- 2001.11.30
Last week I noted that I brought my
PowerBook 5300cs with me to
California so that I could get my email and access the Internet.
Well, it turned out that the screen problem got so bad that even
pressing on areas on the back of the screen would not make it go
away. I did notice that it pretty much goes away when the screen is
dominated by something white, such as a page in Microsoft Word or a
clean spreadsheet in Excel. Thanks to a reader for pointing out
that it could be a problem with the cable that connects the screen
to the logic board and not a bad screen itself. I tried, but I
could not live with this screen problem, so I ended up not using
the 5300 much at all.
What did I use while I was away? Last time I was in California,
I bought a Quadra 840av. This
time I brought my software CDs and a CD-ROM drive, so I was able to
load the Quadra with some software to get on the Internet and get
my email. Not only did I use an older Mac for the past few days, I
used a Mac that wasn't based on the PowerPC chip - the last time I
seriously used a 68K Mac for real work was probably about a year
ago, and even then only for a short time.
I was surprised to find that the 840av is able to do about 80%
of what I do on my G4. This includes email and browsing the
Internet. What do I do that the 840 can't do? I often play music
while I work - the 840av can't and will never be able to play an
MP3. But there are ways around that - if I were to install an
internal CD-ROM drive, I would be able to play audio CDs on it. I
also like to listen to Internet radio, and, as far as I know, that
can't be done on the 840av.
Photoshop does run on the 840av. Even though the last version
that runs on it is version 4.0, I can still edit images and change
file formats. I would miss the way it handles fonts in version 6
(one of the best improvements in version 6 over previous versions),
but it's not necessary to do image editing.
I can run Mac OS 8 on the 840av, and it happens to run quite
well. It starts up faster than any first generation Power Mac and
actually feels faster than some of the Power Macs that I have used
running OS 8.
Am I disappointed that I can't run OS 8.5? Not very. I like 8.5
better than 8.1 in general, mostly because of some new features. I
like the way 8.5 and higher show the full name of the application
open, instead of just showing the icon in the application menu. The
single click application switcher palette is a nice feature of OS
8.5, and I prefer the way the icons look smoother and show more
colors in 8.5 and higher.
But on the Quadra's 14" monitor, stuck at 640 x 480, there would
be no room on for the program titles in the application menu. There
would also be no room for the app switcher palette, and most of the
programs that run on the 840av don't have the 32-bit icons, so that
feature of 8.5 wouldn't be used.
You don't need a high-end older Mac to be productive. About a
year ago, while my G3 was having one of its hard drive problems, I
used a Performa 475 as my main
computer, probably for about 2 months. The 475 was a consumer "home
computer," had a 25 MHz 68LC040 processor, RAM upgradeable to 36
MB, and a 160 MB hard drive. Mine had 20 MB of RAM, an ethernet
card, and the original 160 MB hard drive.
I was running System 7.5.3. I experimented with different
browsers, different email applications, and different word
processors. I tried Internet Explorer 2.1 and 3.01, and Netscape
2.0, 3.0, and 4.08. For email I tried using Netscape's built in
email client, Claris Emailer, Eudora, and finally Outlook Express.
Using the Quadra 840av reminded me of how I was also able to do
most of what I would do on a newer Mac using a Performa.
Office 4.2.1 (featuring Word 6, Excel 5, and PowerPoint 4) runs
pretty well on the 475. I happen to be one of the few people that
actually liked Word 6. It wasn't bad at all if you were running it
on a fast 68040-based Mac. (It seems as if Microsoft didn't pay
attention to what processor people had in their Mac. Word 6 did run
poorly on anything 68030-based, which is what many people had in
1994). It lets me do most of the things I would do with a newer
version of Office. If you like ClarisWorks, version 4 and 5 both
run well. I prefer them to 6, which seems slow and has a different
interface (it matches OS X better), which I don't like as
well.
I found that older programs don't necessarily run better on
older machines. Netscape 3 ran much better and was a bit faster
than 2, even though it used three times the RAM. Outlook Express
ran just as well as the much older Claris Emailer and Eudora, but
it offers more features and an interface that I prefer.
You can't just sit down in front of your older Mac and expect it
to be as fast as a new G4. If I thought that the 840av or 475 was
going to be as fast as a G4, or even an older PowerMac, I would be
frustrated beyond belief. The trick when using an older Mac is to
assume that what you are going to do is going to take a long time
(face it, some things do even on a newer Mac - ever try importing a
95 MB mailbox into Entourage?), and it might not work at first.
That way, if anything does go wrong, it would have been within your
expectations. If it works fine the first time (as it often does),
you will be pleasantly surprised.
This is probably why they still can amaze me: For what they are,
older Macs can do a lot and do it without much hassle. An older Mac
won't always be fast, but it will get the job done.
