I couldn't agree more with Dan's post on the usability/non-usability of OS X on a C500/600. I've got OS X running on a Pismo 400 with 320MB RAM (so far) and sometimes that feels a bit slow and cramped. OS X seems to like having a LOT of everything i.e. fast processor, tons of RAM, fast hard disk, fast/wide system bus, super fast video card. On older hardware it really gets tight and since the upgrade market for Macs isn't too promising at best, we on the low end don't have much choice in staying current other than to just buy brand new Mac. Thus I start thinking of saving for that newer machine and selling off the old ones.
But I can't do it! Maybe I could for the other machines like the Pismo and the iBook but I just can't sell/give away/retire/bury/shoot/etc. my beloved C600. Just today as I was trying to get Linux to boot (as always the case lately) with this darned Sonnet L2 card, I began toying once again with the idea of getting a used beige or a blue-and-white G3 or even an early Graphite G4 hell, maybe even an S900 or a 9500 would do me better than this. Any one of those machines would easily give me better upgrade options, more expandability, and an easier time finding support and/or workarounds. Certainly one of those would give me less headaches when it comes to booting Linux. Yet, not one of those machines WOULD ever replace my C600 which has secured it's position on top of my desk, showcased for all the world to see in its splendiferous glory. It's not a religious (or sacrilegious) thing, it's sentimental. I really just love my machine and I'm not quite ready to retire it yet. Outside of this list, I sometimes feel as if I am one of last of the universe's C500/600 or 6400 owners, few of us are actually out there trying to maintain our machines and keep them up to date, while the rest (wherever they may be) either don�t/won't communicate with the outside world or have no interest in upgrading whatsoever. That aside, the grass seems almost always greener for you 604 owners out there than for us lowly peons running off of 603s. I mean, geez we can't even get processor upgrades anymore that'll actually go into the processor slot! Thus were stuck with this L2 upgrade crap with a totally hidden interface and that still sells for over 150 bucks (*more than our entire machines are worth*) and isn't even actively supported anymore. Hell, if we want to add 10/100 ethernet without losing one of the few precious PCI slots, we've got to buy a card that costs more than the resale value of the entire machine. The C-Series has definitely died to developers (a long time ago) however, the retailers aren't giving any breaks in their pricing. It's just about as expensive as it was last year and the year before. Yet still we upgrade anyway, why???? My reason, it's a hobby, almost an addiction. It's that hacker mentality I guess. As long as I can eek out the minimum requirements, I'M GOING TO FIND A WAY TO STUFF THIS MACHINE WITH AS MUCH OF THE LATEST, GREATEST CODE AS I POSSIBLY CAN! Surely, we as C500/600 owners have kind of hit the vertical limit as far as OS X goes. Maybe it'll bring our machines to a grinding, smoking halt, but until that day comes, many of us choose to keep foraging ahead. Surely our machines won't be as snappy as with OS 8, we almost certainly won't be nearly as productive. But just to see our old machines surviving and maintaining a spot in the current race (albeit last place), is an accomplishment within itself. It's an "I can do what can you do, I may be a bit slower and uglier but I can still do it", kind of an attitude. Who cares if a new G4 loaded to the hilt with RAM can crank out hundreds of hours of DVD quality footage in the same time that it takes us just to boot the darn thing on our machines. Another thing is the features. There's no denying OS X has a bunch of features any Classic Mac OS couldn't ever dream of providing. I personally enjoy learning the command line on a Mac and compiling my own Unix apps while still looking at a pretty desktop picture, lovely photo-realistic icons, and an amusing, bouncy, elastic dock-launcher thing. I absolutely dreaded working on the Solaris/SunOS terminals at school but since OS X, I'm seeing Unix in a whole new light and I'd like to explore this also on my C600, which should be able to run Unix just fine given its resources already. The tricky part is getting all that cycle-swallowing, RAM-hogging GUI Mac stuff to run on top of Unix. IMHO, having such a processor and RAM intensive OS run on a machine that was meant to be low-end "5 years ago!" is kind of missing the point of OS X. OS X seems to be Apple's attempt at providing a stable, production-house quality, and feature-rich OS to the consumer and include many features that our machines just weren't built to support. With recent advances in technology, these features that weren't even dreamed of years ago, are now being made possible. While I personally wouldn't realistically aspire to running OS X on my C600 in a production environment, I could definitely understand someone's intentions in trying to get it to run and I would also be inclined to help in any effort on getting it to boot. I think dwelling on how awfully slow a C600 will run OS X misses the point of actually running OS X on a C600. I nor any other C600 owner would ever expect this thing to win in any Photoshop bakeoffs. But that doesn't mean that it can't produce fair enough results and wont satisfy some geeky desire just to get it to run when everyone's saying it's impossible. We're just doing what Apple told us to do all along: thinking different. Just my take on it. Seth -- SuperMacs is sponsored by <http://lowendmac.com/> and... Small Dog Electronics http://www.smalldog.com | Refurbished Drives | Service & Replacement Parts [EMAIL PROTECTED] | & CDRWs on Sale! | Support Low End Mac <http://lowendmac.com/lists/support.html> SuperMacs list info: <http://lowendmac.com/supermacs/list.shtml> --> AOL users, remove "mailto:"; Send list messages to: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For digest mode, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subscription questions: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Archive: <http://www.mail-archive.com/supermacs%40mail.maclaunch.com/> Using a Mac? Free email & more at Applelinks! http://www.applelinks.com
