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: Get the Right Memory / Ram for your Mac. Top Quality, Competitive Prices, Lifetime Warranty. Expert Support and Video Installation Guidies too! 4.0GB Matched Sets from $87.99, Options up to 32GB. 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.

PowerBook 100 Series Still Rocks

- 2002.01.16

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 .

Well, here we are, nearly two years into the new millennium. G4 PowerBooks are a reality. Power Macs are nearing the 1 GHz speed range. OS X is shipping on all new Macs. This is truly an advanced time for the Macintosh.

However, in this new age, my most recent Mac is my recently acquired Power Macintosh 7100/80. I own a slew of pre-PPC Macs, from my circa 1991 Macintosh Classic to my PowerBook 540c. All of these are really great old computers and still do quite a lot, especially considering their age.

Which brings me to the point of this piece. I am writing this on a day off from work on my PowerBook 145B. One of my favorite things to do on my days off is to grab one of my three 'Books (PowerBook 100, 145B, and 540c), take it to a nice quiet spot, and compose articles using ClarisWorks 3.0.

While having fun doing just that with my venerable old 145B, I realized just how useful the 100 series PowerBooks still are, even in this G4 age. Of course, I'd love even a PowerPC PowerBook, and I plan on getting perhaps a 1400c or a 5300c (at least!) sometime later this year. Yes, I'd really love something like a Pismo, but somehow I doubt that great 'Book will fit into my budget.

Anyway, the PowerBook 100 models (including even the "lowly" 100) are fantastic portable writing/drawing/emailing machines - way better than a Palm Pilot or a Handspring Visor. There is a lot more memory available on a 100 series book, a lot more available storage capacity, and, even though the PowerBook 100 series screens are considered pretty small by today's standards and are black and white (except of course the battery gobbling 165c and 180c), they are still much bigger and brighter than any of those handheld devices.

Plus, with a PowerBook 1xx, you don't need a cradle or a dock to send and receive email, and the keyboard is onboard at all times (and the trackball is way better than any stylus)! It is even possible to do acceptably slow Web surfing on all 1xx models, except for the 100 itself.

That would be quite a challenge for even the best handheld. While some claim to be able to do it, viewing graphics on those tiny screens is out of the question, and any text would be incredibly difficult to read. No, a PowerBook 100 series model is still way ahead of the game in some respects.

Some have commented that the 100 series 'Books look dated or "techno angular." However, while they do look dated, it's not in a bad way. When I see a 100 series PowerBook in a used computer store or when I am out, my first thought is "early 90s," which was really an exciting time for the computing world. The Web was just beginning, PowerPC Macs were on the horizon, and, of course, in October 1991 the PowerBook itself was introduced with the release of the 100, 140 and 170. All of these share the case design of the rest of the 100 series (except the 190, which shares a case design with the 5300 series). Within that context, the design of the PowerBook 100 series is kind of cool.

Anyway, there are plenty of working examples of all of the PowerBook 100 series readily available, and for very little money. I'd highly recommend them for anyone who wants a portable computer that, while not super fast or ultra modern, still delivers basic computing ability with style, ease, and reliability.

A decade later, the PowerBook 100 series still rocks!

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: 15" MacBook Pro Core Duo, Jan. 2006 - The first Intel-based MacBook launched at 1.83-2.0 GHz, had several teething problems.
Group of the Day: System 6 is the email list for those who choose System 6.
November 21 in LEM history: 00: OS upgrades, downgrades - AltiVec vs. Pentium III - 01: Saved by the clones - Computer of the future - 02: Apple Education: Let's get to it - 03: Panther lets Macs and PCs work together, - Lombard SCSI bug - 05: 3 survivors from the 1970s - Real world battery life inadequate - Windows to Mac file transfer with Zip disks - $99 alternative to Microsoft Office - 06: Parallels 1.0 far more polished than beta
Support Low End Mac

Recent Deals

Best eMac Deals, 11.18. Used 1 GHz Combo, $100; SuperDrive, $269; 1.25 GHz Combo, $119; SD, $319; 1.42 GHz Combo, $289; SD, $498.
Best Mac OS X 10.6 and Mac Box Set Deals, 11.18. "Snow Leopard", single user, $25; 5 users, $45; Mac Box Set, single user, $139; 5 users, $180; Server, $414. Shipping included.
Best Xserve Deals, 11.18. Used 1 GHz dual G4, $649; 2.3 dual G5, $795; 3.0 4-core Xeon, $1,899; refurb 2.26 4-core, $2,499; new, $2,888; refurb 8-core, $2,999; new, $3,449; more.
Best 15" MacBook Pro Deals, 11.17. Used 1.83 GHz, $750; 2.16, $800; 2.33, $900; refurb 2.4, $1,299; 2.53, $1,449; 2.66, $1,699; 2.8, $1,899; new 2.53, $1,579; 2.66, $1,799; more.
Best Power Mac G4 and AGP Video Card Deals, 11.17. Used 400 MHz, $50; 933 MHz, $80; 500 dual, $60; 867 dual, $90; 1 GHz dual, $150; 1.25 GHz dual, $225; 1.42 GHz, $499.
Best Mac OS X 10.5 Deals, 11.17. "Leopard" upgrade, $80; single user license, $135; 5 users, $173; Mac Box Set, 5 users, $230; Server, 10 users, $340; unlimited, $850. Shipping included.
Best Mac mini Deals, 11.16. Used 1.42 GHz G4 mini, $379; 1.66 GHz Core Solo, $419; 2.0 Core 2, $450; new 2.26 GHz nVidia, $580; 2.53 GHz, $769; Server, $990.
Best iBook G4 Deals, 11.16. Used 12" 1.07 GHz Combo, $210; 1.33 GHz, $298; 14" 1.33 GHz, $398; 1.42 GHz, $479; SuperDrive, $498.
Best iPod shuffle Deals, 11.16. Used 1 GB, $35; 4 GB, $65; refurb 1 GB, $39; 2 GB, $59; new 2 GB, $55, 4 GB, $75. New and refurb prices include shipping.
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.