[justinator]

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.

[cesaref]

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.

[justinator]

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.

[cesaref]

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.

[scyzoryk_xyz]

It was a WTF but a hugely positive one the way I remember it. For the first 5 years or so at least.

[bdavbdav]

How was it a WTF

[justinator]

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!

[Clamchop]

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.