Just got my first Mac!

... off someone's curb.

It's a PowerPC 6500 I think. Pretty old, but I cleaned out all the dustbunnies and booted it up and it appears to work perfectly fine.

I still need to go buy a keyboard and mouse.

I'm wondering if anyone can shoot me some pointers on this old bucket. I'm actually thinking about using it as my primary workstation and move my current XP box to be a dedicated HTPC.

I've never owned a Mac before, so I'm pretty much clueless. Looks like it has MacOS 8.6. Can this thing run OSX? I'm not concerned about gaming or anything... that's what the HTPC is for. And I presume I can get Remote Desktop or VNC software to let me connect to my HTPC for any other high end stuff I need. But I don't see any reason why this little setup won't work.

So, any pointers or words of wisdom? Thanks!

Congratulations on recieving a Macintosh.

Because your processor is so old, I doubt your computer can run Mac OS X Tiger.


I have a brand new Intel Core 2 Duo iMac. 1.83 GHz processor, 17-inch screen.


Pretty Damn Good.

OS X is only supported on G3 or higher Macs, although some people have been able to use hacks to get it working on older machines.

Alrighty.

Maybe Ill put linny on it or somethin. I might even stick with this 8.6 since Ive used MacOS for all of five minutes total in my entire life.

I just got done hunting for a keyboard and mouse... looks like if I want retail I'd end up putting more into this thing than it's worth. To eBay I go!

You will need an Apple Desktop Bus keyboard & mouse. You should be able to find them dirt cheap on eBay.

yup already have a few on watch.

However I just pulled a USB card out of an old box and found that it is compatible with this Mac, so I should be able to use any USB kbd and mouse!

I don't know why I find this thing so entertaining... it's a 10 year old piece of junk that someone else literally threw away. Brings back memories of dumpster diving for hardware and codes I guess.

I also have a question...

I want a MAC to "play" with and found one at the local Pawn Shop for 595.00.

The question I have is the HDD in it is only 1.5 Gigs

It is one of those "All in One" thingys and pretty cool looking, but I don't want to waste that much money if I can help it..

I think it has Operating System 9 on it??? Maybe???

So anyway, why so small a HDD? Is this normal for a MAC? Do they make affordable HDD's in the range of 500 GIG like I have on my PC?

Semper

Originally posted by semperfortis
I also have a question...

I want a MAC to "play" with and found one at the local Pawn Shop for 595.00.

The question I have is the HDD in it is only 1.5 Gigs

It is one of those "All in One" thingys and pretty cool looking, but I don't want to waste that much money if I can help it...

That doesn't make much sense to me, with that high a price, you'd think it would be a recent model, but I'm sure nothing has been made with just a 1.5 gig HD in a long time.

What exactly does it look like? Does it have a CRT or a flat panel display?

Originally posted by apc
However I just pulled a USB card out of an old box and found that it is compatible with this Mac, so I should be able to use any USB kbd and mouse!

Yeah that should work too...I didn't even think about that!

It is the TV looking thing with the CD door directly under the screen...

Blue and white

Like this only blue...



So it is too high priced?

Remember I know little about computers and nothing about Macs

Semper

I believe I recall reading somewhere sometime that those iMacs were plagued with problems. However when it comes to Macknowledge you and I are likely on par.

and yeah that hdd is pretty damn small... I doubt it was OEM, but my curbside PowerPC has a 15gigger in it.

I find pawnshops are usually a ripoff anyway for anything but guns.

[edit on 28-4-2007 by apc]

I would say that's way overpriced. You can find something similar on eBay for less than $100. For $599 you can buy a brand new Mac Mini with an Intel dual core processor (that doesn't come with a display though).

lol this thing is freakin' my cat out... it apparently has some voice prompt software running because when it boots up it goes,
"Oh dear! Your clock is... Oh dear! Some of your Quicktime software is out of date." in a digitally seductive female voice.

Couldn't get any USB stuffs to work... dunno a thing about Mac hardware installation so I must be missing something. I got an ADB keyboard/mouse combo for 20bux on the way though.

Looks like it's a 6400/200 too. That's a Mot 68K chip isn't it? Or was that just the Classics? Just tryin to think of what all I can do natively on this thing to justify turning my P4/2.6 box into a dedicated HTPC. Backwards logic I know, but damnit I wanna!

It's a PowerPC 603e 200MHz chip.

Here's the full specs:

docs.info.apple.com...

Install something like Gentoo PPC on it with XFCE. Compiling can be done from another much stronger machine in your possession.

woohoo! keyboard came today! now I can get into this sucker and see if the previous owners left any pron on it!

I might do linux after I tinker with MacOS a bit. If I do it'll be debian... pretty sure they have a ppc port. Maybe even BSD since I haven't ran it in years.

Aw damnit... looks like the owner of this box was a parish administrator from '88 to '96 (her resume is on here). I guess there's no nudey pics.

However it does seem they are deeply in debt. I guess they didn't read Proverbs.

>
OK... there is a considerable amount of information on here that they really do not want falling into the hands of someone who knows how to take advantage of it. Someone like me. I am emailing them to let them know that they made a huge mistake and would be wise not to make it again in the future (I'm one of those kind oldschool hackers that actually told admins when they got owned so they could fix it).

So to everyone else out there who tosses old computers on their curb... make sure all your sensitive data is securely deleted first. Please.

[edit on 2-5-2007 by apc]