The One Where We Bought A G3 Imac

Shortly after talking myself out of purchasing a typewriter earlier this evening, I found myself looking at G3 iMacs - the Apple computer from the late 90s that famously killed the floppy drive, and adorned mile after mile of freeway billboards around San Francisco on the summer of it’s launch (I remember visiting my cousin in Larkspur, and gazing at the strawberry, blueberry, grape and tangerine machines - knowing I could not afford them). Fast forward twelve years or so, and the world has changed. Those same pieces of the future now turn up regularly on EBay, as did one this evening at a price reasonable enough to fulfill a project we’ve been thinking about doing for some time. A computer for the children. Not a laptop that might get bashed, bent, or broken. A solid piece of hardware that has already survived for a decade, and has now been refurbished, cleaned, and sold off from it’s life in a school somewhere. The particular iMac we have bought is a late model with an early relative of W’s Macbook OS installed, along with iLife and Microsoft Office - so it won’t be completely alien to her when helping the children with school projects (I’m far more agnostic when it comes to software - I will invariably follow my nose and use whatever comes to hand as long as it does a version of the job I want it to). To an impressionable seven year old, the iMac will look like something from the future. It will sit on the desk in the playroom, will have stories written on it, pictures drawn, photos manipulated, and even the internet surfed (we’ve acquired a WiFi dongle for it too - although I might have to setup an old router for compatibility). Above all, it’s going to look like it’s fun, and that’s half the battle with the kids. The one button mouse also removes one of the obstacles that often stands in the way of our youngest. A little over a decade after it was built, the G3 is costing us 28 (about $40). Unbelievable.