Looking for where the PPC Mac collection journey is | Jobs Vox

So I recently saw comments from a member talking about where he was in terms of using his PPC Macs and it got me thinking about where I am with my own collection. For context, none of the PPC Macs I own were like the ones I had back in the day. I only used PPC Macs during their reign, for a brief period in elementary school (the eMac ran some version of OS X), but otherwise I only saw them on TV. I was strictly a computer user at home because that was all we had. Buying PPC Macs in 2016 was about finally having one of my own. While the tangerine iMac might have been the one I wanted the most, it wouldn’t be until this year before I finally got one. By then I had purchased so many other PPC Macs that the iMac seemed redundant. I always ask myself when buying a PPC Mac, “What can I do with this Mac that I can’t do with what I already have?” The answer to that in the case of the iMac G3 was…nothing. There’s nothing I can do on this Mac that I can’t do on, say, my dual USB iBook or my Sawtooth. The iMac represents the point where I’m at now, where I no longer have any practical justification for a specific Mac, and the only reason I buy one is because it “looks cool.” With previous Macs I had justifications like, “This can run Leopard” or “This person can write to an 800K floppy disk,” but now I had a Mac where the sole purpose was to run the same stuff I was already working on. On other Macs, but this time with an all-in-one color CRT and an orange plastic back.

FYI, I have PPC Macs:

1) PDQ
2) iMac G3
3) iBook G3 dual USB
4) Sawtooth 1.5GHz CPU with upgrade
5) PM G5 1.8 GHz DP 7,2

The PDQ has a purpose as a bridge Mac in that it can transfer files from CF or USB via the PCMCIA slot on my 68K Mac via the built-in serial port. It’s also the latest Mac I own that can write 800K floppy images to actual disks. However, with my interest in the 68K waning, this Mac doesn’t have much use, but at least it has a clear purpose and justification for being in my collection. The G5 is the best Leopard-capable Mac I’ve owned, and as a result has become my main Leopard rig. The iBook G3 is the only laptop I have that runs OS 9 natively (the PDQ can run OS 9, of course, but I think it’s slower than the newer Macs, so it has 8.6 I’m running a s. Also, the built-in. -display is gone now, it’s not exactly portable anymore), so it’s meant to be a portable OS 9 machine. The iMac G3 I already mentioned, so finally we get to Sawtooth. Once the most powerful Mac in my collection, it has been surpassed by the G5. With the Sorbet, CI-capable GPU (when I used it) and SSD upgrade, the Leopard Sawtooth just isn’t as good for me as the Leopard G5. Leopard runs more smoothly on the G5 and I can use the eject key on my 2000 Apple Pro keyboard to open and close the optical drive on my G5, while on the Sawtooth I cannot use the eject key to close the optical drive. 10.5.8 (although I can run 10.5.6 and below). The Sawtooth has the unique ability to run OS 9 faster than any Mac in my collection, but I rarely need the Sawtooth’s power to run an OS 9 app. I’ll never get rid of Sawtooth because I have so many good memories attached to it (various upgrades I’ve done, discovering TFF for the first time, etc.).

The early Intel side of my collection has a similar situation where another former holder of the “My Most Powerful Mac” title, my early 2009 Mini, was dethroned by my 2012 MBP and is now just rarely used. But like Swtooth, the sentimental value I have for it means I don’t want to get rid of it.

I have more of an emotional attachment to the older computers I own. I tend to unless they are really bad. I enjoy using PPC because I find the architecture unique and charming and yes, there is nostalgia for a bygone era. In other words, these old computers are not just tools to me.

However, I still have a practical side, and that side tells me that as long as I don’t feel the need to sell, I also don’t feel the need to buy more. I’m at a point where I want to enjoy what I have instead of buying more. If I bought, say, a Titanium PB, what would I do? Where the hell would I put it? It would look nice, but it would be too much. I once had a similar problem with vintage game consoles, and it made me want to “dismantle” the consoles and sell them. I don’t want to get to the point where I feel like I have too many Macs and have to start selling some of them.

I will end this long post by asking those who have made it this far, where are you in your PPC Mac collecting journey? Are you just starting out? Have you been doing this for a long time? Or maybe you think you’re at the bottom and your interest in PPC Macs is waning?