I prefer the 'metalled' look of the early 2nd-Gen iBook to the later models and when you see one in mint condition, they are still a thing of beauty.
Despite negative press over dual USB iBooks, the early models were well made and not as unreliable as reports may suggest. You should be careful though, when carrying one around given the age of these portables now.
The 12.1" (500MHz) iBook G3 fares a little better than the 14" (600MHz+) with regards to MLB/GPU failure. The 14" chassis flexes far more than the 12.1" especially if it was regularly carried with one hand underneath from the opposite side of the battery. Symptoms of MLB/GPU failure are fairly obvious such as random Kernel Panics, artefacts appearing on the screen, garbled or shimmering video, freezes or simply no video not related to backlight failure. HDD issues may arise but are more likely to be accompanied by other symptoms.
Gently flexing the chassis (to put pressure onto the MLB) after resetting the PMU can in some cases temporarily 'revive' a seemingly 'dead' iBook G3
The DC-IN board is a little fragile on all of these including the later G4. The part is inexpensive and not too difficult to fit so long as you keep track of all the screws (which really needed to be all the same length!!!). If the tip/ring of the power adapter is not perfectly round or the pin is not straight then you may experience intermittent charging so that should always be checked first.
Another vote for Classilla from me but on Mac OS 9, you do need several browsers to be able to view most websites. Netscape 7 works well enough but often crops web pages off on the left hand side.
HDD failures on these PowerPC portables are often gradual and not always picked up by disk 1st aid/disk utility in time...
Despite negative press over dual USB iBooks, the early models were well made and not as unreliable as reports may suggest. You should be careful though, when carrying one around given the age of these portables now.
The 12.1" (500MHz) iBook G3 fares a little better than the 14" (600MHz+) with regards to MLB/GPU failure. The 14" chassis flexes far more than the 12.1" especially if it was regularly carried with one hand underneath from the opposite side of the battery. Symptoms of MLB/GPU failure are fairly obvious such as random Kernel Panics, artefacts appearing on the screen, garbled or shimmering video, freezes or simply no video not related to backlight failure. HDD issues may arise but are more likely to be accompanied by other symptoms.
Gently flexing the chassis (to put pressure onto the MLB) after resetting the PMU can in some cases temporarily 'revive' a seemingly 'dead' iBook G3
The DC-IN board is a little fragile on all of these including the later G4. The part is inexpensive and not too difficult to fit so long as you keep track of all the screws (which really needed to be all the same length!!!). If the tip/ring of the power adapter is not perfectly round or the pin is not straight then you may experience intermittent charging so that should always be checked first.
Another vote for Classilla from me but on Mac OS 9, you do need several browsers to be able to view most websites. Netscape 7 works well enough but often crops web pages off on the left hand side.
HDD failures on these PowerPC portables are often gradual and not always picked up by disk 1st aid/disk utility in time...