Thinkpads Forum

I've never opened apart a Mac, and i'm pretty curious to do it..
G4 (pre-intel) laptops should be quite inexpensive now, and I'm dreaming of a 12'' powerbook G4 (metallic body) to install Linux on : -)

[am I the only one that has this insane passion to tweak and restore old machinery..?!]


anybody wants to sell one?

Dude!

Not a great place to start. If you want to take apart a Mac, pick up a G3 like a Lombard or Pismo. The iBooks and the 12 Aluminum Powerbook are nightmares. Seriously.

The Linux route to keep PPCs alive isn't very enticing either to be honest, sadly.

Just a couple days ago, I was thinking about a 12.1" Powerbook G4 that I had played with. I think that remains the cutest laptop Apple has ever made, though it's insanely heavy for a 12-incher. However, the most unique Apple laptop would be the last 15.2" Powerbook G4 (the M9969LL/A model released in Oct 2005), due to its 3:2 1440x960 screen. While it's not that hard to find, it's one of the rarer G4 Powerbooks since it was discontinued only about 3 months after its release. An interesting fact is that the 1440x960 Powerbook G4's successor, the 15.4" MacBook Pro, actually had a lower resolution (1440x900) until June 2012, when two things happened: a 1680x1050 option finally became available for the "regular" 15.4" MacBook Pro, and the "Retina" MacBook Pro with 2880x1800 was also released.

I won an M9969LL/A on eBay over the weekend and should receive it tomorrow. After tossing in a 320GB hard drive (the largest it can take since it uses PATA drives), I will upgrade the RAM and install OX X Leopard on it.

yes, I'm aware of the limitations... i.e. Leopard is unsupported, linux doesn't fit perfectly, and some things like flash will never run on PPC.

How does it compare performance-wise? like a T40..?

xirtyllo wrote:Leopard is unsupported

Leopard (OS 10.5) can be installed on a Powerbook G4 if the CPU is at least 867MHz.

@Pianowizard yes, I meant, Leopard is an OS that is not supported anymore... and some modern programs you can't install on it.. (e.g. Chrome, Firefox, recent Microsoft Office... for Firefox there is a derivative called FirefoxOneFour)

pianowizard wrote:Just a couple days ago, I was thinking about a 12.1" Powerbook G4 that I had played with. I think that remains the cutest laptop Apple has ever made, though it's insanely heavy for a 12-incher. However, the most unique Apple laptop would be the last 15.2" Powerbook G4 (the M9969LL/A model released in Oct 2005), due to its 3:2 1440x960 screen. While it's not that hard to find, it's one of the rarer G4 Powerbooks since it was discontinued only about 3 months after its release. An interesting fact is that the 1440x960 Powerbook G4's successor, the 15.4" MacBook Pro, actually had a lower resolution (1440x900) until June 2012, when two things happened: a 1680x1050 option finally became available for the "regular" 15.4" MacBook Pro, and the "Retina" MacBook Pro with 2880x1800 was also released.

I won an M9969LL/A on eBay over the weekend and should receive it tomorrow. After tossing in a 320GB hard drive (the largest it can take since it uses PATA drives), I will upgrade the RAM and install OX X Leopard on it.

To be fair I have an early '11 MBP that has the 1680x1050 matte-option screen that came from the factory. I think they started in either '10 or '11.

synchromesh wrote:To be fair I have an early '11 MBP that has the 1680x1050 matte-option screen that came from the factory. I think they started in either '10 or '11.

Thanks for the correction. I rechecked Apple's specifications site (http://support.apple.com/specs/#macbookpro) and confirmed that the 15.4" 1680x1050 option started on April 14th 2010. I don't know why I missed that when I checked that same site last week.

My 1440x960 Powerbook G4 arrived yesterday but the AC adapter I ordered is still in transit, so I still haven't powered it up. I did increase its RAM to 1.5GB and the HDD from 80GB to 320GB. Hopefully the charger will get here soon -- I have OS X Leopard, Office 2004, Acrobat 8 and Photoshop CS2 standing by.