On 28/07/2005, at 4:03 AM, W. Adrian D'Alessio ( FluxStringer ) wrote:
And what exactly can it do beyond simply running the OS?
Hos stable is it under heavy load?
How fast can it run a 3D raytracer or Final Cut?
You've got to be joking. Why are you even on this list?
I've been running this machine on OSX since early 2001, much of that
time as my only Mac, though I currently split my time about 50/50
between the PowerBook and my dual 2.0 G5.
A couple of days ago I was at a developer's meeting, using it to log
in to a pair of Intel Macs (see my gf's blog http://www.hoult.org/
~canllaith/blog/) using ssh over airport extreme, working to bring up
the Boehm garbage collector and the Gwydion Dylan compiler. With six
hours genuine battery life (with two not exactly new batteries in the
dual bays) I was still going long after others with shiny Ti or Al
things hit their rechargers.
It runs Tiger noticeably faster than it ran Panther (which was also
unsupported and ran flawlessly for more than a year). It ran Panther
faster than Jaguar (which was supported). It ran Jaguar *much*
faster than it ran Puma or Cheeta.
A normal load for this Powerbook consists of some combination of
Mail.app, iChat, Safari, emacs, Terminal, iTunes, iCal, Colloquy, MT
NewsWatcher, Preview, Word and/or Excel 2004 and sometimes Skype. It
is perfectly stable even if it runs with 500+ MB of swapped-out junk
and near 100% CPU much of the time. And using it for those sort of
tasks it's often barely noticeable that it's a bit slower than the
G5. More than one person has bought a Mac after playing with OSX on
it and saying "Gosh, this is really usable! So, if I bought, like, a
450 MHz iMac for $100, it'd be even better? Let alone the slowest
new iBook?"
I also use it for doing Mac development. The latest XCode runs just
fine, and with the (much faster) gcc4 and zerolink in Tiger it's
actually very pleasant for working on small to medium projects when I
don't feel like sitting in my office.
I also use it for Linux development, using ssh and X to work remotely
on my Athlon 3200+.
The only thing really wrong with it is that the screen is too darn
small compared to the 1600x1200 LCD on my G5 and Athlon, but then
it's exactly the same as a current model iBook or 12" PowerBook in
that regard -- except the WallStreet screen is nicer than the current
ones. Oh yeah, and it's a seven year old machine but I *still* run
the backlight on the lowest setting indoors, whereas the new machines
seem to need much closer to full brightness to be usable.
Of course if I want to run iMovie or iDVD or X-Plane or play movie
trailers larger than "medium" size then I use the G5. d'oh.
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