[HN Gopher] My Favourite Computer, an Old Mac
___________________________________________________________________
My Favourite Computer, an Old Mac
Author : cpsns
Score : 368 points
Date : 2022-10-07 18:14 UTC (1 days ago)
(HTM) web link (muezza.ca)
(TXT) w3m dump (muezza.ca)
| nicholasbraker wrote:
| This story feels so wholesome.
| Bud wrote:
| The SE/30 is basically like this, but faster, 32-bit bus, and
| supports Ethernet. So same charm, but even more useful.
| pazimzadeh wrote:
| A slightly more modern equivalent of this is a 2009 Mac mini
| running Snow Leopard. You can find these machines for around $50
| on eBay and they are very snappy.
|
| I am waiting for someone to start a business turning old Mac
| mini's into dedicated retro gaming machines. This would be done
| by pre-installing OpenEMU and HaloMD on one partition, and Mac OS
| 9 on another partition to run old games like Lemmings, etc
| although emulation could also work for some of these.
|
| If anyone is interested in this project, please let me know.
|
| https://openemu.org/
|
| https://www.halomd.net/
| emptyparadise wrote:
| Snow Leopard really was the peak. Is there a list of all the
| Macs that can run it?
| goosedragons wrote:
| I don't think it makes much sense as a business. AliExpress is
| littered with retro devices that have as much emulation oof as
| a 2010ish Mac Mini. There are a lot of little emulation focused
| Android/Linux boxes as well as emulation focused Mini PCs out
| there these days.
| derefr wrote:
| I would love to know if any of these have the oomph for
| running Dolphin with hi-res texture packs. That sort of
| "going beyond the original experience" is the main reason I'd
| bother to use "real hardware" for emulation over something
| like a Pi or a jailbroken Switch. (Or, for that matter, a
| MiSTer.)
|
| I know that the sweet spot for "enhanced emulation" of
| (N64|Gamecube|Wii, XBox|XBox360, PSX|PS2) is somewhere higher
| than "my M1 Macbook Air", but lower than "Ryzen 4 and an
| RTX4090" -- but figuring out exactly _where_ this sweet-spot
| is, seems to be left as an exercise for the player; with the
| assumption that anyone who wants to do this already has a
| beefy gaming computer laying around, and wants to play on a
| monitor, rather than on their TV.
|
| It'd be nice if there were prebuilt appliances for playing
| enhanced early-3D-era games, that had been tested and shown
| to achieve a smooth 60FPS playing them at 4K or 1440p.
| OttoVonBizark wrote:
| for emulation a midrange graphics card and a i7 or i9 intel
| chip with high single core speed from the last few years is
| best - you can get something second hand for very cheap
| that will perform emulation as well as the ryzen 4 4090
| ricardobeat wrote:
| An M1 macbook is actually extreme overkill for emulating
| those consoles, it is on par with a GTX 1660.
| derefr wrote:
| To be clear, I'm not asking about just "emulating these
| consoles", but rather emulating these consoles _with_
| injected 4K assets; three-pass RDMAed 8K stencil-
| buffering for emulation of GPU-unified-memory in
| compositing of shadows + reflections; 16x SSAA to smooth
| off all the jaggies; etc. Y 'know, all those options
| that, when turned on, make a four-generations-old game
| into a game that looks like it came out yesterday.
|
| You still don't need a 4090 to do all that -- but you
| need more than a 1660, I promise you. (For one thing,
| just for holding all those 4K assets, for a game that
| never unloads anything because _it_ thinks it has rather
| _small_ assets!)
| pazimzadeh wrote:
| That's the thing about the 2009 Mac mini in particular...it
| came with a dedicated NVIDIA GeForce 9400M whereas most of
| the other models have integrated Intel graphics.
| derefr wrote:
| I actually used to have a 2009 Mac Mini (long since
| sold); I promise you, it didn't run Dolphin well even at
| 1080p. It barely kept up to 20FPS on some games.
| goosedragons wrote:
| The 9400M is still an integrated card. It was better than
| what Intel had at the time but it still lacked it's own
| memory and is still terrible by today's standards. Only
| the G4 Mac Minis and some models of the 2011 Mac Mini
| have a dedicated GPu.
| nyanpasu64 wrote:
| I read "Ryzen 4" and did a double-take. Confusingly Zen 4
| is the CPU generation, and Ryzen 3/5/7/9 is the performance
| tier (core count and price) within a generation.
| pazimzadeh wrote:
| But can they run 32-bit Mac apps?
| goosedragons wrote:
| For what? For Classic Mac OS gaming you could probably get
| Sheepshaver or Basilisk II running. Why you would need OS X
| 32bit apps on a retro gaming system I have no idea.
| pazimzadeh wrote:
| There are different degrees of retro.
|
| For example you might want to play Halo, Portal. Even
| though Microsoft bought it before it was released for
| Mac, there was still a decent size community which
| extended the original Mac demo: https://www.halomd.net/
| gnicholas wrote:
| I still run a 2008 iMac, booted off an SSD over Thunderbolt.
| Websites are slower to load than on my M2 MBA, but for most
| local tasks it is perfectly snappy.
| tinytoon wrote:
| I also still have one of theese. I added more ram and ssd is
| comming. It's still a great device for Music, Photos, the
| Web. I did use it for video-conferencing, because the webcam
| can still hold up. And the little remote is still so great
| mhd wrote:
| > A slightly more modern equivalent of this is a 2009 Mac mini
| running Snow Leopard. You can find these machines for around
| $50 on eBay and they are very snappy.
|
| I just did that, last Mini that still has a optical drive, the
| Core 2 Duo is fast enough for a lot of things. If the optical
| drive isn't important, I'd go for the 2012 mini. Last one that
| still was user-upgradeable.
| [deleted]
| drewzero1 wrote:
| No mini could boot OS 9 natively, and only G4 minis running OSX
| 10.4 Tiger could run OS9 apps in classic mode (removed in 10.5
| Leopard). There are some who have reported some success booting
| OS 9 using a custom ROM[0], but last I tried the process was
| finicky and missing some important features like USB mouse
| support. Of course this only works on G4 minis (2004-2005)
| which wouldn't be able to run OpenEMU, but there are other
| emulators that run fine on PowerPC macs. I've played a lot of
| Stella (Atari VCS) and KiGB (GameBoy) on G4 macs. The original
| Halo was PPC-native, and I spent a lot of time playing it on my
| Power Mac G5.
|
| I'm still kicking myself for getting rid of an iMac G4 that
| could boot OS 9. I kept the faster of my two not realizing I
| would be stuck with classic mode only, and lost that as well
| when I upgraded to Leopard.
|
| A 2009 mini has been my HTPC for years. That one does pretty
| well at retro gaming though I haven't tried Dolphin. It's
| barely playable on my 2011 mini (with integrated graphics). I
| might have a bit of a mini infestation...
|
| 0: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/mac-os-9-on-
| macmini.211...
| 800xl wrote:
| I had a 2011 i5 Mac mini sitting in the closet after it stopped
| getting OS updates. By 2018 I figured it was long in the tooth
| even though I'd added more RAM and swapped the hard drive for
| an SSD. I pulled it out one day not too long ago, wiped the
| drive, and installed elementary OS and was surprised at how
| well it ran. I almost regret buying a new daily driver since
| the speed difference is barely noticable.
| dlivingston wrote:
| I assume it has a WiFi card? Snow Leopard was a great OS, and
| as long as this Mac Mini is ethernet-only, this sounds like
| exactly what I want (computing productivity without internet-
| age distractions).
| pazimzadeh wrote:
| Yeah it has WiFi (802.11n draft) but you don't have to use
| it. It has an Ethernet port up to 1 Gbps
| insane_dreamer wrote:
| I still have one collecting dust in a drawer. Should pull it
| out and put it to some use.
| anigbrowl wrote:
| Early 2010s iMacs are extremely underpriced, given their high
| quality screens and generally good hardware - you can get 27"
| models for $300ish and ones with retina screens for maybe $400.
| I stumbled across a jealousy-inducing low price on a late model
| with very minor cosmetic issues recently and am still pinching
| myself. But with these machines so cheap, I have contemplated
| picking up a second lower powered one just to mess around with,
| install different Linux distros etc.
|
| I presume this is because so many Mac users are moving to the
| M-series CPUs and away from Intel, though I haven't done a
| detailed comparison with Macbook and older pro models. Mac
| minis still seem overpriced (to me, but after building
| computers for 30 years I feel entitled to be opinionated).
|
| Any it won't last forever so if you have ever wanted the nice
| Apple hardware but were put off by the steep prices now is your
| opportunity. I went for an iMac because I wanted a machine that
| looked nice and was nearly silent, though to my surprise I am
| enjoying MacOS much more than I expected.
| mistrial9 wrote:
| MacOSX 10.4 Mail working right now!
|
| ssh needs the RSA key-exchange enabled
|
| forget the web-browsers, just enjoy the personal applications..
| almost as good as Macs previous to that IMO
| emptyparadise wrote:
| Does MacPorts have newer SSH?
| password4321 wrote:
| Yes. https://ports.macports.org/port/openssh/details/
| bitigchi wrote:
| One day, someone will make great bucks recreating these machines
| with modern components.
| jawadch93 wrote:
| wiredfool wrote:
| My favorite was a IIci, with 8 megs of ram, a fast scsi drive,
| and System 6, with the 13" Trinitron screen. Warm boots in a
| couple of seconds, cold boot was longer due to the memory checks.
| kls0e wrote:
| people in Berlin, Germany, fyi: Vintage Computing Festival Berlin
| (VCFB) October 8th and 9th, 2022
|
| The Vintage Computing Festival Berlin (VCFB) is an event about
| historic computers and computing technology. In exhibitions,
| presentations and workshops, participants from all over Germany
| and beyond present many different aspects of Vintage Computing.
| In addition to retro computers, also historical operating
| systems, programming languages, network technology as well as
| pocket and mechanic calculators will be shown. Most of the
| exhibited devices are in working condition. Established in 2014,
| the VCFB has steadily grown and has attracted nearly 3000
| visitors in 2019. In 2020 and 2021, the VCFB took place as an
| online and hybrid event respectively.
|
| source: https://vcfb.de/2022/index.html.en
| QuadrupleA wrote:
| Thanks for sharing, enjoyed this. I tend to approach retro
| computing stuff from a nostalgia perspective, sort of assuming
| there's not much practical reason for using it. So it's
| refreshing to hear all the good qualities of the thing in its own
| right, from someone who isn't just reliving old memories.
|
| The modern world of incessant trivial updates (interrupting what
| you were doing), surveillance, distractions, etc. is a bit sad, a
| far cry from lovingly engineered products intended to improve
| your life. Hopefully the market will curtail some of this BS in
| time, once we all collectively get sick enough of it.
| behnamoh wrote:
| > I can edit my website and manage my servers from it...
|
| Ironically, isn't an old Mac even more secure than today's
| computers? Because it's so old that so much of the attack surface
| (e.g., libraries) just don't exist on it. If there's no code,
| there's no exploit either.
|
| Moreover, hacker groups might have a much less practical
| knowledge of dealing with these old machines. In contrast, a 2015
| MBP might be even less secure than the one used in this post.
| aliqot wrote:
| You're telling me you don't fire off a PHF exploit at random
| machines just for old time's sake? I was under the impression
| we nerds could be more honest with each other.
| behnamoh wrote:
| The OP manages their servers on this mac, but the mac itself
| isn't used as a server.
| WWLink wrote:
| Nah. The old mac has no disk encryption, so even if it's
| airgapped and sitting there off when unused, someone could
| still break in and steal it and gain access to all your secrets
| stored on its hard drive.
|
| That said, big deal? I always hated the rabbit hole security
| people get into anyway lol. There's lots of charm with using
| old machines like that Mac Classic II.
| drewzero1 wrote:
| If an adversary has physical access to _any_ machine, all
| bets are off. There were definitely vulnerabilities and
| viruses for this era of Mac but as far as I know nobody 's
| actively targeting them any more.
| dhosek wrote:
| I do remember that viruses on Macs back in the 80s were a huge
| problem thanks to the fact that the Mac would automatically run
| code on any disk that was inserted in the drive.
| drooopy wrote:
| I have no nostalgia for System 7 as my first computer was a
| Windows 95 PC, however it is my favorite OS ever made. Whenever I
| have to use a new computer, be it Mac or PC, I always aim to make
| the OS look and feel like classic Mac OS.
| the-printer wrote:
| This was a quality web log! Wholesome simple computing. The
| quintessential glass of milk filled 3/4th high on the kitchen
| counter.
| mitchbob wrote:
| Ah, memories. I worked at Apple BITD, and it was fun to pick out
| a computer to get with my annual employee discount. My favorites
| were the IIci [1], with its very clean and compact design that
| was the result of lots of user research into making the II easier
| for people to open up and upgrade, and the PowerBook 140 [2], one
| of the first Apple laptops, just because it was so damned cute.
| And for the original Macs, I still have a padded case with a
| shoulder strap, which made my SE/30 [3] a credible luggable.
|
| [1] https://apple-history.com/iici
|
| [2] https://apple-history.com/140
|
| [3] https://apple-history.com/se30
| meerita wrote:
| I tried to boot up on my iBook 2003 Mac OS 9 unsuccesfully. It
| seems once I installed OS X this computer went for this OS
| forever.
| dann0 wrote:
| I don't use one anymore, but I remain extremely fond of my now
| defunct Acorn RiscPC from 1994! I have similar feelings about the
| software and how powerful and simple it felt then!
| daggersandscars wrote:
| Thank you. I had not really thought about how much notifications
| hurt my computer enjoyment / productivity. I'm reconsidering my
| home computing strategy in light of this. I have one machine I'm
| most productive on. Reading your article made me realize it's the
| only one I have configured without notifications.
|
| At work, I cannot turn off the apps that pollute my day with
| notifications. The firm got rid of their phone system - there is
| only <popular corporate messaging app>. Previously, I could turn
| it off and tell people to call me if there's something important.
| I suspect others are stuck in this position as well.
| anthk wrote:
| >I can even chat with friends on it via IRC
|
| With Bitlbee you can connect to far more services with just an
| IRC client:
|
| https://bitlbee.org
|
| Public servers:
|
| https://www.bitlbee.org/main.php/servers.html
|
| On each server, join the "&bitlbee" channel (not a typo), and run
| the "commands" plugins in order to see the supported protocols.
|
| Usage upon connecting:
|
| https://www.bitlbee.org/user-guide.html#quickstart
|
| You can also put a RaspberryPi in your LAN with Alpine Linux
| "diskless" install (the best solution to avoid wearing out the SD
| card) and the bitlbee daemon. Then you would just connect to your
| RaspberryPi IP instead of the public server one.
|
| Finally, I forgot: sites like http://68k.news,
| http://frogfind.com will run on legacy browsers for System 7.
|
| And if you get a Gopher browser, head to gopher://hngopher.com
|
| MacLynx works: https://oldvcr.blogspot.com/2020/11/maclynx-
| beta-2.html
|
| Open it, press g, enter gopher://hngopher.com and have fun. Also,
| gopher://magical.fish and gopher://gopherddit.com
|
| There is Crypto Anciennce, TLS for legacy systems, but I didn
| try:
|
| https://oldvcr.blogspot.com/2020/11/fun-with-crypto-ancienne...
|
| On the utf-8 issue for Lynx visiting this site over HTTPS, just
| choose the Mac Encoding in the options (press "O" under Lynx
| (capital O) and then configure it for the Mac Encoding and save
| your settings). It might solve it.
| cpsns wrote:
| Very cool, somehow I've never heard of this, but it looks like
| it could be very handy. Thanks for the suggestion, I'll look
| into it and try it out on my home server.
| anthk wrote:
| Also: https://github.com/cy384/ssheven
|
| You connect to SDF.org and power boost that MAC to the
| extreme :D
|
| https://github.com/cy384/ssheven/releases/tag/0.8.9
| anthk wrote:
| Ah, paradoxically I made a typo on my comment. The correct
| command for bitlbee it's "plugins", not "commands". But as I
| pointed a link to the Bitlbee wiki at the Quickstart section
| , I think everyone would figure it out.
| anthk wrote:
| Yeah, bitlbee rocks, I use it under an i386 OpenBSD netbook
| (Atom CPU), it's much faster than Pidgin. Also, I use
| m68.news everywhere, as it can be read with no issues.
|
| Lynx on Gopher protocol will work "as is" for Mac OS 7 I
| guess, and it's very fast. 68k.news it's over HTTP and not
| HTTPS, so it will work as is too.
|
| This is the most recent version
| http://www.floodgap.com/retrotech/mac/lynx/download.html
|
| The interface it's weird and not so Mac like, I know, but it
| will fly for sure. And, well, you have Turbo Gopher too, but
| for your Mac version you would need the Threading extension.
|
| Gopher URL for Lynx:
|
| gopher://gopher.floodgap.com/1/gopher/clients/mac
|
| Proxied for the rest of machines (send it to the Classic Mac
| via AppleTalk or FTP or whatever).
|
| https://gopherproxy.meulie.net/gopher.floodgap.com/1/gopher/.
| ..
|
| Gopher it's the perfect "web" for your legacy mac in order to
| find alternative media. No ads, no trackers no MB sized
| pages. You can even find news mirrors with ease.
|
| For instance: gopher://magical.fish:70/1/news
|
| Recommended portal for lots of Gopher "holes":
| gopher://magical.fish
|
| Blog aggregator: gopher://i-logout.cz:70/1/bongusta/
|
| Old software for classic Macs
| gopher://i-logout.cz:70/1/software/Apple/Software_MacOS
|
| As you can see, if you can connect to the internet your Mac,
| you are far from obsolete. You can chat over IRC+Bitlbee to a
| big chunk of protocols, browse news, read "phlogs" from tech
| people, and even visit HN and Reddit over Gopher. HTTPS would
| be another issue, but you might be able to contact the Crypto
| Ancienne folks for help.
|
| EDIT: Well, now I focused into your shot, you already knew
| over Gopher. Still, Lynx with HNGopher (and a potentially
| well configured cryptoancienne) makes a seamless HN and
| Reddit browser over Gopher+HTTPS.
| cpsns wrote:
| I've got the Mac hooked up via an esp8266 running a SLIP
| server. Most of what I do on it web wise is through Gopher,
| it's just the best overall solution for a computer of that
| age imo.
|
| Things like HNGopher and 68k.news are great, those kinds of
| services make it very usable even in the modern world. I
| had no idea lynx ever had a 68k release, but I suppose I
| shouldn't be surprised.
|
| I have an HTTP proxy setup[1] which will downgrade https to
| http so that Netscape on the Mac can load sites, if for
| some reason I need to do so.
|
| Thanks again for the links. Someday I'd like to get a
| version of my site on gopher too.
|
| [1] https://github.com/atauenis/webone
| anthk wrote:
| What I miss from Gopherpedia it's math support. It if had
| some support thru aamath it would be heaven.
|
| https://github.com/gchudnov/aamath
| cpsns wrote:
| Hi HN, I've been ruminating of this a little bit and figured I'd
| write and post my thoughts (I'm not a good writer, sorry in
| advance). I don't expect this to get much traffic, but if it
| somehow does my cable line probably won't handle it well so
| here's an archive: https://archive.ph/VIbMD
|
| I really like this little computer and I'm sure some of you enjoy
| (or enjoyed) them too. :)
| e-_pusher wrote:
| Love this stuff! What is the tablet that is standing to the
| left of the Mac?
|
| Shameless plug to a blog post I wrote a while back, where I
| sung the praise of my old laptop that is running Windows 3.1.
|
| https://iskender.ee/2022/05/16/Laptop-1992.html
| cpsns wrote:
| It's not actually a tablet, it's a blindingly bright white
| LED, one of the lights that is supposed to help with seasonal
| affective disorder.
|
| I'm still not sure if it's pseudoscience or not, but as we
| head into the dark half of the year I'll try anything at this
| point.
|
| I have no affiliation with Canadian Tire, but this is the
| exact product: https://www.canadiantire.ca/en/pdp/ottlite-
| clearsun-led-ligh...
| joshspankit wrote:
| As someone who's been using f.lux and refining sleep
| hygiene for over a decade, if this helps you please take
| it:
|
| - Chewable Vit. D3 can help, especially if taken in enough
| dose (studies showed minimal downside from "overdoses" of
| 100,000IU for months, so I'm comfortable recommending
| 5000-7000IU as a starting does), and at the right time
| (after ingesting it takes about an hour for your body to
| bring that all in to your bloodstream, so I like to take it
| around 8AM. A bit earlier if I'm trying to wake up extra
| early, and a bit later if I forget. The latest I've taken
| it is 12pm since afternoon sun is normal and healthy)
|
| - Lamps for seasonal affective disorder can be a bit of a
| crap-shoot since there are no regulations around the term.
| If you get one and it barely (or doesn't) help, it might
| not be any good. Things that are important here: the
| spectrum of light output, and the lumens. If there are any
| sharp peaks in the wavelength it might be as helpful as an
| LCD monitor on full brightness. For a true test of whether
| the concept itself helps, you can use halogen worklights
| short-term. With those there are concerns of heat and UV
| radiation, but they provide very bright full-spectrum
| light. If those work, it would probably be worth shopping
| around for the higher-end SAD lights.
| bombcar wrote:
| I have a corncob 300 watt LED (not 300 watt equivalent
| mind you) and it works decently well for me in the
| winter. But I don't think I have SAD, just want to have
| daylight during working hours.
| wainstead wrote:
| Ah memories. My first machine was a Classic ii. I think it
| might be in a friend's garage in Ohio, will have to check with
| him. Thanks for the great post!
| janfoeh wrote:
| > I'm not a good writer, sorry in advance
|
| I found your writing style to be concise, pleasant to read and
| certainly nothing to apologize for.
| joshspankit wrote:
| Thanks for the post, for adding it to HN, and for providing an
| archive link right off the starting line.
|
| Also thanks for posting the comment because now I get to help
| correct a typo: "This Mac is uncharging ..."
| immmmmm wrote:
| maybe less fancy, but my old 15 inchs, mat screen, i got second
| hand maybe 12 years ago, handled 5 years of intensive work, live
| acts in forest rave parties, fell several times on the floor, got
| splashed many time and was mostly upgradable. if it wasn't for
| the gpu id be still using it.
|
| too bad they traded reliability for a few millimeters of
| thickness.
| hartator wrote:
| > it never begs for your attention and its applications never try
| to distract you from what you are doing, begging you to look at
| them instead.
|
| This.
|
| In the modern world, it feels everything and everyone's apps have
| a good reason to beg for your attention. I think it even
| transcends OS. On GitHub, my notifications are spammed by
| Dependabot. Who cares if my benchmark repos from 5 years ago have
| security issues.
| ericd wrote:
| I think it comes down to respect. Modern designers seem to have
| very little respect for users, and in some cases, it seems to
| veer into contempt.
|
| No, you may not disregard what I want you to do, the most I'll
| allow is for you to delay it by an hour, at which point I'll
| interrupt what you're doing again. Because I know better than
| you what you should do, despite my having zero context.
| dr-detroit wrote:
| datadata wrote:
| I don't think it is the designer's fault, it is the fault of
| data driven culture done poorly and picking the wrong
| incentives. In your example, if the dialog is say for a
| system upgrade, the metric would be percentage of users
| finishing the upgrade. An annoying, non dismissable
| notification would clearly boost this metric. Any decrease in
| user satisfaction short of public revolt on social media will
| not be noticed, or will be noticed over a time scale too long
| to be attributable to the notification change. By that time
| the PM has already taken credit for decreasing the number of
| users running old software.
| ericd wrote:
| Yeah, I think you're right that it's likely largely due to
| data-driven management. Brand damage is relatively hard to
| measure, and doesn't seem to make its way into OKR's.
| Retric wrote:
| Another way of thinking about things is that whoever is
| setting these incentives are indirectly designing the
| software, which obviously causes issues.
|
| It's shockingly easy for large companies to completely
| destroy useful software loosing out on billions per year
| with nothing obvious to blame.
| panic wrote:
| I think it's less about individual designers and more about
| the industry in general. A company that respects its users
| will find it harder to get money from advertisers and
| investors.
| NexRebular wrote:
| the industry needs better advertisers and investors, then
| Aeolun wrote:
| > Modern designers seem to have very little respect for users
|
| Tragedy of the commons. In general it's probably a good idea
| to hold a healthy disrespect for your average user.
|
| Power users used to be the norm, and as that changed, so did
| the design.
| JKCalhoun wrote:
| Loved my Mac Plus back in the 80's. (Still have it - recapped
| it and got it up and running recently -- floppy is no go -- had
| to boot with some kind of modern flash board.)
|
| No internet, no passwords. When you Shut Down the Mac -- click
| -- it shut down.
|
| Eventually, I owned a procession of more modern Macs --
| eventually the first install of Mac OS X. Shutting down the
| computer now took, curiously, a minute or so. I remember my
| coworker showing my wife Mac OS X and she even commented, "I
| don't like how long it takes to shut down." He replied, "Yeah,
| you'll have to find something _else_ to like about it. "
| fsflover wrote:
| I solved this problem by switching to GNU/Linux on the laptop
| and on the phone.
| [deleted]
| halikular wrote:
| What you said can also be true with a modern linux or bsd
| install. Use something like arch linux or nixos and only install
| the bare bones like a windows manager, text editor, irc client
| and a web browser. You'll have no notifications, it's all up to
| you and you'll also have an updated and secure machine.
| wainstead wrote:
| Or even more extreme, perhaps, TAILS on a stick and you just
| yank the stick when you're done. As long as you don't connect
| via Tor you're all alone.
| zargon wrote:
| > It will never receive another software update
|
| Well... in 2021 we binary-patched Bolo to fix a bug and make it
| more convenient to use with our new Bolo game proxy server,
| enabling Bolo games to be played over the internet again. Some of
| us at 68kmla occasionally play together.
|
| http://bolo.astrospark.com/
|
| (Universal NAT broke Bolo internet gaming. The original network
| protocol was for ring-tppology serial networks (local talk,
| econet), and when UDP was implemented it was ported over with
| very little change. So the fact that the protocol depends on
| embedding network addresses of players meant that it completely
| breaks when NAT is involved.)
| ericd wrote:
| Oh man, I'm so happy people are keeping Bolo alive. Thanks for
| doing that.
| andrepd wrote:
| > This Mac is unchanging in a world where things change by the
| minute. It will never receive another software update and is
| thoroughly obsolete, but it's comforting to have something that
| you know will stay the same forever, remaining in a known state
| every time you return to it.
|
| I knew I was not the only one feeling this. I hate that things
| which aren't broken change so much on a whim. There are certain
| software that despite no additions in functionality seem to have
| to change their design, button placement, workflows, etc, every 6
| months or so (looking at you Signal).
| bitwize wrote:
| Mine is my Amiga 500.
|
| I fire that thing up and... it seems to have most of the UI
| affordances of a modern computer, but everything is so simple and
| straightforward. And of course there's no telemetry, no intrusive
| notifications... it just does what I need it to do. It can't do
| things I expect of a modern computer, but it is symbolic of a
| time when microcomputers were designed to be fun and useful for
| their users, not to funnel them into some bigtech marketing
| pipeline.
| aj7 wrote:
| It's very amusing to see "young people" be into retro computers.
| At 71, I'm the opposite. Because I deal with actual (slow)
| functional degradation, I can't be bothered with old computers.
| That's a young man's game. 2017 iMac Pro, soon to be supplemented
| with an M1 something.
| thakoppno wrote:
| By any chance are you selling the iMac Pro and live in the bay
| area?
|
| My 2014 iMac has a failing system fan and repair seems like
| throwing away money.
| protomyth wrote:
| I will say the form factor of the classic Mac (in my case a Mac
| SE/30) was amazing for writing. The height was perfect without
| the ability of the text to go to just above the keyboard like a
| conventional monitor on a stand. I end up duplicating it by using
| half a window or finding a text editor that holds the current
| line at a certain height. It was also a very portable design. I
| have an old Color Classic II case that I sometime think I might
| mod into something a bit more modern (since it is DOA anyway).
| dhosek wrote:
| I remember in college in the late 80s (when laptops were mostly
| exotic and expensive) seeing someone walking across campus,
| carrying his Mac by the handle on the top and thinking that it
| was so cool to be able to transport a computer like that.
| whartung wrote:
| At our Mac user group meetings, it was routine for most folks
| to bring their machines. We all had these similar Mac tote
| bags.
|
| It was an interesting ambassadorial event when we'd invade a
| pizza parlor with a dozen Mac, especially after Phone Net
| showed up and we started wiring them up with technological
| equivalent of cans and string.
|
| I was practically a poster child zipping around with my Mac
| bungeed to the back of my scooter.
| alana314 wrote:
| I taped a tote bag to my imac and traveled with it as a carry
| on once.
| https://twitter.com/alana31415/status/1578492366201098240
| protomyth wrote:
| The original Mac mini fit perfectly in a camera case I had.
| That thing probably had more miles on it than some of the
| portables I've owned.
| drewzero1 wrote:
| At first I thought the original Macintosh screen was too small
| to use for meaningful work, until I fired up MS Word 5 and
| started writing. The display fits half a page at nearly 100%
| scale which made it perfect to just write, and the printed page
| would look pretty much exactly as it did on the screen.
| protomyth wrote:
| I did wish Apple had released a Mac in the original form
| factor with an 15" screen (9" width by 12" height). It would
| have been fun to have a machine that could show a whole page.
| nonesuchluck wrote:
| They did just that in 1989, with the Macintosh Portrait
| Display [1]. It was designed to fit snugly on the Mac II.
| Like other CRTs with fixed resolution and refresh rate, the
| phosphor persistence was perfectly tuned for comfortable,
| fatigue-free document viewing.
|
| Curiously, tho, I don't think it was a perfect 72dpi like
| the 9" CRT in compact Macs, so it's not precisely scaled
| with printed output.
|
| [1] https://lowendmac.com/1989/macintosh-portrait-display/
| BirAdam wrote:
| As far as it goes, one can make a modern Mac or Linux box behave
| itself. Disable automatic updates and notifications and either is
| suddenly much more enjoyable.
|
| Of course, if you really want the tactile experiences as well,
| this can be achieved with effort. ADB to USB exists, and it's
| possible to get an empty shell of a classic Mac and put newer
| components in it. For my part, I love my turbo XT, my Mac Classic
| II, and my Compaq Portable 386. I prefer one of them to any other
| machine.
| bluedino wrote:
| I never had one of those but came across them at school and
| friends houses - I could never get past that damn 9" monochrome
| screen.
| JKCalhoun wrote:
| One of my favorite parts of the machine -- that crisp display.
| Aeolun wrote:
| This is about how I feel my Pop OS! pc works. Except that it's
| more modern, and has a high resolution display.
| gbasp wrote:
| My favorite old Mac has to be the iMac G3. IMO it was the first
| truly user friendly computer, requiring almost no setup or
| technical knowhow. I know people who are hard core Mac/Apple
| users for life because the G3 was the first computer that ever
| clicked with them.
| HeckFeck wrote:
| Still have one sitting in my house. I will die defending
| translucent plastic and the platinum UI.
| Cockbrand wrote:
| I still quote the ancient iMac ad [1] when I explain something
| that seems complicated but isn't: "There's no step 3"
|
| [1] https://youtu.be/2iyMf3tlKpU
| subliminalcut wrote:
| I still have a 2012 MacBook Pro as my main laptop :(
| JALTU wrote:
| Oh, I was happily happily using my 16GB mid-2012 15" MBP as my
| main machine until the motherboard developed some issue with
| power and died a month ago.
|
| I fired up a 15" 2008 MBP to run some non-CS Photoshop and you
| know, it works great as long as I'm not using the Internet!
| It's a solid machine, and I miss it.
|
| Now typing on my work machine, an 8GB M1 13" MBP. I wouldn't
| say I've been blown away by this and it's probably because I
| need 16GB to deal with Chrome and its zombie Electrons.
| tjr225 wrote:
| This is why I am a Mac devotee. They are the Toyota of the
| computer world. Sure there's a premium, but it's worth it for
| peace of mind.
| sicp-enjoyer wrote:
| > They are the Toyota of the computer world.
|
| The hardware lasts, but the software compatibility stops way
| too quickly. So for people who aren't willing to install
| linux, etc it isn't known for longevity.
| spookybones wrote:
| Me too!
| drewzero1 wrote:
| No shame in that! My SO has one which replaced an '09 MBP a few
| years ago. I had one too and miss it dearly, should really fix
| it up so I can use it again. My main laptop is currently a 2014
| MacBook Air which is definitely a downgrade. (Plus I have to
| keep my '07 MacBook handy in case I want to watch a DVD.)
| Ian_Macharia wrote:
| 2012 MacBook Pro gang! Mines 10GB RAM though. Had to switch to
| neovim from VSCode and it's still sorta snappy for my normal
| workflow, just can't open tons of apps at the same time. Also I
| avoid any electron-based apps
| johndoe0815 wrote:
| ...and a very cute kitty!
|
| Most Classic II suffer from leaking capacitors which should be
| replaced and it's a good idea to replace the onboard battery,
| which is prone to leaking and destroying the board:
|
| https://www.classic-computers.org.nz/blog/2014-05-24-Classic...
|
| There are two different versions of the mainboard which require
| different numbers and types of capacitors:
|
| https://recapamac.com.au/macintosh-classic-ii-a/ vs.
| https://recapamac.com.au/macintosh-classic-ii-b/
| cpsns wrote:
| When I bought this Mac it was actually completely fubar. The
| internal battery ruptured and ruined the main board, so I had
| to source a "new" one. The new one came recapped by the seller
| and I recapped the analog board myself, so it should be good
| for a long time to come.
|
| You can see the rest of the gang here:
| http://muezza.ca/cats.html
| bombcar wrote:
| Heh I had a cat named Dog at one time (one named Rat also).
| tomxor wrote:
| If you also had a dog named cow it would be very on topic
| ;)
| bink wrote:
| I have never heard a thing half as crazy as that.
| ChrisMarshallNY wrote:
| We had one named Puppy.
| rob74 wrote:
| I once had a cat named Tom and one named Jerry... both
| female.
| Maursault wrote:
| My complaint about the Classic II is that it is a degraded
| SE/30, with a maximum of 10MB RAM, no coprocessor, and no
| expandability except through the external SCSI, compared to
| 128MB RAM, a coprocessor and a PDS with the SE/30.
| Restoration isn't any more difficult on SE/30, and network
| cards are not hard to find. Plus it can run A/UX and a modern
| OS, NetBSD 9 (but without a GUI, which is fine for many
| purposes), so the SE/30 is well worth the slightly higher
| investment price for a fixer-upper, and once restored, it is
| worth a $1000 or more, so easy to not only recoup investment,
| but make a tidy profit.
| zargon wrote:
| The Classic II is a low budget machine and the SE/30 is a
| workstation. They're not competitors in the slightest and
| shouldn't be compared as if they were.
| Maursault wrote:
| When they were new, agreed, but now they're both more or
| less 30yo Macs that roughly cost the same.
| II2II wrote:
| I would be surprised if the machines are remotely similar
| in price these days. The Classic II isn't a cost reduced
| version of an older model, it has also been crippled.
|
| For a lot of people, that's not going to matter. People
| seem to have the notion that old computers were only good
| for word processing and games. That is, more-or-less,
| what the Classic II was designed for. That is _not_ what
| the SE /30 was designed for.
|
| The reality is that machines like the SE/30 were targeted
| at organizations and professionals with deep pockets.
| Throw in a display adapter and a two page display, and it
| was used for desktop publishing. Throw in a network card,
| and it was used as a server. If the standard System
| Software wasn't good enough, there was even a option to
| run A/UX. _Even something as simple as RAM demonstrates
| how fundamentally different these machines were._ The
| Classic II was capped at 10 MB of RAM. The SE /30 was
| certified for 32 MB of RAM, but the hardware design
| accommodated 128 MB of RAM.
|
| A Classic II can run almost any software that an SE/30
| can, a bit more slowly and perhaps with an eye on the
| available memory. It would also be out of character for
| that machine. While basement tinkerers are not going to
| care about something being in character, collectors are
| going to care and collectors have a huge impact upon
| prices.
| Maursault wrote:
| While the top priced SE/30 today exceed the top priced
| Classic II, for the unrestored machines there is a lot of
| variance. You can find Classic II for sale on eBay for
| close to $400, but at times also find SE/30 for under
| $200. A lot depends on condition and whether the seller
| is a member of the classic macs cartel. There is a lot of
| screwing going on in the exchange of old macs. In the
| early 2000s, Classic II were consistently more expensive
| than SE/30.
| bombcar wrote:
| There's also a nostalgia factor that comes in waves -
| many people who want to relive the glory days want
| exactly what they had when young - others want the hot
| rod they always dreamed of.
| [deleted]
| johndoe0815 wrote:
| The Classic II is more or less just using the LC chipset in
| a compact Mac form factor, whereas the SE/30 was a
| repackaged IIcx and came out almost three years earlier.
| The initial price of a basic Classic II was US$1900,
| whereas the SE/30 cost a staggering US$6500.
|
| And don't remind me of the prices in Germany :). I remember
| seeing my first IIfx at our local Apple dealer, it cost
| about 35k German marks IIRC... a new VW Golf car was around
| 25k marks back then.
|
| More details on everymac.com: https://everymac.com/systems/
| apple/mac_classic/specs/mac_cla... https://everymac.com/sys
| tems/apple/mac_classic/specs/mac_se3...
| Maursault wrote:
| Apple's initial price for the SE/30 in the US was $4369,
| but price came down rapidly in the first year, ultimately
| costing less than a Mac II with greyscale card and
| monochrome monitor by the end of 1989. But that was 30
| years ago. Today, there seems to be a Mac mafia buying up
| the lower priced auctions and then jacking up prices of
| these ancient machines on turnaround, but you can still
| find an untouched SE/30 within spitting distance of the
| cost of a Classic II. They're both attractive machines in
| the compact format, but I wouldn't accept a Classic II
| for free, where I'd be tempted to buy certain particular
| SE/30 models, depending on condition, for few to several
| hundreds of dollars.
| johndoe0815 wrote:
| Interesting, the SE/30 page on everymac gives the initial
| price of $6500 I quoted above - but maybe this was not
| the price for the basic configuration.
|
| I had an SE/30 many years ago (gave it to a friend in the
| late 90s) and used it to run A/UX. Good times :). Now I
| only have a Classic II which badly needs recapping...
| bombcar wrote:
| Back then initial price may have had nothing to do with
| actual out to door price - as initial price was often set
| before the machines even could ship at all, let alone in
| quantity.
| tomxor wrote:
| I also love the feel of using these old systems, but I wonder
| how much of it is also to do with the physical experience.
|
| Do you think you would get a similar or diminished experience
| with e.g a raspberry pi and a little LCD screen etc that
| booted straight into a minivmac emulator? ... I must admit I
| get a sense of satisfaction from turning on certain old
| electronics, like the resonating "clung" of the e transformer
| in my amplifier when I flip the switch, so maybe that's all
| part of it, the sense of an appliance, something less
| fallible, and also the absence of all those layers of
| complexity under the emulator.
| cpsns wrote:
| I'm really not sure honestly. I think there is something to
| be said about having the real thing, but I'm not really
| convinced in the physical hardware over emulation debate. I
| get the same enjoyment in emulated SNES games as I did as a
| child on a real SNES for example.
|
| In this case? I enjoyed saving the Mac, fixing it, making a
| few minor upgrades along the way. Apple hardware and
| software integrates so well together and I think there's a
| lot of reason to have the whole package. That said when
| using it I'm looking primarily at the screen alone.
|
| I think it's really subjective and depends on the person
| ultimately.
| II2II wrote:
| > Do you think you would get a similar or diminished
| experience with e.g a raspberry pi and a little LCD screen
| etc that booted straight into a minivmac emulator?
|
| With vintage hardware, you are constrained by what the
| machine can do. With emulation, you are constraining what
| the machine can do. It does make a difference. To give you
| an example of what I mean:
|
| I collected vintage hardware in my university days. It was
| a time when you could get something like a Mac IIfx for
| next to nothing and still expect it to work. Well, crunch
| time came and I found that I was getting far too
| distracted. A vintage Mac provided an ideal work
| environment since it was great for preparing technical
| documents and didn't have all of the distractions of the
| Internet. Boot it into System 6 with Multifinder disabled,
| and it reduced the distraction of other software installed
| on the machine. Doing something similar with an emulator
| simply would not have been as effective. It is too easy to
| escape the sandbox in a multitude of ways.
|
| Is this a physical differentiation (i.e. based upon the
| capabilities of the hardware) or a psychological one? I
| really don't know and I really don't know if the
| distinction matters. The outcome is the significant part,
| and that outcome suggests physical hardware does make a
| difference.
| kitsunesoba wrote:
| For me it's not so much any of the physical properties of
| the machine in question (though those can be nice in their
| own way), but more of an intangible sense of "realness"
| that's difficult to attain with an emulator. It may just be
| placebo effect but I think that long time computer users
| can probably pick up on subtle differences, and that likely
| shapes the experience more than is often thought.
|
| Certainly, pulling out my PowerBook G3 Pismo is a
| significantly different experience than firing up
| SheepShaver or qemu_ppc running the same operating system.
| tomxor wrote:
| > an intangible sense of "realness" that's difficult to
| attain with an emulator.
|
| I wonder if this is due to input latency, because no
| matter how good the emulator, input devices have gotten
| waaay slower due to all of the layers in between, before
| even getting to the emulator... unfortunately it's not
| really something you can throw money at with modern
| computers.
|
| > PowerBook G3 Pismo
|
| I owned one of those, that thing is capable of frying an
| egg for real!
| joshspankit wrote:
| Came here to say this.
|
| Personally: the lower the "action to result" latency, the
| more compelling and tactile something is.
|
| We all know about the sub 100ms "golden zone", but if
| something is ~10ms (custom hardware with optimized
| software) it's significantly more real to me, and if
| something is <1ms it's almost irresistible.
|
| Like; 100ms is the barrier to entry and it goes up
| logarithmically from there.
| tomxor wrote:
| Totally agree, ~100ms feels really subpar to me, but
| unfortunately seems to have become the status quo, most
| input devices seem to end up on the order of ~10s of ms
| usually closer to the 100 end by the time they affect
| pixels... every wired mouse i try on a modern machine and
| can whip from side to side and see the latency clearly,
| like a beat in my head, if the first beat is my hand
| movement, and I can clearly "hear" the second distinct
| beat of the computer responding, which means it's clearly
| perceptible... if you can perceive it in that extreme
| then it means it affect normal use more subtly, giving a
| comparably laggy feel that most people will never put
| their finger on.
|
| From everything I've read it seems that this is just not
| going to be solved any time soon, because the latency is
| distributed across so many layers, each contributing a
| little more. Even going beyond the input bus the older
| computers are lower latency in terms of how long it takes
| for a pixel to move on the screen based on the new
| coordinate. It's a shame this isn't something that can be
| solved even in a niche way without making completely
| different hardware... I guess an FPGA could possibly come
| close, but only if you also abandoned USB input devices
| and had a custom (simpler) input bus.
| ericd wrote:
| Yeah, I think input lag is a big part of it - those old
| machines feel so ridiculously responsive.
| rob74 wrote:
| > _...and a very cute kitty!_
|
| Yeah, I guess that's actually the main advantage of a classic
| Mac with its built-in monitor - try fitting a cat beside a 4K
| monitor on that tiny desk! Plus the Mac probably emits more
| cat-attracting heat than a modern monitor...
| rtpg wrote:
| Something that is super easy to do nowadays too is to get various
| XP-era software and run it in windows XP in a VM.
|
| Honestly I feel like trying to connect to the net on some of
| these devices feels a bit silly, but you can get lots of work
| done and wear nostalgia goggles. All at blazing fast speeds
| anthk wrote:
| Most XP software will run as is under 7 and older OSes.
| robalni wrote:
| My current favourite computer is a Fitlet2 that runs Debian. I
| have two of that computer: one server and one desktop. It's tiny,
| silent, beautiful and with an operating system that doesn't try
| to do anything other than letting me do what I want. I can get
| the same feeling about that computer as what I read in this
| article.
|
| I want there to be more nice computers.
| insane_dreamer wrote:
| I really should get one of these these. I sadly never owned one,
| though I had an Apple IIe and an Apple IIc.
|
| My favorite though would have to be the G4 Cube.
| dhosek wrote:
| I bought one of those refurbished in 2001 and it was a
| fantastic machine. I used it for live recording setups,
| transporting it in a suitcase along with keyboard, monitor,
| mouse and 8-track A/D system, padded with towels. I only gave
| it up when I bought my first PowerBook.
| [deleted]
| intrasight wrote:
| Mine is my favorite computer that I never use. Hasn't been
| plugged in for about 35 years.
| shadytrees wrote:
| I hope the author has found their way to joshua stein's blog:
| https://jcs.org/
| mikewarot wrote:
| There's just something about that 68000 series processor with all
| those registers that seems very appealing. The silly part is I've
| got 16 64 bit registers in the machine I'm using right now.
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