G4 iBook

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Hi,

I'm about to buy an old ibook G4 from a colleague for £100. It's a price I can afford and Im only really looking for something to take from place to place to type on and access the internet and perhaps watch a bit of iplayer or a dvd or something...

1. thats a fair price isnt it? or should i get some sort of netbook which is up to date, lightweight and only a hundred or so more??

2. it seems to be in good working order, though a bit slow - I was thinking of messing about with it a bit and having a go at installing something more lightweight - like linux - should I try this? do others have good experiences?

3. if I dont end up installing linux cos im too lazy and all talk - which OS should I run. I think it is currently running tiger, but could run leopard. Its old -4 years.

Thanks for your advice in anticipation...Ive been using macs since I was 18 (8 years) and have always been happy (that said my emac died on me after 2 years and so did another old ibook ive had)...anyway still a fan - lord knows why after all that!

Cheers
Mike
 

chscag

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Nothing wrong with buying an iBook G4 for £100 provided it's in fairly good condition. To be honest, I'm not at all thrilled with the quality of Netbooks that are being sold. And if buying one is going to cost you another £100 or so, I would opt for the iBook.

As for what OS you should be running on it, I would leave it alone and just run Tiger. Installing any version of Linux on a Mac can be a hit and miss thing which could possibly leave you with a dead iBook.
 
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thanks for the reply.

I appreciate your advice - the ibook is in good condition but is a bit slow.

I plan to do a full reboot of it - on your advice, sticking with Tiger.

Are there many things that just wont work on a g4 anymore? The previous owner says she has trouble with watching iplayer and youtube - the machine slows down and she attributes this to not enough ram...

Could it be something else that will be fixed with the reboot? Thats what Im banking on...dont think G4's should be slow even 5 years down the line. or should they? What kinds of things will slow one down?

I didnt think ram updates were that common on macs anyway?

Well thanks for answering and reading!

Mike
 

pigoo3

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Could it be something else that will be fixed with the reboot? Thats what Im banking on...

Most likely not! You can bank on it...but you're most likely going to be disappointed. A 5 year-old computer is a 5 year-old computer. It will be fine for some tasks...but not all.

Sounds to me you're expecting a 5 year-old computer to be almost as good as a new computer...but for just £100. There's a reason why you can this computer for £100...and a new entry level Macbook costs £849...it's 5 year's old, and just can't do it all anymore!

Your friend is absolutely correct...this computer probably can't play You-Tube videos very well. That's very consistent with many G4 computers and older that are now 5+ years old.

It would also help if you told us the specifications of this computer! There were only 24 different Powerbook G4 models....so it's hard to know what you're looking at. Some are certainly more capable than others.

The bottom line is £100 is not necessarily a bad price for the computer :)...but it's not going to be anywhere nearly as good as a £849 Macbook.

- Nick
 
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I hate to say this and will probably be banned for this ... but if you really are wanting to watch YouTube or any of the Video sites out there (ie. Hulu and the like) spend the extra $$ and go for a NetBook (1.6GHz or Better, Nvidia ION or one of the newer Dual Core Atoms)

I have had the 1.33GHz iBook G4 ( I did love that machine BTW) and it was great for mild surfing the web listening to Music on iTunes and even watching DVD's But when it comes to watching Adobe Flash ... well it leaves a lot to be desired.. the iBook will not perform well. Not only that but there are many application that will not run on G4 much less G5 Processors any more ... even to get Dvix and Xvid to work right you have to scoure the web to get an older version.

Hope this helps
 

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