A Clean Break?

A Clean Break?

I recently found a 1996 picture of me with my Mac. It’s just me, at my 1986-era IKEA desk. The Mac is the trusty Centris 660AV (circa 1993), with a cheapo 15″ monitor and a very old external 1x NEC CD-ROM drive. That’s it. I look much the same as I do today.

 

That photo marks the end of my pre-gearhead era. What I mean is, up to that time, my Mac system consisted only of equipment I needed for my work. I used the Centris mostly for writing, email, and web surfing, with a bit of graphics and audio work on the side. A 15″ screen was adequate, as was the HP DeskWriter I had on the floor.

 

Within a year, however, I’d gone nuts. I’m not sure what changed – other than web design, my work is the same now as it was then – but by the spring of 1998 the Centris was tricked out with a second screen – a 21″ greyscale display I picked up through eBay – as well as powerful new speakers, a Wacom graphics tablet, an ancient external 630 MB hard drive the size of a cinder block (also from eBay), a faster external CD-ROM, and a new printer. Instead of occupying the central section of my desk, my Mac system now sprawled across the whole surface – there was a bit of space to the left of the keyboard for a drink, but that’s all. I did feel more productive, but maybe that was just self-delusion talking.

 

I’d pretty much maxed the Centris out. Any rational person would have left it at that, I suppose, but by now my gearheadedness was in full force. So I bought a new machine, a beige Power Mac G3/266 desktop, which in early 1998 had only recently been displaced as Apple’s top-of-the-line computer. (And no, of course I didn’t get rid of the Centris. It’s in a box in the corner of the room right now; my wife and I just brought it back from her classroom, where she uses it to tabulate her students’ math marks during the school year. I’ll unpack it as soon as I clear off some of the junk from the other desk.)

 

Happily, almost everything from the old system moved right on over and plugged in. I’m looking at the same 21″ screen as I type this, and the 630 MB drive keeps some of my regular backups. I’ve also added a scanner, a joystick, a new four-button mouse, an ADSL modem, and a keyboard tray to make some space on the desk surface for more drinks. I only had to replace the old Nubus video card with a PCI one.

 

Now, though, I’ve put myself in a bit of a bind. Or, perhaps, Apple has. By the time I need another new Mac a few years down the road, surely all that will be available are Gummi Bear-style machines (just so you know, I like the new designs of the iMac and “Blue and White” G3s, but I do know a number of people who hate them). Today, the iMacs have only Universal Serial Bus (USB) expansion ports, and the G3s have just USB and FireWire, plus a token Apple Desktop Bus (ADB) connector, which will supposedly disappear with the next design change.

 

So even now – just a year after I bought my G3/266, and little more than two years after starting to collect Mac stuff semi-obsessively – if I bought another new G3 system, then my scanner (with its SCSI connector), external hard drive (also SCSI), and Apple-brand printer (serial) wouldn’t work with it out of the box. Even my 21″ monitor, with its Mac II-style monitor port, would require an adapter for the G3’s new, small, PC-style connector. Sure, I could add a serial card and a SCSI card, but with my second video card already in there, that would fill up all three slots in the computer. Not an acceptable situation for someone sure to “need” another card for something or other in the next year or two.

 

(Okay, okay, I could get a USB-to-serial adapter and save a slot, but I’m being dramatic here. Gimme a break.)

 

So, by the time I actually “need” another Power Mac, USB and FireWire will be the only way to go in Apple’s systems (the new “Bronze” PowerBook G3s already have no ADB port). Let’s see, my:

 

• printer
• scanner
• external drive
• keyboard
• mouse
• joystick
• graphics tablet
• maybe the big monitor

 

will all be obsolete, or at least difficult to connect. Now, that provides a fine excuse (a few years down the line) for me to go spend a whole bunch of money on new peripherals, or at least sort out which of them I really need (not just “need”) to replace.

 

It also provides an incentive to do something else. No, no, not switch sides and buy a Wintel PC. (What were you thinking?) Since all newer Power Macs are pretty easy to upgrade, by the time I would normally be buying a new Mac, I might instead choose a processor upgrade to a new PowerPC G4, keeping my old G3 and all my old peripherals for some time to come.

Like those who bought the first generation Power Macs (the 6100, 7100, and 8100) back in 1994 – who can now upgrade to pretty decent G3 performance at a reasonable price – I’ll be prolonging the life of my Mac and my peripherals, and saving myself some money.

 

Of course, Apple, which doesn’t make upgrade cards anymore, won’t be getting any of the money I do spend. Strangely, Apple’s bold attempt to move us all forward into USB, FireWire, and funky colors by making a clean break from the serial, ADB, SCSI, and beige past may actually be helping to hold back some of the truest, most dedicated Mac fans.

 

I’m talking about:

 

• People who are not video editors, but who’ve still filled all six slots in their Power Mac 9600s.
• People with enough mice, trackballs, joysticks, and tablets connected to their machines simultaneously that you’d think they were octopi, not humans.
• People who have their desktops spread across four monitors, just because they can.

 

These people – we people – are gearheads. We like our Mac stuff, but we don’t necessarily have the latest and greatest. Many of us scrounge, since we don’t have tons of money to spend (otherwise we’d be happy to shell out for USB keyboards, mice, tablets, scanners, and joysticks, and FireWire drives).

 

Part of me would be quite happy to buy a nice new fruity-flavored Mac when I next need a new machine. But another part of me knows that if I do, I’ll be reduced (for the first time in years) to a computer that doesn’t occupy my whole desk with its entourage – an unsatisfying feeling. I’m not sure I like having Apple force me to face my unhealthy gearhead habit.

 

Then again, I hear you can attach up to 63 devices to a FireWire chain. I see some possibilities there.

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Derek K. Miller
dkmiller@mymac.com