I don’t keep my old computers, I sell them on. I did have a drawer full of iphones but have sold all but 3 of them (the remaining two, an SE and 7, I’ll keep for now) iPads get sold, eventually. However in reading the thread, I am reminded that I have two printers which I barely use. I’ll give one away and sell the other. Might get a small one just for doc printing but really I dont have a great need anymore. one has a scanner attached and I also have a separate older scanner which may be given away too. I have a lot of clutter in the study.
The only “vintage” model i have with me is the 2009 Macbook white unibody which i’m trying to sell. I kept it solely for the CD drive, but it’s time for it to move on… Still works like a charm though, best model ever!
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What are the specs?
I’ve got a few machines that I really should move on since they are just gathering dust, a '15 MBP, '13 MBA and an '09 MacBook. Occasionally I think about putting one into the server rack to do something, but VM’s running on my NAS do everything I need.
The MBA and MBP might be going to one of the kids, but the old poly one needs to go. I did offer it up a while ago without response, I’ve also since pulled the HDD out to use else where:
http://talk.appletalk.com.au/t/early-09-13-white-macbook/4765
There are some of us who try to find a balance of how far you can keep using older hardware. For example if you can rely upon a LAN based platform(intranet based database) or cloud service and the hardware is fast enough to run a modern browser then it “can” work–considering you can buy a 1U or micro tower server with a Xeon E3 v5 or v6 at a reasonable price, you can roll an “OwnCloud” or something similar. Often when hardware of mine is “retired” they’re usually kept as a parts source or a bench testing box. Any computer I use for work tends to get heavy usage, while my first Thinkpad T61 barely showed much wear & tear from 2007-2010… I’ve gone through some hardware much quicker than expected(hinges and case flex tend to make portable hardware extremely short lived). I once had to borrow my moms’ old AMD A4(Llano) era notebook, may have been one of those weird HP models they over-engineered when it was supposed to be a budget class model.
Oldest Mac I still use is my 12" PowerBook G4(1.33Ghz), 1.25GB of RAM makes it very limited in what can actually be done while using VirtualPC–I rely on a tweaked Linux spin.
2nd Oldest Mac: 13" MacBook Pro, lives most of its life plugged into a dock and a shared device. (it was retired in 2013)
Oldest Mac is an iMac G3, it has remained in “mothballs” mostly as there isn’t much you can do with 160 MB of memory–Linux on PowerPC is very much dead after the PS3 lost “OtherOS”. I only kept it for a few personal reasons(ex: only computer able to run some audio plug-ins with ProTools, an old 4-track audio editor with VST plug-in support & a few old Maxis era games–SimIsle & SimCity 2000 were better on Mac vs DOS/Windows)
Oldest PC hardware:
Athlon 64 2800+ (1.8Ghz) with 2GB of RAM & GeForce 6600GT, it was mothballed after moving to a modern PC with a built-in serial port. There are usage cases where a USB to Serial Port adapter can be useless, for example not all USB to Serial Port solutions are the same due to chipset differences.
From a work standpoint I’ve moved to a more “OS neutral” angle, the only hardware requirement is needing a box with an nVidia GPU for compute tasks–only reason why I’m still holding out on a new Mac as sometimes I do like crunching random data on my own non-work box.
Slowly reducing them to nil.
I collected these old Macs for a while, but the shine wore off long ago. Even machines that are “vintage” in the Apple sense (pre-current gen) are being retired - I’m not interested in keeping Apple hardware around anymore, except for whatever is still in active service.
Having rooms of computers from different eras was fun for a while, but these days, I’d rather have that living space back.
There’s a Macintosh 512Ke and an Apple II Europlus still on the shelf, but neither have been powered on in 3+ years. I suppose those should be moved on to new homes soon as well.
Some old computers will stay - mostly DOS / 95-era x86 notebooks like the IBM ThinkPad 755 or Toshiba Tecra 700CT, for those older favourite titles like SimCity 2000 Special Edition (Windows 95) and whatever else.
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I feel the same way. I no longer enjoy trying to keep this old machines alive. It has turned from a passion/hobby in to a chore.
The vintage mac community has also seemed to die off in Australia and with it, went my interest. I used to show people the TAM, Flower Power/Dalmatian iMacs and they’d look at it in awe and be interested in the stories I could tell about them.
These days, most people just “meh” and move on.
The last time I displayed them to the public was for a local Men’s Shed night where you brought along your collection. That was 8 years ago and even then, interest was minimal.
Has the ubiquity of Apple/Mac contributed to this sensation of apathy towards the company’s history?
I’m still interested in my collection… I just can’t afford to do things like replace capacitors to keep them running! Will have to get serious about learning soldering. I’ve NEVER been good at it.
Practice, practice, practice. The biggest mistake people make when learning is to apply the solder directly to the iron tip. You apply heat to the junction with the iron and apply solder to the junction - when the junction is warm enough it’ll melt the solder. If it’s not warm enough, the solder won’t take and you’ll end up with a dry joint.
Find an old junk circuit board and de-solder all the components from it. Then solder them back in.
It’s not difficult, it just requires practice.
I suspect that’s part of it.
Another question I have to ask. What does everyone do with these things?
I don’t necessarily mean a practical use either. I mean what interesting things can be done with a vintage Macintosh these days? What’s the niche interest?
My PCs are interesting because of their extensive collection of software titles, games and hardware add-ons that make it possible to build unique combinations geared toward specific interests. I can assemble a machine for electronic music production kitted out with AdLibs, Sound Blasters and Gravis Ultrasounds. I can build a 3D graphics workstation or game machine fitted with multiple 3DFX Voodoo2’s. I can install DOS, Windows 95, a variant of Linux or one of the thousands of obscure environments (like GEM) to mix it up.
The Commodore 64 is an 8-bit bare metal system with unfettered access to memory and hardware registers, ideal for experimenting with computing principles and electronics. If you can make a circuit switchable with electronic on/off states, basic waveforms or serial communication, chances are you can program a C64 to control it entirely in Commodore BASIC.
The Amiga, outside of once being a 2D graphics and video production powerhouse, has a unique position as a platform that the community itself maintains and extends upon after the demise of Commodore. This is a community actively developing new processor accelerator cards, motherboards, HDMI cards and USB interfaces for machines produced three decades ago.
There’s something interesting to do with all of them. My Power Macintosh and Performa systems were interesting to look at, but I couldn’t think of anything to do with them outside of connecting them to the internet, maybe watching some QuickTime videos or listening to music in an early build of iTunes. That doesn’t mean there weren’t fun and interesting things to do with Mac OS, but rather those fun and interesting things perhaps haven’t aged quite as well.
Also, I don’t think the community around these systems has been quite as active in coming up with interesting uses for them as some of the other platforms. That makes them less desirable for enthusiasts, which in turn means little is developed for them, and the cycle continues. Unless you grew up with them and have a nostalgic fondness for them, there’s little incentive for a newcomer to pick one up and start playing with it.
I attend a meeting of computer collectors and hobbyists here in Adelaide once a month. It’s an open event, and often the public is invited to come and see these old computers in action. Even the kids love seeing the old games, animations, sounds and colours. It’s almost all PCs and Commodore 64s. Almost nobody brings a Mac along.
I would love to find a suitable and interesting role for my Macintosh 512Ke so I have a reason to power it on and use it. It’s a cute little machine, and both adorably and iconically 80’s. So far I haven’t found one, but perhaps someday that could change.
If I were to consider what the “equivalent” would be or perhaps to say SHOULD be to the computers you describe, seems to me it would be Woz’s baby, the Apple II GS:
I feel the world was robbed because Jobs and Woz disagreed on this and Woz lost. It’s the only pre- resurrection (1998-) Mac I’d be interested in owning.
I relive my childhood, play the games I used to. My childhood was spent on an LC 475, then on the iMac G3 and later an eMac G4. The LC 475 was handed down to me to fiddle with. I used PPC till Year 10 in 2011, so G4 systems in particular make me very nostalgic for a big chunk of my later childhood and teenage years and I still play the games I played then on them.
I like seeing the evolution of programs and having a computer restored to ‘how it was’ isn whatever decade. One day I can be in 1992, another in 2001, then go back to 1986.
At the end of the day, I like having machines to fiddle with, play with and be able to simulate computing in different eras. I was born in 1996, so I also enjoy learning and being able to appreciate computers that predate my experience (which is pretty much everything pre 1994).
I like being reminded of the times where Apple wasn’t so ubiquitous. I remember being the only one at primary school and high school who used an Apple product.
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My boxed eMac 1.25ghz is going to Geelong city council’s eWaste people as soon as I shred the drive…
Beware the 64 bit Catalina…
I keep older Macs for backwards compatibility.
Al
Yeah, but… dosdude1 already has a patcher:
That makes me sad :’(
I will take some pics and try it again here on the weekend… but otherwise, it’s off to be recycled - or whatever they do to old computer. Probably pull out the logic board and crush the rest. Although - CRT… copper?
IF they sell on eBay, it’s for $20. There’s just no value in them at all, and it’s been sitting around now for a bloody long time… (Ok, same as a few other of my Macs, but this was only ever a workhorse… not like it’s the TAM… 
)
Pretty sure I joined MacTalk… then of course called AppleTalk… the year I got my TAM - 2004.
I have a massive love for eMac G4s… I have three, though one I do need to get rid of. We got our first one when I was 7, and our second when I was 10. NextByte in Sydney were clearing them in November 2006, presumably because of the intel transition - my parents bought one so that my siblings and I could have a seperate computer to the family eMac. Used that as my primary Mac up until 2011, when I got my white MacBook.
I do need to hunt down nice front panel, as our 2004 1.25GHZ eMac has terrible scratching on the front.
List is on Gumtree for free. You’ll be amazed how many people come out of the woodwork.
I gave away a Sony KVHR32M31 CRT TV. I had listed it for $20 and no bites. Changed it to free and I was getting 2-3 people per hour wanting to come and get it. Ended up giving it to the first person that responded.
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