Low End Mac Reader Specials

TypeStyler For Mac OS X is Now Shipping! Download The Free Fully Functional 60 Day Tryout at www.typestyler.com

OWC: We Make DIY Upgrading Easy! Maximize your Apple MacBook / MacBook Pro. Up to 8.0GB Memory, up to 1.0TB HD & More. Easy Guide + Free, Detailed Installation Videos. Click here

Don't install Parallels to play poker online! Poker Mac will show you how to download and install a native Mac poker application such as Full Tilt Poker Mac.

Laptop Hardware Provided by TechRestore - Overnight Mac & iPod Repairs.

Compare products like desktop computers, apple laptops, apple macs, and LCD Monitors side by side! All the information and reviews to make the best purchasing decision for new mobile phones, sat nav systems, or MP3 players. The Ciao online shopping community makes searching products easy for you.

My Turn is Low End Mac's column for reader-submitted articles. It's your turn to share your thoughts on all things Mac (or iPhone, iPod, etc.) and write for the Mac web. Email your submission to Dan Knight .

Low End Mac or OS X?

Tim Baxter
2001.05.07

Over the years, it seems a lot of Mac owners have really taken the "Think Different" slogan to heart. We pride ourselves on approaching the computing experience and appreciating it in the crazy ones ways that the zillions of PC-clone drones just don't get. We revel in the cult of Macintosh.

But in some ways, the whole thing reminds me of the old Steve Martin "nonconformist oath" shtick. Back when Martin was still doing standup in the 70s, he would have the crowd repeat after him:

"I promise to be different."

"I promise to be unique."

"I promise not to repeat things other people say."

Midway through the third statement, most of the crowd would trail off, slowly grasping that they were the joke.

Pretty soon, Apple is going to ask all of us to really think differently, and some longtime Mac owners are going to wonder if they are the punch line in some cosmic joke.

Yup, low-end Mac users are coming to a big fork in their computer-owning road, and either path they choose will require stretching the old noodle in all kinds of new and different ways. Get ready to really Think Different.

We're soon going to face two options: Forget about anything that could possibly be called a low-end Mac and embrace the future, OS X, or prepare to be orphaned.

OS X, at least in the foreseeable future, has ridiculously steep hardware requirements, geeky Unix underpinnings, and about half the refinement we've come to expect from a Mac - even a Mac running System 7. And that's not even getting into security issues, a lack of software, and other assorted weirdness that will take awhile for Apple to sort out.

On the other hand, I do believe Apple will eventually sort these things out, and OS X really is where the Mac is going, with or without you and me.

If we choose to ignore OS X, we become orphans.

I don't mean to sound melodramatic. The old Macs and the operating system we know and love will certainly soldier on. Some folks, perfectly content with their current Mac setup, could care less about OS X and won't worry about it at all until it comes preloaded on some future computer.

Apple will probably continue to throw us old dogs a bone every now and then. Rumors are already floating around of a planned Mac OS 9.2 update, and the chances of millions of existing machines being completely abandoned by Apple or independent developers is fairly small, at least in the short term.

But it will happen eventually. If you haven't noticed, Apple's already lost much of it's interest in beige machines and isn't supporting 68Ks at all.

Apple II owners have already gone through this. They started dozens of owner groups and soldiered on for years after the rest of the world had all but forgotten their favorite machines.

I suspect "classic" Mac OS users will band together and keep things working for years to come, but expect to be increasingly marginalized. It will be up to us to create our own support network, because Apple will have its hands full with the new Aqua wunderkind.

Either way, for a long time we've been thinking different, but not too different.

That's about to change.

Tim Baxter has been a reporter, graphic artist, webmaster and Mac fan since 1993.

Share your perspective on the Mac by emailing with "My Turn" as your subject.

Recent My Turn articles

Using Low End Macs for Internet Radio, 08.18. When the local public radio station moved classical music to HD radio, it was time to find another way to listen. An old iMac with iTunes solved the problem.
'That's Not a Computer', 07.30. Salvaging a broken PowerBook by turning it into a desktop computer.
Upgrading a Digital Audio G4 to work better in Leopard, 06.02. In its original configuration, the dual 533 MHz Power Mac G4 was slow with Mac OS X 10.5, but add the right upgrades, and it runs Leopard quite nicely.
My 4 favorite PowerBooks, 05.28. The PowerBook 150 has a big screen for a vintage PowerBook, the 165c has color, the 100 is diminutive, and Lombard has USB and a great keyboard.
More in the My Turn index.

Links for the Day

Mac of the Day: 17" iMac G4/800 MHz, July 2002 - The iMac 'grows up' with a 17" 1440 x 900 display.
Group of the Day: LisaList supports Lisa users.
November 8 in LEM history: 99: OS 9: I think I like it - 01: The simplified Mac life - Soured on Windows - Flea market Mac - 02: Little room for improvement in new 'Books - Combo drive upgrade for iceBooks - 04: Re-Porter - 05: Fix the old iMac or buy a Mac mini? - Apple's Copland project - 06: MacBook Core 2 - MacBook value equation - Cheap is as cheap does - 07: Problems with Classic mode in Tiger - The G4 Power Mac that won't run Leopard
Support Low End Mac

Recent Deals

Best Mac Pro Deals, 11.03. Used 2.66 GHz 4-core, $1,300; 3.0 8-core. $2,299; refurb 2.66 4-core Nehalem, $2,149; 2.93, $2,549; 2.26 8-core, $2,799; 2.93, $4,999.
Best iPhone Deals, 11.03. New 8 GB iPhone 3G, $$99; refurb 16 GB 3GS, $149; new, $199; 32 GB, $299.
Best 12" PowerBook G4 Deals, 11.03. Used 867 MHz SperDrive, $348; 1 GHz, $499; 1.33 Combo, $298; SD, $559; 1.5 Combo, $448; SuperDrive, $589.
Best Power Mac G3 and PCI Video Card Deals, 11.02. Used beige 300 MHz, $25; G4/366, $49; blue & white 350, $80; 400, $90; 450, $105; PCI video cards from $15; shipping additional.
Best Power Mac G4 and AGP Video Card Deals, 11.02. Used 400 MHz, $50; 733 MHz, $69; 933 MHz, $209; 1.25 GHz dual, $299.
Best 15" MacBook Pro Deals, 11.02. Used 2.0 GHz, $800; 2.2, $900; 2.4, $1,000; refurb 2.53, $1,449; 2.66, $1,699; 2.8, $1,949; 3.06, $2,169; new 2.53, $1,579; 2.66, $1,799; more.
Best Mac mini Deals, 10.30. Used 1.33 GHz G4 mini, $379; 1.42, $389; 1.5, $419; 1.83 GHz Core Duo, $350; Core 2, $439; new 2.26 GHz nVidia, $580; 2.53 GHz, $770; Server, $990.
Best G4 iBook Deals, 10.30. Used 12" 1.07 GHz Combo, $225; 1.33 GHz, $298; 14" 1 GHz, $349; 1.33 GHz, $398; 1.42 GHz SuperDrive, $498.
Best Classic Mac OS Deals, 10.30. System 6.0.8 floppies, $10; 7.1, $12; 7.5, $20; 7.5 CD, $4; 7.6 $13; 8.1, $11; 8.5, $20; 8.6, $90; 9.0, $20; 9.2.2, $30.
More deals in our archive.

About LEM | Support | Usage | Privacy | Contacts

Entire Low End Mac website copyright ©1997-2009 by Cobweb Publishing, Inc., unless otherwise noted. All rights reserved. Advice presented in good faith, but what works for one may not work for all. Please report errors to .
LINKS: We allow and encourage links to any public page as long as the linked page does not appear within a frame that prevents bookmarking it.
Access our RSS news feed at http://lowendmac.com/feed.xml.
Email may be published at our discretion; email addresses will not be published without permission, and we will encrypt them in hopes of avoiding spammers. If you prefer your message not be published, mark it "not for publication." Letters may be edited for length, context, and to match house style.
PRIVACY: We don't collect personal information unless you explicitly provide it. For more details, see our Terms of Use.
Low End Mac is an independent publication and has not been authorized, sponsored, or otherwise approved by Apple Inc. Apple, the Apple logo, Macintosh, iBook, iMac, eMac, iPod, iPhone, PowerBook, MacBook, MagSafe, Mac Pro, Apple TV, and AirPort are registered trademarks of Apple Inc. Additional company and product names may be trademarks or registered trademarks and are hereby acknowledged.