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by cesaref 1007 days ago
I think the best PowerPC based apple laptop was the Powerbook G4 titanium. It's pretty much a design classic, was lightweight, and ran OS9. It was I think the first Mac that didn't feel like a massive compromise when running a laptop vs a desktop machine. It introduced widescreen displays, and the 1Ghz model even came with a DVD writer if I remember.

It struggled with some design problems, notably that the hinges failed, and the display ribbon rubbed causing display problems after been opened/closed too many times.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PowerBook_G4

If we head back to 68k days, then the Powerbook Duo was awesome. This was definitely a compromised machine for portability vs a desktop though.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PowerBook_Duo
1 comments
justinator 1007 days ago
This laptop was destined to be an all-time classic, but they could never get the G4 to perform well in a laptop. They promised much, delivered little.

They never were able to deliver a G5 laptop. And then Apple went Intel, one of the greatest WTFs in recent memory.

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cesaref 1006 days ago
I don't remember this being an issue at all. My 1Ghz G4 laptop was a workhorse for me for software development back then. I do remember fan noise though, and paint flaking off the case.
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justinator 1006 days ago
The G4 was old news when that laptop came out. I had a G4 tower in the 90's. Apple promised much more and couldn't deliver.
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cesaref 1005 days ago
Yes, that's a good point. The G5 was a failure, ran too hot, didn't perform as well as hoped and hence the move to Intel.
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scyzoryk_xyz 1007 days ago
It was a WTF but a hugely positive one the way I remember it. For the first 5 years or so at least.
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bdavbdav 1007 days ago
How was it a WTF
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justinator 1006 days ago
Completely changing the underlying architecture wasn't something that was known to always work back then, especially when it meant ditching your own PowerPC alliance. Despite the Jobs Reality Distortion Field on 11, those chips were not performant when compared to the competition. Much was promised, little was delivered.

Gather 'round and we'll talk about clones next!

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Clamchop 1006 days ago
Up to that point, their marketing had long been derisive of Intel parts and overstating the supremacy of PowerPC. (Supercomputers, anyone?)

It's marketing, that's what it does, but an about-face like that is eyebrow-raising.

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