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"even people i know that run out an buy Rev A products seem to do fine."

Well, you don't know me, but I've had trouble with a Rev. A iMac; Apple didn't provide enough cooling for the FBT on the analog board. As a result, the built-in monitor is now useless, and the computer won't power up if you still have it connected to the dead monitor. (It didn't even "sad Mac." It had us thinking there was a power supply problem for a while.)

I opened up the case and plugged in a monitor from a Performa PPC, and that works fine except that when the computer goes to sleep automatically, the monitor stays on and just displays black. Interestingly, if you explicitly tell the iMac to go to sleep, the monitor sleeps correctly.

Good description of the problem and how to fix it:
http://www.macopz.com/columns/imacrepair/

I like Apple (for the most part), but I'm never going to buy Rev. A again.

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This is not a signature.

But here's the real reason I've never bought a Mac, and will continue to not by Macs: I like building computers.

The G4 motherboards worked great in PC cases, but it's amazing some of the mac casemods out there.

I was given an iMac with what turned out to be a busted flyback transformer. I was able to get some use out of it by removing the bottom panel and connecting an external PC monitor via a Mac-video-to-vga converter. I'm pretty sure you can also remove the power to the analog board, which would address your concern.

I like the iMac case - it's like a 3-D puzzle trying to get it apart and back together.

I like the Mac OS X, but hate that I can't build a Mac.

Why Not?

However, Apple is the only company that sells a complete computer system that runs MacOS. That makes them a hardware monopoly.

1. Exclusive control by one group of the means of producing or selling a commodity or service.
2. A company or group having exclusive control over a commercial activity

But let's not lose context here. They're talking about whole categories of service. Look, I know you like Mac OS X. I love it. But it's not a necessary thing. There are plenty of other OS's. Software companies are not forced to release Apple-only software unless Apple shells out the cash and buys them outright.

And even then, we see Apple release PC versions and appeal to the PC market with the iPod.

There are plenty of other choices. Apple does not control the market. They are a tiny little corner-sliver of the market. Once they have Microsoftian marketshare, then we can worry.

Until then, calling a company that doesn't even have 10% of the marketshare in an open market a monopoly is a gross abuse of the word.

Where the hell am I supposed to buy a non-Apple PowerPC motherboard that boots MacOS natively (not through something like MaconLinux on LinuxPPC)? The last company that tried to sell complete systems sourced their motherboards by buying real Apple boards as spare parts from Apple repair centers, and Apple wasted no time in releasing the hounds (lawyers) on them.

The biggest obstacle is getting the OpenFirmware set up just so. And you can, as you mentioned, use LinuxPPC as a trampoline if you find this obstacle insurmountable.

The issue isn't about opening Fairplay and risking its security by obscurity. The issue is allowing other copy protected music to play on iPods (whether that's a good thing or not) and Apple protecting its iTunes/iPod vendor lock in.

Unless of course Real paid Apple for their time and gave them the format and the hoops they had to jump through. But then Real would complain that it's their IP, and it would undercut their online music store if Apple could offer their songs in Real Format too.

Let's get this straight. You're telling a small company in a competitive market that is currently favorable to give up advantages. Not because it's the law, or that it's even ethical. It's because people would find it convenient.

Real can't even be bothered to maintain mac compatibility on their store! This kind of deal has to go both ways. Real is getting something from Apple if Apple allows this deal. And what does Apple get in return? Apple can't afford to give away something for nothing, and all the work to keep Real's extension working would fall on their engineers!

Oh, and Real has a real history of quality software. I'm sure Apple is quite confident in Real's software engineering ability. NOT!

I could see Real saying, "Apple. We will give you money if you allow our files to play on your player. We'll pay you for the engineering and a royalty because we're in on your brand." I could even see Apple seriously considering such a deal. Heck, I could see Apple buying Real and heavily leveraging their tech to push themselves further in the PC side of the music world.

I cannot see Apple giving handouts to a competitor that doesn't want to give anything back except more competition.

No, it isn't a problem.

I expect they don't shut down the torrents not because they want beta testers, but just because the distributed nature of torrents makes them hard to shut down without a very active team of people trying to always find where they crop up. It's possible, but would require some human resources.

For folks with Panther seeds, IIRC it's recommended to feed in bugs through the user's ADC account radar/bugreporter. Note that ADC accounts also have records of e-tickets for WWDC 2003, so in theory it's possible to track individual 'illegal' users through bug reports too, so if you weren't at WWDC you may not want to report any you find.

ed

Have you ever heard of these machines called...ahh...what was it...ummm...APPLE!?

Seriously though, OSX is already a *nix, and from what I understand you can run a number of flavours of Linux ( Yellow Dog is one...) in/under/over/though OSX which means you can still do things like use the dvd reader/burner and use the firewire port etc, etc. If you're not with in Apple's price market, you could always buy an old cheapy one and run Linux on it without the OSX overhead. Or even build your own.

Also it looks like you would have the option of 64bit architecture within 6 months or so (courtesy of IBM's PPC 970). And although there wouldn't be any 64bit apps to start with, how long would it take the Linux masses to fix that?

ps - please don't give me any grief like "we don't need 64bit - it's only for GODS - not meer mortals like us" because you people can just go a use your AI/particle renderer/speech recognition/hand writing recognition/bloody mp3-4 player on that AT286 over there - ok?

On December 19, 2002, Tech TV's The Screen Savers aired an episode in which Kevin Rose built a G4 in an ATX case. Most of the parts came from Mac Resq and others. It's an interesting article for anyone who wishes to tackle the project by themselves.

The segment was inspired by an aricle on MacOpz Web Site. I urge all to check it out.

Though this might end up costing a little more, there are benefits: You get to choose your own case (which must be slightly modified), and get the pleasure of building a computer that normally isn't built by anyone except Apple and the pizza box guy.

Please, PLEASE tell me this picture is some sort of joke. I just about did a spit-take when I saw this. I guess these Mac people probably still need a little more experience before they learn how to build a computer properly.

(hint: there should be a microscopic layer of thermal grease on the chip, not a dollop of mashed potatoes)

I know a lot of MAC enthusiasts here will start commenting that "See you can build a mac just like you can a pc!" and I myself don't wish to start a flame war here but Building a MAC is no where near the ease of building a PC.

For a PC you need 2 main things the parts and 1 Screwdriver.

Building a MAC on the otherhand requires the parts, a Screwdriver, a Wire cutter, Dremel and cutting discs, 4" nylon wire ties, Electrical tape, Die, tap, and drill - (see the macoptz link on the article if you don't believe me)

The reason for this is because Apple - although they sell parts separately DOES NOT SELL THE MAC CASES BY THEMSELVES - so in order to make your powersuply and mac board work with a pc case requires all the time and effort of making a custom mod of your pc box. IMHO a very time consuming process unless you do that sort of thing on a regular basis and have all your stuff readily at hand.

I'm totally in favor of people trying this - just be forwarned that this is not a simple buy the parts slap the pieces together turn it on project - it's time consuming and requires a lot more tools and skill than needed for pc building.

I think this was the link

a link from another comment:

http://www.macopz.com/buildamac/

apparently a guide to what you need to build your mac from 'scratch', that is, from parts.

but yeh, he probably went and got himself some mac parts. but parts still. and i guess it's a lot easier to build a mac compatible machine from mac parts instead of crusoe cpu's..(noshitsherlock)

Macopz.com "build a Mac" page

They have links to all the parts suppliers, the parts add up to $800

incripshin

I got that link from a story ran on slashdot a while back you can read through that here if you'd like.

This site has instructions on what you need, where to get it, and how to put it all together. Pretty useful if you want to build your own Mac and don't want to pay Apple's prices.

Take a deep breath and read. Its amazing that you post on Slashdot and can't do a simple google search. Sheesh!

We did that before.

I would consult a mental health professional. Referring to yourself in the third person is not healthy.

...DO NOT follow this guy's instructions! He ended up making a total mess, and risked frying his CPU.

While it's improbable, it is possible that spreading thermal paste on anything other than the CPU core could cause the system to short circuit. The author at macopz got the adhesive all over the freaking CPU, which could lead to problems down the road. Please read Arctic Silver's instructions if you've never applied thermal paste before. This guy DOES NOT know what he's doing, at least when it comes to installing processors.

I was looking at this picture of the backside of the logic board with some interest, having never seen the insides of a modern Mac before. I couldn't help but notice that one of the chips on this board, the middle of the three largish square ICs, appears to be made by Intel (there is a very distinctive large, lowercase i to the left of some other illegible text, which is one of Intel's trademarks). Its impossible to tell what it is from the picture. Is it a PCI bridge? The ethernet controller? You would think Apple would not be keen on using Intel components whenever possible, but then I guess any corporation is going to put profit first. Does anyone know what it is?

http://www.macopz.com/rumors/DP3/

http://www.thinksecret.com/