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Use PowerPC for a week?
· Software · 146 posts · May 24, 2015 — Feb 17, 2017 View original thread ↗
Are there any video downloading tools that run on MacPPC?
 
Back when I had a slow Internet connection, I'd use 4kVideoDownloader to save videos both so I could watch them (if I were the type of person who loops songs over and over again *shifty-eyes*) and so that I can watch a higher quality version without buffering. It's not ideal in terms of workflow if what you wanted to do was just let a playlist or the auto-play guide you through the night, but it's also not really that bad.
 
Thinking about performance: I recently pulled out nachibes, a ThinkPad X31 named after a typo I make extremely commonly while using my phone to access #68kmla on oshaberi. That system has Windows 7, Office 2010, IE9, Spotify, and Google Chrome. For the most part, it does everything I need. Despite shipping in April 2003, it's fairly sprightly.
 
Just in the realm of performance, it's so much better than a PowerBook from the same time. I'm not going to start converting my DNGs on it, but there's no real reason why I couldn't, either. I don't exactly like doing to lots of big web sites on it, but it does work. I use the thing basically as a counter top or sideboard computer, often to keep a presence on IRC if I'm playing a game, but it's small enough that I can use it for an Excel copy of a character sheet during an in-person gaming session, or (if I know power will be available) it's a great system for on-the-go tasks, especially because Office 2010 does a really good job of locally caching my SharePoint document libraries.

It's faster than my T30 too, so this thing should do a lot better than any PowerBook or iBook ever released.

Is it possible that a PowerBook is more fun? It depends. I had a lot of fun with my Pismo, and I get some use out of my 180 and 1400, but I (have probably said this before) don't really get anything out of late PPC. There's some nostalgia there, but given that I was there, and the machine I used a (a 1GHz PowerBook G4) was so bad, it's not exactly an experience I have a whole lot of wish to re-live. perhaps in a few more years I will, but we'll see.

Of course, if you take the view that these machines can do anything they could do when they were launched, then it's not like anything is lost, because Dropbox wasn't invented until 2009, and YouTube wasn't created until 2005, and although PPC machines were still being built, that's so close to the end as to be on the line in such a way that I'm not that sad about the loss of it. (In part because while I'd network a PPC Mac, I would not put it on my main LAN or the greater Internet.)

If you use ClickToPlugin in Safari, you can download most videos by right clicking the video and selecting "Download".

I've been using a G5 for upwards of 1 1/2 months now, and I tell you, it works great if I'm not in a hurry.

If I need to get something done quickly, it has trouble keeping up. But it is quite tolerable.

This is a first gen DP 2.0 GHz, by the way. I have a Quad, but the LCS is out for repair, otherwise I would've used that instead (and probably would've had a better experience).

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My folks were using a G4 mini 1.42GHz with 1GB RAM, 160GB HD as a daily driver until a couple months ago. It's now been relegated to their industrial sewing/repair business for iPhoto-- before and after photos are invaluable. I just keep having to set their cameras to 4MP... That mini hates 12MP JPEGs. It just flies once I scale the images down and 4MP is more than ample resolution. I may just build an Automator workflow that downscales the gigantic images upon import.

My mother uses PowerPC all the time, as a full-time personal computer! She has a MDD G4 running OS 10.4, and uses Firefox/Camino/Thunderbird/Netscape with minimal problems. I keep trying to get her to switch to something more modern (you know, so I don't have to constantly fix issues on the ancient machine) but for whatever reason, she will not. Guess I'll have to wait until the thing dies, sadly!

mp.ls