appleStill Looking to Scratch That Nostalgic Itch (or how I still *might* buy a PowerMac)
So I've spent the last week reading through various threads on the Mac Rumors Forums where people are talking about keeping the old PowerPC Macs alive, updating OS components, finding old software, writing new software - it really is quite amazing how far some people have pushed this old architecture!
All of that has made me even more nostalgic for a PowerPC Mac now - I still don't think it's actually a good idea but as has been pointed out to me I do love to scratch a geeky itch and though it serves no practical purpose I would probably get a lot of fun out of the endeavour, and it's hard to quantify that! It also helps that the prices of G5 PowerMacs are pretty reasonable right now, so even if it doesn't get a lot of use I wouldn't feel so bad about it sitting under my desk turned off a lot of the time.
So off to TradeMe and Facebook Marketplace I go! I originally wanted another 12" PowerBook but there don't seem to be any available in our small market here in NZ (though there is a really nice condition 15" 1.67GHz one here, one of the last ones and comes with a high res screen), and after reading through a bunch of the Mac Rumors threads it looks like I'll be better off with a G5 PowerMac anyway, preferably a dual or quad CPU one as the G4's are really slow these days (I mean the G5's are too, but at least they are a lot more usable than the G4's now). So the search is on for a late model G5 to sit under my desk and occasionally fire up to tinker with, I can't wait (unless I change my mind again and realise this whole thing is a bit silly 😀).
Scratching that Nostalgic Itch (or how I almost bought a PowerMac)
It's been a few years now since I last used a PowerPC based Mac (after holding out until 2013 when I finally retired my then ancient PowerBook and bought an Intel MacBook Pro) but I stumbled across a post that made me all nostalgic for the PowerPC era (and OS X Leopard which I think looks much nicer than macOS Tahoe does, that's for sure!).
What I need to use a computer basically boils down to three things - a terminal of some sort, a text editor and a browser. I'd need something capable of rendering the web in 2026, and as Leopard Webkit (which I used to use back when I had my G4 PowerBook) hasn't seen an update since 2018 I looked into the other alternative from back in the day, TenFourFox, a fork of Mozilla Firefox. Unfortunately major development for that browser stopped in 2020, and though there are occasional updates you need to build it from source yourself.
A bit of Googling showed a few ports of TenFourFox as people stepped in to keep the dream alive, but they too petered out after a few years, until AquaFox picked up the mantel. This project takes the source from TenFourFox and adds some of the latest changes from FireFox ESR 128 for security, plus some other tweaks to make life a bit easier on PowerPC. The main attraction though is that you can now download browser builds once again rather than having to compile it yourself (and I think the icon looks waaaaaay better than TenFourFox ever did!).
So, there is a modern(ish) browser available, I still really like the layout of Leopard and a machine can be had relatively cheaply second hand. After scouring the second hand sites locally here in NZ I was looking at buying a dual CPU G5 PowerMac when I had to stop myself and actually think about what I was trying to achieve here - would I actually use the large, noisy, power hungry G5 beast to scratch that nostalgic itch or would it sit powered down under my desk as the reality of low res graphics, outdated software and slow performance kicked in? I don't have any real use for such a machine, other than it would look cool. Things like YouTube would only run at ridiculously low resolutions to work at all, much of the other software would be very outdated (though I've been impressed at what the hobby community have done to keep things running on these older PowerPC machines - I mean there's a ChatGPT client available!) and I'm now used to things like smooth 4K graphics, mouse gestures, modern apps and things Just Working™. When I realised that a Raspberry Pi 5 had better performance while fitting in the palm of my hand (as it should after 20 years more development!) and only consuming ~6 watts vs the 250 that a dual G5 would, I reluctantly backed away from the "buy now" button.
I'll still keep my eye out for an old G4 Mac Mini or similar (which is waaaay slower than the G5 even) to scratch that retro itch, but I think I need to park the dream that I'd actually use such a machine for anything other than turning on once in a blue moon to reminisce.