I was looking at specs for my shiny “new” Mac G4, fresh out of 1999. I mean, it sold for around $1600 when it was new! I loaded it up with 1.25 GB of RAM, a fresh HD, and man, this thing is rocking!
Well, sort of.
That’s when I realized that a new Raspberry Pi 3 B+, which costs about $60 including a 32GB flash card and a power supply, is faster. It’s also way smaller, more power efficient, quieter, and generally better in every way.
Except it’s not a Mac G4, and it can’t run OSX (which, arguably, the G4 can’t really run now either).
The RaspPi is based on ARM architecture. It comes with four (4!) CPU cores, 1GB of RAM (running at 400 Mhz), n-band WiFi, Bluetooth, and HDMI with hi-def audio built into it. For $40.
My Mac G4 was also about $40 once I souped it up. It has a single 400 Mhz CPU, and 1.25 GB of RAM (running at 100Mhz). Everything else is pretty much on par, more or less.
But gosh darn it, I just like the G4. I like the “ooohm” sound it makes when you turn it on. I like looking at it. Sure, it’s a little noisy. But it has clear handles! And a DVD drive which isn’t fast enough to play movies on. And 64-bit PCI card slots. And did I mention the cool boot-up sound it makes? It’s like magic.
sigh
I know progress is never-ending. But you know, it makes me think:
If most people can get by with using a Raspberry Pi as a very basic computer- which is what it’s aimed at- then what’s wrong with using a 20-year-old Mac for the same purpose if their performance is even closely comparable?
Seriously though, I’m going to have to get one of these Pi 3’s. Would make a killer little NAS file/cloud server.