Vintage Mac Museum - PowerPC G-Series

iMac
iMac - honorable mention
Whimsical, underpowered but relatively cheap ($1299), the original iMac marked Apple's new design direction and return to profitability in the Second Jobs Dynasty. Gone were "boring beige boxes" and legacy technologies like the floppy disk, ADB and SCSI; the iMac was the first truly "New World" G3-based system and introduced USB to the Mac faithful. The iMac captured the spirit of the original compact Mac, was easy to use and distinctly different from anything else on the market - a once and soon-to-be-again Apple trait. The iMac's importance to Apple earns this model an honorable mention in the VMM in spite of that unfortunate bondi blue color and the "puck mouse" debacle.

PowerMac G4 "Graphite" (AGP) - MacOSX Server 10.3.9
Combining iterations made since the beige G3 series, Apple finally hit a design and stylistic home run with the PowerMac G4 AGP-Graphics series. These "Graphite" models inherited the highly serviceable fold-down side design of the earlier G3 and G4 towers, had faster system and graphics buses, fit 4 internal hard drives, and sported a very elegant color scheme suitable for professional environments. The AGP line existed for several years in many different model configurations, eventually evolving into the QuickSilver case (but losing the CD eject button... sigh). A plethora of aftermarket G4 upgrade cards keeps these models productive today and well into the future.

An upgraded 1.4GHz PowerMac G4 "Graphite" running MacOSX Server is currently hosting this website.

PowerMac G4 Cube - MacOSX 10.3.9
Steve Jobs loves cube shaped computers. He first designed one for NeXT, which was an aesthetic success but a commercial failure. His second attempt for Apple fared similarly, but has obtained collector status due to the beauty and novelty of the design. The Cube is 8" tall and fanless, passively cooled for silent operation (another longstanding peeve of Steve). However, its limited expansion capability and premium price led to slow sales as users felt bang for the buck was lacking. Apple finally got the small headless Mac tradeoff right a few years later with the mini, itself a third the size of the Cube with more power at a lower cost.

A G4 Cube currently serves TV shows to a networked ReplayTV using DVArchive. Long live RePlayTV - the "Mac" of DVRs!
(Spare Parts Needed)

New products often take a generaton or two to work out the bugs, and the iMac was no exception. With the introduction of the DV series of slot loading iMacs (G3 400MHz and faster) Apple finally offered useable processing power at a low price - down to $799 at one point. It also came in a mature and refined case with much less garish colors - Flower Power & Dalmation notwithstanding. FireWire ports (for DV video production), DVD/CD-RW drives and the same fanless design as the G4 Cube rounded out the experience. The iMac DV is an excellent MacOS9 machine, and with some extra added RAM makes an adequate (if pokey) MacOSX system.

iMac DV systems play a special role in the Museum showcasing the evolution of MacOSX: Sage, Ruby and Indigo units are loaded with MacOSX 10.0.4 (Cheetah), 10.1.5 (Puma) and 10.2.8 (Jaguar) respectively.

iMac G4 - MacOSX 10.4.11
Flat Out Cool! That's how Time magazine described the iMac G4 when it was introduced. A radical departure from previous designs, Apple (and specifically designer John Ivie) were hitting on all cylinders. The R2-D2'esque "iLamp" had FireWire, USB, and a 15", 17" or 20" screen that floated lightly on a lamp-like swing arm for easy positioning. The design did have some limitations - its difficult to open for servicing and the eyeball speakers add an extra item to your desktop - but in this writer's opinion it's one of Apple's most elegant designs ever.

At the VMM, a 17" iMac G4 runs several popular media applications from Apple's iLife digital media suite, including iTunes, iDVD, iMovie, iPhoto and GarageBand.

PowerMac G4 "Wind Tunnel" - MacOSX
An evolutionary model, the PowerMac G4 MDD (Mirrored Drive Door) featured dual processors in a sturdy redesigned tower that now offered two 5.25" front drive bays, 3 IDE buses and and 4 internal hard disks. The excellent fold-down side design was retained, and even the notoriously sluggish MacOSX felt snappy on these systems. Cooling was beginning to become an issue with faster CPU speeds, and some configurations had problems with very loud fans. The press quickly adopted the fitting moniker "wind tunnel" and the nickname has stuck. Fixes in subsequent OS releases largely resolved the problem. This is the last series of PowerMacs which can be dual-booted into MacOS9 and MacOSX; newer models were OSX only. (Planned Addition)

Mac mini G4 - MacOSX Leopard
Finally achieving commercial success with a cube-like system on the third attempt, the Mac mini was Apple's minimalist answer to everybody who always pestered them for a $500 Mac. Sold CPU only (bring-your-own keyboard, mouse and monitor), the mini's small size and decent performance made it a practical desktop system, living room media center or a cheap headless server. With USB2 & FireWire ports for external expansion, it was also popular among car stereo designers - the case fits nicely into a car radio dashboard slot! Despite an unnecessarily hard-to-open case the mini was quite popular, and the form factor made the transition into the Intel CPU lineup.

In the Museum, a G4 mini running Leopard and Front Row shares music and video to an 'ancient' non-widescreen living room TV.

iMac G5 - honorable mention
Sensing a slowdown in iMac G4 sales, and addressing some of that model's design flaws, the iMac G5 came in 17" and 20" models with very good cost/performance ratios. Apple trumpeted the easy to service features for adding RAM and swapping hard drives, the press gave glowing reviews, and many people just looked at the screen and asked where's the computer? Oddly, the second iteration of the iMac G5 was less user-serviceable than the first; in hindsight it's likely they were prepping the case for the upcoming (but as-yet-unannounced) Intel CPU change. Front Row media center software debuted on this model, complete with an IR remote control reminiscent of the MacTV. If only they made this iMac in black... (sigh). (Planned Addition)