How Many of You Use old Macs?

jwstewar · Mar 3, 2004

Now I feel really bad. Late last year I had a bunch (9 or 10) of old Macs given to me by a company that I do work for once in a while. Thinking they were too old I pulled the RAM, Hard drives, and CD-ROMS out of them and set them out along the road where I normally set the trash. Funny thing is they kept disappearing and it wasn't even trash day. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif Now to really make you/me feel bad, these were all at least G3 - 300s with at least 256 MB of RAM. If I would've known you where running dinosaurs if you would've been willing to pay shipping you could've had some or all of them. I even had all of the software for them including several copies of Mac Office 98, Anti-virus, TechTools, Retrospect....and the list goes on.

PineRidge · Mar 3, 2004

Our Mac has long since been retired. Because of the Internet business we currently run 4 computers. We normally run a computer for 3 to 4 years maximum before we replace it with a new model. The computer that I am currently typing on will be replaced the 18th of this month. A new Gateway is now being built. We normally reformat the hard drive on the retired computers and donate them to the computer science lab of the local high school. That way someone gets the benefit of using it for whatever reason they see fit.

I believe my first computer was a Commodore and I think it had an old tape drive, but that really goes back a few years.

Harv · Mar 3, 2004

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( Now I feel really bad. )</font>

You think you feel bad!!!

I appreciate the afterthought, though. /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

MossRoad · Mar 3, 2004

Nice emoticon, Harv!

Tractors4u · Mar 3, 2004

My first computer was a Vic 20. I dreamed of the day when I would jump up to the Commodore 64. I saved my money one summer when I was about 13- or 14 and bought the Vic for like $95. I would buy the PC magazines that would have programs in it that readers sent in and I would spent the better part of the evening typing the program in to see what it would do. Of course at that time I didn't have and other hardware so when I shut the computer down there went all my typing. For Christmas that year I got a tape drive. I thought I was in high cotton then. I had a few games for it. One was a game called Voodoo Castle. It was a text only adventure game. You would type in look and it would discribe what your surroundings were. You would have to type in to pick up an object. I spent hours playing that game. I had a hand drawn map of the castle so I could keep up with where I was at and where certain objects were. How things have changed.

MossRoad · Mar 3, 2004

So you remember a peek and a poke? /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

jwstewar · Mar 3, 2004

I remember playing peek's & poke's on my old Radio Shack Trash-80. Never could get those things quite figured out. Wasn't sure when I was supposed to peek or if I should've poked. /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif I remember though if you peeked when you should poked it turned my screen a bunch of funky colors. /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif

GaryM · Mar 3, 2004

A friend had a Commodore Pet computer. And my first computer was an Atari 800! 64K of RAM. I had the tape drive and the floppy drive both. Used a 13" color TV as the display, but the TV would only display 40 characters per line.

yellowsocks93 · Mar 3, 2004

Don't worry I have a newer Gateway with 2.6 Ghz Pentium 4. I like the old mac since it's sweet machine and the first computer I used as a young lad back in the early 90s. I don't consider it old. 11 years ago it was fast and 11 years ago was not long ago. If it was from the 70s that's a different story. The Mac has a way more reliable OS than Windows so for college I am going to buy a new Mac laptop. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

BillyP · Mar 3, 2004

I guess I shouldn't say this but oh well, it's been done before /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

But have you had the opportunity to use Windows XP Pro? I find it very reliable. Reliable as in saying I've never had a single crash or had to reboot. Of course I'm no puter expert but I did live through Win 95, which was a nightmare.