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With the Elite AL dual drive firewire enclosure from Other World Computing you can pack around 1000GB.

http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firewire/1394/USB/E liteAL/RAID/

I know people running OS X on seven year old (or older!) beige boxes using XPostFacto. Sure, the G3 CPU has been upgraded to a G4 running much faster, and USB and firewire ports have been added , but . . .

Oh, wait. You meant 4-year old beige x86 hardware. Doesn't that stuff come with an expiration date? It spoils after three years, I thought.

Anyway, I tend to agree with your point, but not the way you put it. Apple computers are a solution that tends to work well because the development of the hardware and the software are under one roof and more integrated. The way you put it, it sounds like pure fashion, as in "Those slacks and belt are great because the compliment each other." That sounds gay. People already think I am gay for being a mac user, there's no need to get a coordinated wardrobe to prove their point.

1. OSX86 as shipped will not install on a non-Apple PC, and the license agreement will limit its use to Apple hardware.

2. Within a few weeks, a program along the lines of XPostFacto will be available to install OSX86 on generic Intel-compatible hardware. A new version will be required for every major OS X system update.

3. Apple will add "call-home" registration and serial numbering to insure that each copy of OSX will run on only a single computer. The protection will be cracked, but will be restored (and need to be re-cracked) with every system update.

4. People with non-Apple hardware who call up Apple seeking OS X support will get a standard reply: "Buy a real Mac, it will run OS X without any problems, and it can run Windows, too!"

5. Hackers will run OS X on generic hardware. Anybody who wants to do anything serious with it will buy a Mac.

I got mine at TransIntl. I checked several forums and they're the ones that seemed to have the best reputation. I got a 1 GB DDR PC2700 DIMM Memory Module for $99. It showed up pretty quickly too. There's a video on how to install it here under "Memory Installation". Just get a really flat putty knife and take your time :)

http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/ministack/
http://www.lacie.com/products/range.htm?id=10033
http://www.adstech.com/products/USBX-888/intro/USB X_888_intro.asp?pid=USBX-888
http://www.micronet.com/General/minimate.asp

This may allow you to run Tiger on that old Mac.

Other World Computing
Small Dog Electronics
Data Memory Systems

While all these places are geared towards Macs, they also carry lots of parts that fit both PC and Mac. Never had any problems with them, after using them for 6-8 years now.

Hey HelLO. Have you heard of processor upgrades?? Right now there is a 1.7 gig upgrade for the cube. OWC I'm using one of these on a desktop model of the same year and despite the slower bus speed it's a totally great upgrade and it's very fast. Nothing you can'T run perfectly. This is so fundemental to MAcs, 5 year old computers work great. (wonder if upgraded processor will work under Intel??) THat is a tremendous selling point of Apple...not that they support upgrades but they have always worked beautifully since the G3 whatever desktop or Powerbook. Unfortunitely it looks like the G4 Powerbooks mayNOT bve upgradable...we'll see?

Another clue comes from HP, where a rumor is going around that HP selling iPods could turn into HP becoming an Apple hardware partner for personal computers, too.

Steve knows the Windows market isn't going away. (Remember "it's not necessary for Microsoft to lose for Apple to win", or something of that nature?) If Apple can deliver kick-ass Macs, and then also pick up a chunk of the Windows box market without diluting its brand by selling through HP, isn't that a net win?

The One Thing Apple can't do is make it too easy to install OS X on a Dell. (A narrow crack like XPostFacto might not be so bad...)

And with an open source kernel, how, exactly, do they plan to stop people from hacking OS X onto commodity PC hardware?

The open source kernel doesn't have much to do with it. After all, the kernel already can be run on Wintel hardware. Still, I imagine that somebody will figure out how to hack it to run on generic Wintel boxes. After all, people have managed to hack OS X to run on older "unsupported" Mac hardware. Of course, Apple will doubtless take a sterner view of hacking OS X to run on Wintel boxes. Apple has dealt with this before, with Apple II clones. They dealt with it by lawsuits (Apple's litigiousness is by no means a recent phenomenon), and by making every OS revision incompatible with clones. I imagine that they will do the same, with every security update also updating the code that checks for "nonauthorized" hardware.

I once sold an iPod on eBay that had a broken firewire port on it (1st Gen 5GB) and got $70 for it. As far as batteries go, you can purchase a battery replacement very cheaply from a vast number of online stores, such as http://eshop.macsales.com/. Opening up the iPod is easy, and can be done with a small flathead screwdriver, or a set of nylon case openers. In fact, I've seen some kits come with the tools needed to open the case as well.

My 2nd-gen iPod battery life had gotten down to 3 hours last month, so I did a Web search for replacements. I found one at OtherWorld Computing http://www.macsales.com/) that was $39.95 and said that it doubled the life of the original battery (i.e. it would run for 16+ hours). It took about half an hour to change and worked every bit as good as they said. This is not an ad for OtherWorld Computing, BTW. They did not make the battery themselves (I didn't keep the packaging, so I don't recall the manufacturer). I suspect that other companies sell the same thing, but I bought mine from them.

Why would a person go to a car dealership for service on a battery in their car? Because they aren't educated how to do it and many don't care to know how to do it.

Most people don't, however, sue the car manufacturer when they leave their lights on and run down the battery. They tend to call a tow truck or the dealership to send someone out to fix the problem that they caused.

The most difficult part of replacing the battery in an iPod is getting the cover open. Then it's as simple as replacing the battery in a cordless phone.

Does this or this seem dfficult to any /. reader? Higher quality here and here. This is the instructons for the 1G iPods and there are full simple instructions for 2G and 3G iPods too. More examples of how-to instructions can be found here too.

Watch the video and read the PDF and tell me what you think then.

Why would a person go to a car dealership for service on a battery in their car? Because they aren't educated how to do it and many don't care to know how to do it.

Most people don't, however, sue the car manufacturer when they leave their lights on and run down the battery. They tend to call a tow truck or the dealership to send someone out to fix the problem that they caused.

The most difficult part of replacing the battery in an iPod is getting the cover open. Then it's as simple as replacing the battery in a cordless phone.

Does this or this seem dfficult to any /. reader? Higher quality here and here. This is the instructons for the 1G iPods and there are full simple instructions for 2G and 3G iPods too. More examples of how-to instructions can be found here too.

Watch the video and read the PDF and tell me what you think then.

Why would a person go to a car dealership for service on a battery in their car? Because they aren't educated how to do it and many don't care to know how to do it.

Most people don't, however, sue the car manufacturer when they leave their lights on and run down the battery. They tend to call a tow truck or the dealership to send someone out to fix the problem that they caused.

The most difficult part of replacing the battery in an iPod is getting the cover open. Then it's as simple as replacing the battery in a cordless phone.

Does this or this seem dfficult to any /. reader? Higher quality here and here. This is the instructons for the 1G iPods and there are full simple instructions for 2G and 3G iPods too. More examples of how-to instructions can be found here too.

Watch the video and read the PDF and tell me what you think then.

Why would a person go to a car dealership for service on a battery in their car? Because they aren't educated how to do it and many don't care to know how to do it.

Most people don't, however, sue the car manufacturer when they leave their lights on and run down the battery. They tend to call a tow truck or the dealership to send someone out to fix the problem that they caused.

The most difficult part of replacing the battery in an iPod is getting the cover open. Then it's as simple as replacing the battery in a cordless phone.

Does this or this seem dfficult to any /. reader? Higher quality here and here. This is the instructons for the 1G iPods and there are full simple instructions for 2G and 3G iPods too. More examples of how-to instructions can be found here too.

Watch the video and read the PDF and tell me what you think then.

Since this article is not in the limelight any longer, you probably won't respond, but:

Apple knew its substandard battery would not hold up to its claims for long after purchase in many cases, yet still chose to push the misleading battery life specification.

Bullshit.

The 1st and 2nd generation iPods use a Sony UP325385 A4H 3.7V 1230mAh lithium ion polymer battery. Please define exactly how this is "substandard", or not the best LiIon polymer battery available at the time for this application.

Made the battery impossible to legitamately replace, and from dissections they might have even intentionally tried to prevent user replacements (why are so many iPod models pumped full of a sticky paste around the battery area, when other similar electronics need no such adhesive to hold the battery in place)

Bullshit. Replacing the iPod battery is ridiculously easy. See this site for video of each of the iPod battery replacement procedures. Doors, screws, access mechanisms, compartments segregating the battery from other electronics for end-user replacement, etc., would have increased the size of the iPod and/or detracted from the sleek appearance that is the very thing that makes it so attractive. Therefore, Apple chose to engineer the iPod as it is. And since the battery is easily replaced in minutes, this issue is moot.

Your "sticky paste" claim is unsupported, unadulterated bullshit. Yes, there is some adhesive in there. No, it's not designed to "intentionally [...] prevent user replacements". Christ.

As documented by at least one person (the iPod battery secret guy), it seems Apple had a corperate policy in effect from their tech support lines down to their retail stores to tell consumers the only way to service their dead battery was to buy a new iPod from Apple. (as pointed out by parent, this is the real gotcha)

Bullshit. It wasn't a "corporate policy". Apple had no program to replace the battery out of warranty, period. They DID have a $250 flat-rate repair program to repair ANY out-of-warranty iPod issue. The phone representative said something to the effect that at that price, you might as well buy a new iPod. There is no evidence that this was part of a "corporate policy" at Apple; rather, Apple had no official way to replace the battery.

HOWEVER:

- They HAVE had an official way to replace the battery since November 14, 2003.

- There were numerous ways to replace the battery yourself.

- Apple was the FIRST of any vendor that shipped a sealed music player to offer ANY kind of official battery replacement at all.

- Other small music players at the time also used LiIon batteries sealed inside the case.

- Unless people threw out their iPods, the battery replacement service (as well as mind-bendingly numerous third party ways to do it with even higher capacity batteries for as little as $30) is available to everyone

There's no real "gotcha". The only issue was that Apple did not have its OWN battery replacement service. There was no "corporate policy" predicated on making people buy new iPods when the "substandard" battery dies.

If that is your claim, then please explain:

- How Apple is consistently and continuously ranked #1, usually by wide margins, by Consumer Reports for technical support, product quality, and need for repairs beyond all other vendors (if Apple's goal was to make shitty products that died and then force people to buy new ones, this wouldn't exactly support that claim)

- How the Sony battery is "substandard"

- Why other vendors (Dell, Samsung, etc.) never had a way to replace sealed batteries until AFTER Apple

- Why Apple would have even bothered to create a battery replacement service at all (Hint: it WASN'T because of iPod's Dirty Secret; Apple's battery program was launched before the video ever hit the web. Further, the day that the battery program was launched, that video became nothing but lies.)

I mean, come on, a 100$ battery replacement after two years...

$100? Are you buying three of them?

When I bought my first laptop, a GRiDCase III Plus, it was ten and a half pounds, and was a featherweight compared to the ~30lb. luggables then available (Compaq, Otrona, &c.)

Apple even had a carrying case for the 128K Mac when it first came out, which tradition is carried on in:

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/LTA%20Projects/ILUG GERBLK/

And there's even one for the Mac Mini:

http://www.tombihn.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Scre en=PROD&Product_Code=TB0351

The thing I'm faintly surprised / disappointed at is that no one has mad a combination carrying case and battery pack for a Mac Mini _and_ Wacom Cintiq (LCD integrated w/ a graphics tablet) which would get one a Tablet Mac w/o waiting for Apple to build one.

William

I've never had problems with RAM (or anything else) from OWC. Been buying RAM and drives from them for five years.

Tiger only runs on machines that have built-in firewire. That means the oldest laptop supported is the Pismo.

I'm sure the Xpostfacto folks are looking into how to get Tiger to run on older machines.

It's not like somebody's going to go running Tiger on a Power Mac 9600

Oh yes they are! If you upgrade the processor to a G3 or better, you can use XPostFacto you can run OS X on ancient powermacs. You can even run Jaguar on a fast PPC 604 with this terrific patch!

I plan to buy a copy of Tiger and load it onto my hot-rodded Frankenmac 7600 just as soon as it's practical.

What it *isn't* is open-source in any real way.

Um, are you sure about that? It's not like people aren't making use of that source code, either...

The batteries can die after 1.5-2 years and cost $99+ to replace, plus you must send them in.

The batteries only last about 6 hours before needing recharge whereas others can last much longer.

Bullshit
Bullshit
Bullshit

For those too lazy to follow the links:

1. You would have to run the iPod all day, every day, to even come close to running down the battery in 18 months.

2. The battery costs about $30 to replace. You can do it yourself.

3. The iPod battery lasts 12 hours, not six.

Either he's a troll or he's really stupid; you can buy Jaguar for $18.

This doesn't answer your question about Tiger performance on older G4 hardware, but you might be interested in taking a look at this or this from here.

It's really not that much more to get a Mac mini, when you think about all you get with a mini. But if you need those slots, and you've got money invested in the hardware . . .

This doesn't answer your question about Tiger performance on older G4 hardware, but you might be interested in taking a look at this or this from here.

It's really not that much more to get a Mac mini, when you think about all you get with a mini. But if you need those slots, and you've got money invested in the hardware . . .

This doesn't answer your question about Tiger performance on older G4 hardware, but you might be interested in taking a look at this or this from here.

It's really not that much more to get a Mac mini, when you think about all you get with a mini. But if you need those slots, and you've got money invested in the hardware . . .

Lets talk about about upgrading, since we need to upgrade about every 2 years. Whats the upgrade path of a Mac mini? Ebay and buy a new computer? Apple loves to sucker people, whether its promising upgrades(performa scam) and never coming through or just making the box nonupgradeable/nonfixable(mini, ipod battery). Its the two year disposable product.

Creative uses the same kind of battery, except Apple http//apple.com/support/ipod/service/battery.html has a program to replace the battery for $99. Or you can go out and buy your own high-capacity version for $29.99: http://eshop.macsales.com/Catalog_Page.cfm?Parent= 1225&Title=iPod%20Batteries&Template=1

How much does a new Creative battery cost?

You don't happen to have old hardware around?

The latest version of OS X runs great on my Powermac 7600 (early 1996), thanks to a G3 upgrade and XPostFacto. As long as you have a decent amount of memory, you'll have few problems. 512mb of ram seems to be the "sweet spot"

http://eshop.macsales.com/Reviews/Framework.cfm?pa ge=%2FBenchmarks%2F12705%2Fminihd.html

Here is a good page about upgrading the hard drive

It's already been pointed out to you that you don't know what you're talking about ( what iPod drivers? ) but I want to clarify what a previous post said about the battery price- they said it's $50. They can be had much cheaper, and you can replace them with higher-capacity batteries than they ship with.

They are between $25.99 and $39.95, depending on model of iPod and battery capacity.

They give you a couple of 'installation tools' with that, too, though I hear a sharp screwdriver or a couple of guitar picks do the trick if you don't get these 'tools'.

Actually the Cube has proven to be pretty good at cooling judging by the number of processor, video and hard drive/CD/DVD upgrades for it.

You can get up to a 1.7 GHz G4 processor upgrade and there was even a Dual 800 MHz G4 upgrade offered at one point. Some people have been able to put in nVidia GeForce 3 and ATI Radeon 8500, 9000 Pro and 9200 graphics cards in these things. Not to mention you can put a full-size hard drive into it.

The Cube will probably end up being a lot more upgradable than the Mini, but the Mini sure has a better price.

--
Join the Pyramid - Free Mini Mac | Free Flat Screens

Actually the Cube has proven to be pretty good at cooling judging by the number of processor, video and hard drive/CD/DVD upgrades for it.

You can get up to a 1.7 GHz G4 processor upgrade and there was even a Dual 800 MHz G4 upgrade offered at one point. Some people have been able to put in nVidia GeForce 3 and ATI Radeon 8500, 9000 Pro and 9200 graphics cards in these things. Not to mention you can put a full-size hard drive into it.

The Cube will probably end up being a lot more upgradable than the Mini, but the Mini sure has a better price.

--
Join the Pyramid - Free Mini Mac | Free Flat Screens

now all i have to do is come up with $2400...anybody willing to help a poor college kid live the dream of OSX?

Well, I'll do my part to help you out. You can knock of about $20, if you buy a 3rd party spare battery. Slightly greater capacity on the Al batteries. More dramatic increases on the Ti and iBook batteries.

This solves the optical and this solves the remote control issue

Granted, they are two external boxes, but they solve your problems for about $80 (with actual street prices).

[I just set up my Airport Express with an optical connection. I have not decided on the Keyspan Express remote.]

For anyone RAM shopping for an Apple, check out OWC. They are not the cheapest, but I was able to get 2GB of Samsung memory for my PowerBook for $300 less than the upgrade from 512MG->2GB that Apple offered. It looks like the current pice is ~$290 per stick, down about $60 from 2 months ago.

You can up the RAM to one gigabyte, and I think you can replace the 4200 RPM drive with any notebook size drive (2.5", 9.5mm). If I was going to do more than home movies or student projects, I'd definitely want a faster HD.

There are 60 GB 7200 RPM drives, but the fastest rotation of which I am aware on a 80 GB drive is 5400. Most drives offer 8 MB cache, but some have 16 MB.

Check this page for an idea of what's out there. (note: I plug OWC because I'm a satisfied customer, and they do a lot to support the mac community)

Of course, you'll probably want to also use Firewire drives to capture your media, if you're serious about this being an "editing station", as mentioned in the GP.

I haven't yet had to replace my iPod battery, but I mostly hear that it is not difficult to do yourself if you are patient in cracking open the case.

I think the going rate for a DIY battery replacement kit is around $25. Check out OWC. Make sure you get a kit that includes the tool(s) you need to open the case. The only horror stories I've heard are from people that I wouldn't trust to open a car door. =)

Here's a link.

It doesn't say if it's compatible with the Mac Mini, but the specs look about right.

Still no user-replaceable battery, which is quite lame, my iPod now has about 90 mins battery life these days :( Come on apple, is it really too hard to let people replace batteries on their own?

Are you new to the Internet? Go buy a new battery you fool!

I'm not disagreeing with your points. I just wanted to point out that 1 Ghz CPU upgrades can be had for $229. Try OWC.

Try $85.

If you're going to buy a used Mac, why pay full retail for the software? (Also, the company at that link has great deals on cpu and other mac upgrades. I can't afford a new G5 just now, nor do I really need one. But I could afford a 1 Ghz upgrade. It's like I've got a new machine.)

Nice recommendation, also endorsed by CubeOwner.com. Don't stop at 80GB, as Cube supports up to 120GB natively. Seagate Barracuda 7200.7-Plu from OWC

Just curious - not casting aspersions - where did you get that figure from? I've not heard it.

But even so, that's not amazing growth. 110% means a tenth over twice as much. For all I know, the couple of thousand machines that went into the Virginia Tech cluster might have accounted for all that. I don't think Xserves are exactly flying off the shelves, but I'm glad to hear they're doing better.

Is Darwin up to it? I don't know either. AIX, HP-UX and Solaris are all formidable competitors, tho' HP-UX's fortunes are tied to Itanium's now - so it is probably doomed.

But if it is, it strikes me as a good move.

But you're right: it would be tantamount to clones again. That's why I suggested just OS X Server and only on IBM Servers (not that they're really pushing pSeries workstations any more; x86 has taken over that market, by and large).

But if Darwin ran on non-Apple PPC hardware, it would make it much easier to produce a version of XPostFacto to install Mac OS X on non-Apple hardware. I'd love that - but Steve Jobs wouldn't.

Up through either 10.2 or 10.3 it was possible to run it on a 603 or 604. I don't think the 601 has been capable since the days of NeXT.

My first OS X machine was 10.0 and 10.1 on a Umax S-900 with dual 200mhz 604s. A friend runs 9.1 on that one now. My next one was a 7500 with a 500mhz G3 in it, and another friend currently runs 10.3.5 on that one. He says that QE visuals via SSH->VNC on his uber-crappy WinXP laptop is actually quite impressive, considering.

Ryan Rempel is a left handed motherfucking genius. (well, assuming he's left handed, that is.)

At the risk of being off-topic...

Not that I can see what the all-in-one G3's have to do with running Linux with the G5 liquid-cooling system, but you CAN install OS X on the all-in-one machines (and other older 'unsupported' power macs) with XPostFacto3.

As for price... well, it no fault but your own if you're going to be cheap. :)

Some net.stores, including Other World Computing, sell older versions of Mac OS X for under $10. Ebay is also a likely source for OX X and 9.x and earlier.

You can get Mac OS X 7.5.3 + 7.5.5 updates straight from Apple. You might aslso check out Emulators.com for some emulators that let you run vintage Mac stuff on your PC.

Oh, yeah, I'm thinking this is PearPC under the hood. Someday a run-of-the-mill PC will be able to emulate a G4, but not today, certaintly not at less cost than a real G4 box from Apple.

£200-£300 UKP will get you a crap G3 from a second hand shop

That's a bit dear! I picked up a g3/300 desktop (with scanner and 320mb of ram) for $200 CDN ($160 US, £80 GBP). Admittedly it was a private sale, but if you look here, you'll find a retailer selling used macs at similar prices.