Since the Intel-based mac era, you can make a Mac out of spare parts a lot easier, ala the OSX86 project.

being a G5 iMac it's been left behind.

I can't help laughing at that, because my work computer is a G4 with a 466 mHz processor. And because we're in such financial rough waters, ain't no way I'm getting a new one any time soon.

And oh my god, I cannot even tell you how slow it is.

When I took my laptop in to the Apple store a couple of weeks ago, the Genius Bar guy all but pointed and laughed at it (iBook G4, late 2004 model). It still runs great for all my needs, although I'm seriously considering getting a Macbook and then taking this laptop to work permanently, because while it's old, it's WAY "newer" than the tower at work, and light-years faster (1.33 GHz processor, which is slow compared to the new ones, but more than 3 times as fast as my work computer).

And oh my god, I cannot even tell you how slow it is.

My home computer is a 2.8Ghz Core 2 Quad with 8Gb of RAM and a solid-state system drive. The few times I've used the Mac it feels like everything is taking place in syrup. Not it's fault, it's an old computer.

The few times I've used the Mac it feels like everything is taking place in syrup.

Try to imagine 466 mHz, with less than 1 GB of RAM. And I run programs like Quark XPress and Photoshop every day. It's neat.

Yikes.

So all of you self-professed "Mac snobs" who didn't even freaking use one until iPods came

I liked Macs, but between the price premium (which used to be significant) and the fact that OS 9 was pretty obsolete, I waited until OS X was out for a bit and stable before buying my first Mac (G3 iBook) in '03.

At least I bought it before I bought my first iPod.

eta: So a big appeal to me as that OS X is Unix-y. For me, Macs were more a replacement for Linux than Windows.

For me, Macs were more a replacement for Linux than Windows.

Me too. That's when it became both a really pretty thing and a geek machine. Also it coincided with me having the disposable income.

Yikes.

Uh-huh. If any of TPTB at work knew anything about computers, they'd be fucking impressed with what I coax out of that thing, and the (relative) speed with which I do it.

Hence the being willing to take this old laptop to work and make it my primary computer there. (Okay, it's also a justification for buying a new Macbook for home. But still!)

Teppy wow, I am impressed! That sucker is ancient. I can tell already that it's going to be weird going back and firth between home and work pcs now; my work pc is 4 years old and it takes 2 minutes to start up and is slow as frozen molasses dealing with software.

Yeah, mr. flea was converted to Macs because of Linux dual-boot. But, he's an engineer. And a total Mac snob, too. We have a G4 tower at home that dates back to 2002 (and has had memory upgrades), and it runs pretty good. It's gotten so it's not worth watching Youtube on it, since the videos are a little herky-jerky, but for everything else we do it's fine.

I used Macs starting with the Apple IIC in high school, and it was a bit of an adjustment when I started work in a Windows environment, but now I hardly notice the difference. Except when I want to cut and paste and use the wrong key+X combo, which is SO DEEPLY ANNOYING. (And it doesn't matter which machine I'm on, I always use the wrong one.)