a ppcfag
also loads of abandonware
Hudson Davis
um, ok...implying I wouldn't use it to watch movies off the DVD drive like a human being...or simply pull my phone from about two feet away and use that?
Julian Jones
I respect your drive to do this every thread, but why?
Nathaniel Rodriguez
good to know. i'm still not interested in macos 9 pure OpenBSD or NetBSD only.
Joshua Myers
i want one so bad slap a recent version of netbsd on that chonker
Ayden Myers
Absolutely. Does one exist?
Camden Allen
You use non x86 or x64 hardware??? Big fucking deal, not as if there is any difference from end users' point of view.
Daniel Collins
assuming they haven't changed since 2014 when i last remember playing youtube videos on it, the format i used on it (22) is main-3.1 (checked just now)
Robert Edwards
That's pretty impressive if it isn't dropping frames. I'm not sure what profile Netflix uses, but my laptop slows down to a crawl if I try to do anything else but watch video.
Wyatt Campbell
you're kidding right? the hinges were dogshit and you had to tear the whole fucking thing down just to get to the hdd. when thinkautists sperg about their trashpads they kinda have a point, but what the fuck is this faggotry
Evan Hill
>spazzing on a thinkautist who's just taking in info about macppc lel. I've specifically mentioned i'd heard of quality control issues with the powerbooks. I took a look on ebay and the only ibooks/powerbooks that are cheap enough that i'd be willing to just test it are either nasty or broken, and all probably have the hinge issues that i've mentioned already. Not worth my time. I'm just going to stick with my libre x60s until eoma68 enters the market and get a card+laptop enclosure or hit the e recyclers+thrift shops for x200's and just frankenstein one together for a few bucks.
erm.. wrong replies?
Landon Thompson
lol there are inherent security risks in both the amd and intel offerings there, not to mention x86 is a bloated cisc isa originally developed in the 70s and haphazardly thrown together.
RISC-V is going to be based. Until then, it's ARM or nothing.
Noah Harris
>erm... wrong replies? You must be new here. This is an Apple shill (talking about how their old computers were good makes their new ones look like the pieces of shit they are) who gets paid to dilute discussion on ppc threads. At first he posted scat, then he moved to falseflagging, and now he posts old replies with random quotes. It's not as obvious as the other techniques and the mods usually take hours to delete them. There is a way to keep the discussion going and make every single one of his posts stand out, but for some fucking reason I seem to be the one who's figured it out.
oldfag, just didn't realize. chalked it up to a dumbass. Anyway, in many ways there have been so-called "innovations" that just ruin computing. Examples: Chiclet keyboards planned obsolescence through poor build quality and deliberate OS fuckery the intel management engine/amd PSP
not to be a shill, but it's difficult to find something new that lacks any of these that isn't prohibitively expensive or still in development. I'm convinced wholeheartedly that when RISC-V launches it'll be a completely niche platform despite strong industry support and will cost way too much, but i'll still buy it. I'm definitely comfortable with my circa-2006 laptop and flashing Leahboot, but why should I still be burning my lap and constantly worrying about having a power source on an 8 cell in [current year] because i care for my privacy?
p.s., is that an ultra workstation in your pic?
Nolan Edwards
Yeah, I'm pretty much on the same boat. I used an iBook and a PowerMac G4 until last year, when their memory ceilings became too low for my needs. Now I use an X200 and the hackintosh in that pic (it's in a case from a dead G5, I reused the entire cooling system and the PSU)
>p.s., is that an ultra workstation in your pic? It's an Ultra Enterprise 250. Sun sold it as a low-end web server rather than a workstation. At $17k starting, the Ultra 10 ($2.5k starting) ate all its sales. So they're not very common machines. I use mine as a homeserver, with many upgrades which make it usable in a modern environment (Dual gigabit Ethernet, SATA II and a couple of modern hard drives to name a few). Here's a makeshift setup with an Ultra 10 workstation.
