What to do with these old Macs?
November 22, 2010 3:40 PM   Subscribe

What should to do with an old Macintosh G3 (Blue and white) and G4 (grey)?

They both have about 100gb's storage and 64 meg PCI video cards. The G4 has a 1.8ghz accelerator in it. Would anyone find any value in them? Would I, say as server running some version of Linux? What would you recommend?

If I have to throw them away, what's the best way to do that, best being environment friendly?
posted by nomadicink to Computers & Internet (9 answers total) 2 users marked this as a favorite
 
Clean them up, take great photos and sell them on eBay. There is always someone looking for an old machine, for whatever reason. Just don't expect too much.
posted by darkgroove at 3:45 PM on November 22, 2010


Surprisingly to me, darkgroove is probably right, eBay might be a good idea, you might squeeze $100 out of the G4, $50 out of the G3.

It would work fine as a Linux server, Ubuntu should run PowerPC just fine, among others.
posted by Mister Fabulous at 3:57 PM on November 22, 2010


If you're willing to cannibalize the computer for parts that you can sell on eBay, you could turn the casing into a pet house for your pets, if you have any. :) You'd just have to figure out what to do with the screen.
posted by patronuscharms at 4:01 PM on November 22, 2010


My mum has a jellybean blue G3 iMacs with Ubuntu Hardy Desktop on it. It's stock, apart from an upgrade to 512MB RAM. Works fine.
posted by flabdablet at 4:21 PM on November 22, 2010


Response by poster: To be clear, this is a desktop G3, so there's not screen.
posted by nomadicink at 4:28 PM on November 22, 2010


I'd probably try to beef up their hard drive space and turn them into a Linux based NAS.
posted by jz at 4:54 PM on November 22, 2010


Response by poster: Hmm, if they were to be sold on ebay, are there any pre-made shipping boxes for computers you'd recommend?
posted by nomadicink at 5:02 PM on November 22, 2010


Memail me. I would be interested in the g4. Save on fees.
posted by lakerk at 7:27 PM on November 22, 2010


I clean up and donate older Macs to non-profit orgs and students. If there is a Macintosh Users Group in your area you might contact them to see if anyone in their group rehomes Macs.
posted by a humble nudibranch at 9:16 PM on November 22, 2010


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