I'm Thinking Different Now...
Well, this may come to a surprise to some, but I'm now the proud owner of an Apple iMac. No, not the new LCD one, it's a Ruby iMac G3/400 (Summer 2000 revision) with Mac OS 9.0.4. I bid on it on eBay about a week ago and it arrived last night. Right now I'm still making space for it, but it should come in handy as a secondary computer and test box.
I got it really for three reasons — (1) It'd be cool to spend some time playing around with a Mac. I do a lot of helpdesk work and I felt it was time I knew my way around a Mac, (2) I want to do a Linux vs. Mac OS X piece on Open for Business, (3) it should make a nice box to use in a previously uncomputerized room. Additionally, while not a priority, I will probably try LinuxPPC as an added bonus.
At any rate, as I said, right now it has Mac OS 9.0.4, but I plan to acquire a copy of OS X Jaguar soon (Amazon was selling it for $79.95, but I decided to wait until I had the system in my hands before I bought software for it, and now they are selling it for $109.95!). While I am more interested in Mac OS X than OS 9, one good thing about buying an older Mac is that it does still runs OS 9 so that I can try that out too.
Anyway, I'll post more experiences as I get them, especially once OS X arrives. My first glance opinion is that it's a very nice system with an elegant design (the Apple Pro mouse looks like a piece of art), although the way things are done in Mac OS 9 seems a bit awkward to this Linux (previously Windows (previously DOS)) user. For starters: gimme a shell!
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RE: I'm Thinking Different Now...
Well, I’ve got Linux on my desktop, but have kept Mac OS Jaguar on my ibook. I think that’s the way I’m going to keep it.
One complaint of mine about the Macs ship with single-button mousish things. It’s easy enough to swap the mouse for another one, but it’s harder to do the same thing for a laptop (although I could add in a USB mouse).
Regarding the want of a shell, you can find one in Applications/Utilities (Terminal) and it’ll bring you to a tcsh prompt (I think that’s the default shell). You can also download Apple’s X-Server (based on Xfree-86, but the Apple version is accelerated). From there you may want to try installing something like fink, which includes debian-ish tools.
RE: I'm Thinking Different Now...
Uh oh, Tim has a Mac. And a Ruby one too. My first computing love are Macs. My first computer was a PowerBook 1400. I even bought a new processor on e-Bay and had that thing screaming at 83 mHZ. I lasted a good while and I still have it, can’t seem to get rid of it. Sigh I want another Mac.
I will be interested in hearing all of your opinions on it.
RE: I'm Thinking Different Now...
Yeah, I know what you mean David about the mouse… the Pro Mouse is really neat, but it does need an RMB. It could also use a scroll wheel! If only my Logitech MX700 mouse could have two base stations so I could use it on my PC and then carry it into the other room and use it with my Mac! Time to dig up my old Logitech iFeel mouse (the “i” doesn’t have any relation in this case to the iMac), perhaps. Thanks for the tips with the shell and fink. Right now I’m still stuck in 9.0.4 land, although I’m planning to order OS X tomorrow, so soon enough I will give that a try.
Yup, a Ruby one, Christopher… It says “hi.”
I was actually going after an Indigo or something (well, actually, I’d love to get a “New iMac,” but I couldn’t justify the price), but this one was suppose to be “like-new” (it seems to be) and came with the original discs, so I went for it… I kinda like it now that I have it. I have a PowerBook 140 which I picked up at a flea market a few years back and it’s still chugging along twelve years after its original release… I think it goes at a mind blowing 6 MHz with a 40 meg SCSI disk (and System 7.0.1). Other than that, though, this is my first experience in the Mac world, so its interesting.
At any rate, I definitely will post opinions soon. I also need to respond to that e-mail you sent me so that you can get going with a Liquid-styled Linux desktop. I can’t figure out why the mirror I sent you didn’t work, but at any rate… I think you’ll be pleased with Liquid once you get it working.
-Tim