[magicelf4]

Hello All-
New poster here. please be patient.
My question to you all is this-
How successsful do you think a " Limited Edition" Mac G4 motherboard program would be? I would LOVE it if apple were to design and release a true ATX spec G4 or G5 motherboard. This would be just a bare Mac mobo in the PC ATX form factor along with a retail DVD of OSX Tiger. All other parts would be provided by the end user.
The ATX spec would allow any PC modder/Mac user to assemble a custom Mac rig using PC components. This could be very cool and I think many would buy this for just this reason. Apple Macs are great, BUT you are locked into THEIR design. If you truly want to make your mac your own, the PC modding community is large and you would have tons of choices about outfitting your Mac mobo. Many of you here are much more experienced than I am, I would really like to know what you think of this idea. or

[mduell]

G4 is a bit dated... how about a 945PM board?

[Tuoder]

I think you would have more luck with Intel, if you could just get them to sell a mobo with TPM on it,

[magicelf4]

I agree that the G4 is dated. That is the point. I doubt Apple would want anything to cut into sales of their new intel Macs. By basing any ATX spec mobo on G4 or G5 proc/chipset, They could " test the waters" and not have any negative impact on sales of intel Mac systems. It could be a way to assess(sp?) the size of the PC modders market. It could also be a nostalgic tribute to Apple's beginnings. As I recall, the very first Apple was just a mobo kit that the user had to complete. This idea could be a homage to those DIY days. I would definately be intersested and I hope I am not alone.

[Waragainstsleep]

Apple would never go for this.
PC vendors make money from maintenance, not sales. Apple is the only real exception to this rule, in that they do make money from sales. But they still make alot from maintenance.
Traditionally, Macs have appealed to 'creative' users as well as people who find windows too complicated. Such people simply cannot be trusted to build their own machines. Its a little known fact that the first iMac G5 was originally almost entirely user-servicable. This experiment was an unmitigated disaster, and very soon done-away with in favour of Apple doing it themselves.

Having disassembled many different Macs, it is clear to me that they could be designed to be much more easily maintained and upgraded. Such a design would likely involve less effort on the part of Apple's design teams. I have no intention of criticising Apple for this. They are in business, and such practice is standard across many different industries. Think home electronics, white goods, cars, the list is almost endless.

Another obstacle is Apple's whole 'integrated solution' philosophy. The whole reason Macs have a reputation for being more stable and reliable than windows boxes, is that Apple controls the hardware and software that goes into them. They make sure that all the components they use are well supported and don't clash with each other. Its very nice to have the choice available to windows users in terms of upgrades, expansions and peripherals, but there are simply too many combinations of different components for M$, Intel, AMD, Asus or anyone else to test them all. Clashes happen, and the OS becomes less stable. Especially when you buy cheaper kit, which is most peoples reason for wanting such a choice of kit in the first place.

A DIY kit like the one you suggest, would allow Mac users to keep machines even longer before replacing them. Macs already last longer than almost all off the shelf windows machines. I am writing this on a PowerBook which will be 7 this year. And I'm using Tiger to do it. If you can find a 7 year old windows laptop which will run XP with all the latest updates at a usable speed, then I will have to resort to pointing and making fun of how much bigger, heavier, louder and uglier it is than my PowerBook.

Don't get me wrong. I would very much like to be able to get a cheap G5 motherboard (believe me I've tried as it is), but there is no way Apple will go for it. Much more likely that Freescale or IBM could do it instead. But they would have to ship it with the intention of running a linux distribution of some sort, otherwise they would be inciting people to breach the EULA on Mac OS X (You are only allowed to install it on Apple hardware). This is almost certainly something they could be sued for doing. And there would still be the issues of Open Firmware and the Mac ROM to be dealt with in order to install OS X.

Sorry to say, its a pipe dream.

Still, working with what we already have can only make us modders more resourceful. The Mac Mini has been a godsend for many.

[lothar56]

Originally Posted by Waragainstsleep

I am writing this on a PowerBook which will be 7 this year. And I'm using Tiger to do it. If you can find a 7 year old windows laptop which will run XP with all the latest updates at a usable speed, then I will have to resort to pointing and making fun of how much bigger, heavier, louder and uglier it is than my PowerBook.

I'm with you on this point. I currently have 3 running Beige G3's (and 2 for parts). Two are running Tiger, and one has Panther. They're nine years old and this point but they're used as a web server, web/email machine for a friend, and media server. How many nine year old PC's are capable of this? BTW they have 352/256/256 MB of RAM, respectively, and still run quite well.

[greenfairy1968]

G4 is only dated bevcause of the upgrades. If the new upgrades came out G4s would be fast as hell. Please let me know about your updates involving 9800s and whatnots.