Apple's Radically Different Late-90s Desktop! 

The original blue-and-white 'Yosemite' Power Mac G3 was the first computer I bought brand new, after a number of years owning used computers. Popping down the side panel was a great party trick, and I ended up adding a Zip drive and upgrading the RAM and hard drive. Around the same time, my Dad bought a Sony camera with i.Link (FireWire), and I realized how easy it was to shoot and edit video on the G3... and the rest is history!

I wish we could get computers that give us the same feeling as this did... Personalization was so different back then.

The way the motherboard folds down is so simple and elegant, and so good for repairability. It's a shame how Apple has become with this.

This machine right here is what started my journey into computer collecting. I picked mine up for free during my senior year of high school as the IT department was about to throw it out. I’ve upgraded it myself over the years with an ssd, better graphics and a USB 2.0 card, and I absolutely love the thing.

This is my favorite desktop of all time. I bought one in 2003 from eBay for ~$200 and it was my daily driver for a couple years. I ran OS 9 on it most of the time because OS X performance was pretty poor... Nothing but fond memories and I even liked the puck mouse.

10:27 - For those who don't know, Bungie (the developer most known for Halo and Destiny), was originally a Mac game developer with the Marathon, Oni, and Myth games. Halo was originally going to be a Mac game, and the first time it was ever shown was by Steve Jobs at the Macworld 1999 expo. Microsoft bought them in 2000 to produce games for the Xbox. I ended up playing Marathon and Oni a number of years ago and didn't realize how much of Halo's lore was inspired by those games. The PowerPC G3 era to about maybe 2004 was a good time to be a Mac user. They were just so much faster than the PCs of the era and they got first-class driver support for GPUs and such.

I acquired one of these beauties last year and it’s been one of my favorite machines I own. I use it for writing mostly, but sometimes for games too. It’s really cool to find so many people out there who share an appreciation for this era of Apple computers and classic Mac OS.

Thank you for an excellent retrospective on this model, from the IDE issues to the build quality of the Studio CRTs, you hit the nail right on the head. You got some lovely shots of this system! Although my beige G3 MiniTower did the job, I always wanted one of these models when I was younger, they just looked so cool! I also remember reading that the ADB port was retained so older higher-end Apple CRT displays could still be used with those systems. As adjusting the settings of the monitor was done via ADB. The 15" LCD Studio Display manual also reminds you that plugging in the ADB port is essential to the computer fully utilizing the resolutions / settings of the display.

This was the start of the peak Apple era. Beautifully designed computers that really stood out from the crowd of bland white box PCs of the era. Not only were they easy to upgrade, Apple actually encouraged users to upgrade their systems with case designs like the G3/G4 towers. Imagine that! These days, Apple computers are notoriously difficult to open, RAM is impossible to upgrade, and even now with the Mac Studio, it's not possible to upgrade the storage drive yourself. Along with the latest versions of macOS being turned into iOS for desktops, Apple somehow went from making computers exciting again in the late 90s/ early 2000s back to being boring, disposable junk after a few years of use. What a tragedy.

I really miss the translucent or transparent plastic aesthetics. Would love to see that making a comeback.

If I ever get a Funtastic N64, I want to track down a matching G3 to use as a monitor. With the exception of the Smoke N64, all of the colors can be coordinated (they’re actually REALLY close, to the point that it makes me wonder if one copied the other), and some of the Japanese Funtastics even had a similar two-tone scheme.

Xodium on TD has successfully swapped out the CMD ATA chip on his Rev1 B&W for the one used on the Rev2 - the new chip is 100% pin compatible, and available from UTSource. No other changes needed and solves all the problems.

I remember being on slashdot back when this was all coming out and there was so much excitement over the IBM's 'PowerPC platform'. It was 100% commodity PC hardware right down to that socket A CPU socket BUT used a PowerPC and not an x86 chip. There was a lot of assumptions at the time that there would be more brands besides Apple shipping PowerPC compatible computers. There was even a rumored and later reveled version of Windows NT for PowerPC. This was at the height of the RISC vs CISC wars and x86 was seen as old and broken. Of course none of that took off, but for a brief moment people hoped for a viable alternative to x86. Much like today where people are hoping ARM desktop chips start to put pressure on x86.

I had a 400MHz G3, which was the machine that made me finally switch over to OS X. Previously I had stuck with Mac OS 9.2.2 on my iMac DV 400 but I finally made the switch with this machine. I picked it up 2nd hand from a lady who I used to know who worked for a charity in London. They were upgrading their machines to G4s after having the G3s for a few years and I got a great deal. I unfortunately though, had to get it home and I did via the train. I got a taxi from her office to the train station but then had to lug it to the platform and onto the train. I was thankful for the handles but it's still a heavy machine. The train was full so I used the G3 as a seat to sit on in the vestibule by the doors. When I got to the other end, I got a taxi to my house and set it up. She asked if I wanted a 21" Sony CRT monitor to go with it, so I did the same thing the next day. Carrying a 21" CRT onto a train and then off it again almost killed me! They were also getting rid of a few tray loading iMac's, and I managed to transport them home the same way as the G3 and monitor. I gave one of the iMac G3's to a friend which was her first computer. Her kids thought it was sooo cool! Another friend came over for the weekend and I decided I needed some more USB ports so bought a Belkin USB PCI card and installed it. He was amazed that when Jaguar loaded and the USB card just worked. No drivers needed. He sourced a used G4 soon after. I purchased a 32MB Radeon 7200(?) PCI graphics card from an old IRC acquaintance who at the time lived in Norway or Sweden. he sent me the card over and I installed that in lieu of the 16MB ATI Rage 128 that it came with. There was a hack to enable Quartz Extreme for none AGP graphics cards which made the Finder feel much smoother. I believe eventually I gave the G3 away along with several other machines in my collection as I had to downsize. Aside from the 12" MacBook - which is my favourite Apple computer ever, The B/W G3 holds a special place in my heart. Final word after playing with my 300MHz Beige G3 a bit recently and a little thing that most people won't really notice, but the fact you could open the door WITHOUT having to disconnect the power cable was a HUGE plus. It's a real pain in the ass with the beige G3s!!! Thanks for the video and memories!

Man I spent a ton of time on these machines in high school journalism and yearbook . MacOS 9, Adobe PageMaker, and Photoshop 5. Send stuff to the publishers on Zip disks. Usually had Napster running in the background taking advantage of the high school's T-1 connection and their lack of firewall on the 4 Mac devices that actually talked to a network. Fond memories.

I have one of these my grandpa got one from a client (he owned a PC shop) I didn't even know what it was until know thanks

I was so envious of the Blue-and-White G3 and how easy it was to open and access the internals! I had a Power Mac 8500 at the time, and getting into it was a chore. I nicked by knuckles more than a few times while working inside its cramped interior. The thing I miss most about the Macs from this era were how upgradeable they were. I upgraded the CPU, RAM, video card (3dfx Voodoo2, baby!), and hard drives in my 8500 so many times that it begged the philosophical question of Theseus' ship. At work a few years later, I had a Mirrored Drive Door (MDD) G4, which was the zenith of the B&W G3's form factor and also a joy to use.

oh shit, this is the exact one i have

Last year I was able to score one for free that had the ZIP drive and a Sonnet G4 Encore PPC CPU in there. Sadly (or maybe luckily?) the previous owner took the hard drive out so I replaced it with a 80 gigabyte drive which I splitter into two partitions, one with OS9 and one with OS X 10.3. I’m however not sure (yet) what logic board revision I have but remembering I could use a drive on the IDE channel where the disc/ZIP is connected to I believe it would be the Rev2 board. TLDR; I love this PowerMac! It’s one of my absolute favorites!

my power mac g3 blue and white 450Mhz DDR 150 256MBx4=1GB ATI 9200 PCI IDE 120GB+120GB IDE SATA PCI 320 GB+500GB 2005.2022

Considering the love for Apple's old Alps keyboards, I'm sure that ADB port was frequently used for them. I quite prefer my Apple Keyboard with its clicky switches. It may not look as pretty as the matching USB keyboard, but the awful rubber domes quickly exhaust my hands.

I love the idea of handles on computers - especially workstations. From experience a fully loaded HP z620 is over 60 pounds so at some point handles become more of a necessity than just a feature.

Looking at this and now the modern apple products... where did the serviceability go :( (Ik its cuz it makes more money, but it's truly a shame. Imagine if modern PC's and phones were designed with serviceability in mind like this desktop was.)

i hate every single way you cleaned that keyboard and mice.. you dont just SPRAY IT you spray the TOWEL

Apple's balance of form and function with the colorful/translucent iMac G3 and PowerMac G3 was incredible, and to me it's a shame they went away with it.

The flyback transformer just needed to be replaced or if parts are unavailable, sealed with epoxy. I use to do those repair when i was fixing CRT TV and monitors with my uncle.

Very nice Machine. Does that CRT Monitor make a sound besides degauss when it is switched on?

Truly miss when proper design was meant to be "absurd". Nowadays even Mcdonalds restaurants are gray and bleak.

Wouldn't spraying cleaning solution directly on the keyboard be a bad thing? Another great video.

2:00 Apple 20 years later: People can't service their own devices, it's unthinkable!!!

This was in my 5th grade classroom. Logging on the Net with Netscape 🤣 cue that dialup sound 💙🍏

"easily serviceable" .... and look at what we have now. 🤣tech have gone backward.

They had these in my City College library for student use. The mouse cause my hand to cramp within 5 minutes of using it.

Most viewers: Commenting about the machine Me: OMG, Descent 3 on the outro?!

It's weird that apple also made a CRT for the G4 using Apple's ADC, i sorta want one because they were the clearest displays in my memory.

This machine was my dream Mac. I had a Blue Rev.D 333mhz iMac, but this is the one I wanted. Still to this day i find it beautiful.

These were highly coveted, but far out of price for my family as a kid when this dropped. Still makes me nostalgic for the styling of the near turn of the century

For a brief moment I had some flashbacks about living with this machine, and what it was like to have something stand out so much in a room of PCs. We tried to get on the “Windows Refund Day” train with this one and got a refund for MacOS 8.5. It run mkLinux and Red Hat and had some fun challenges with bootloaders, but educational to overcome. It ran fast but within a couple of years the G4 arrived and made it feel slow. Those were RAPID days.

I remember wanting one after I saw this in an episode of Sabrina the Teenage Witch.

This blue G3 Powermac brought my attention to Apple back then, in the end i got a later grey G4 which was also nice.

The early Bondi Blue iMac G3s also had flyback transformer problems. Got mine on early 1999, had to have it serviced by 2003. Still works!

I miss this era of Apple, where one could actually upgrade their machines...

VOID if seal, WARRANTY is broken

I loved these G3's - You used to be able to overclock them so easily it wasn't funny & they were a joy to work on. I created an imager using a hacked version of an unofficial Apple tool ( ASR, at least that's what it became ) to install hundreds at my job during a major upgrade effort & everyone raved about how much better they were than the previous PowerPC machines. Such a huge improvement in speed and expandability. And that Rage128 Pro video card was pretty decent for the time - it helped give a nice boost to Apple's gaming market at the time. There was alot of parallel development going on during Apple's resurgent early 2000s.

Respect for Descent 3 at the end of the video. A unique forgotten game in which you need to navigate in all three dimensions, and not just left-right, forward-backward.

I’ve never been as excited for an Apple product as I was for this. Genuinely changed the way I worked in graphic design, got me started in desktop video editing, and had an aesthetic that made me feel like I was in the future.

"mac gaming scene"

I have one of those 17" displays. I got an entire LOT of stuff a few years ago (enough to fill up a 2015 4-runner with back seats down and front seat loaded) for FREE just by going to collect it! That monitor is nice. Like yours, I think the fly back transformer is going out on it though. It does the same thing yours does. Still, it's nice to have, and certainly repairable.

I used to build PCs for my own use in the 2000s. I don't know why mounting the motherboard to the minitower cover did not become a trend. That looks so much easier to work on instead of having to unplug all the cables from the back, then turning the minitower on its side, and then hunting around inside the case with its sides blocking out the ambient light.

Most of the post-Jobs Macs looked awesome. This was one of them. One that wasn't was the sunflower iMac. That thing was hideous. And, like you said, there was the puck mouse. I don't know how they could ship that thing. Didn't they try to use it internally?! Jeez... But anyways, Apple's industrial design had its hits and misses, but mostly hits.

I still love the B&W G3 Mac's color and styling today. I never had one, but really pined for one back then. I did have a PM G4 in 2000 and loved that machine, but I wish it was colored like the B&W.

Apple and serviceble in the same sentence 😅

2:00 I thought the Blueberry Macs were rubbish and plasticy looking. The puck mouse and keyboard without a bezel certainly were rubbish and unusable. That clamshell open up design was total grrbage... it made the whole case flimsy and flexible. Dell did the same thing and they were awful. I actually thought the boxy II / IIfx / IIci and early Quadra towers and their full keyboards and sleek mouse were sexy as h377. Motherboards are square, so computer cases should be too.

Yikes! Why do you spray the cleaning liquid directly onto the hardware and not on the paper towel?

I have good memories of that machine. It was what I bought at the start of my start of my design career. Never had complaints about the keyboard and mouse. A pleasure to own, it felt like a pro computer. Once I added a special video card, was doing video and After Effects projects on it professionally.

6:57 - "Void if seal Warranty is broken" :)

I remember our high school having G4s in the computer animation class. When OS X came out they just had to upgrade. To date the only computers I've ever seen corrupt themselves just by upgrading the OS.

The iMac G3's aesthetics were so innovative, they won a highly coveted award at my house. Despite a firm "NO" regarding the placement of any of "your old computers" in the living area, a Bondi Blue iMac G3 sat on my dining room table for about two months after its recent acquisition, with zero commentary from the missus. Upon its eventual departure to the toybox, I informed she-who-shall-not-be-named that I had finally moved it on to its proper place. "Oh. Yeah, I know I said 'no computers in here' but it was so cute that I really didn't mind." High praise. High praise, indeed.

Bought one of these in... 1999? A 350MHz version. Ran FCP on it for demo videos. I eventually upgraded it with a 1GHz Sonnet G4. At some point I think it died, but I saved it for possible resurrection one day. I now no longer have it, or at least I see it no where among my possessions. I may have left it, being dead, in an apartment I was moving from. Good case though. Wish I'd saved it just for that.

I got into audio production with a blue and white (or ice and blue). That thing rocked really hard until it almost fell apart due to heavy usage

I miss the days when an upgrade was something you got excited about. Any time you could squeeze a few more megahertz out of a machine you owned was an exciting thing. Using the BIOS, jumpers, multipliers, cooling methods, etc.

I had a Zif socket upgrade for my BW G3. I was able to up it 50 MHz higher then originality advertised. It shut itself down when I tried 100 MHz above. 😮those jumper blocks!

@10:25 OMG Quake 3 Arena and Unreal Tournament!! :) This is actually a very cool looking machine. And indeed, the end of the nineties was an exciting time for the computer industry. We were still in the megahertz race, though that was changing. We used dial-up to connect to the internet, but it wasn't long before broadband came. Flash websites were a thing. And of course optical media.

I remember working on these and how user friendly they were. We would experiment with them alot as well. Putting Slackware on them, Windows, FreeBSD, and so on.

I used that computer back in high school, it was mostly my teacher’s computer in the classroom, it was next to the blue iMac, but that computer was so fun especially with the 3D games on it!

I have the exact same problem with my CRT. Also the flyback snaps. So it's a common problem? Is it fixable? Never opened it up, I always thought they were Sony Trinitron CRT's.

My grandad got one of these for his work in the mid 2000s (he's an engineer heavily into the vintage Macintosh workflow, since he's been with them since the 90s). After the power supply failed, he stashed it away and just continued to use the Studio Display 21 that he got with it. Now that's he's retired, I got them both and replaced the power supply in the G3 - now, they both work absolutely amazing. Even the display is working just fine with no issues.

I just watched this video, but for some reason I feel like I may have seen it before. while I loved the design Apple went with for G3 series of Macs. I didn't care for this color it was my least favorite. when Apple released the G4's and the Cube I was very happy. Always visiting my favorite computer store Microcenter drooling over the large cinema displays Apple released they looked so futuristic. I didn't get onboard with the new iMac until Apple released the other color versions. Strawberry, Lime, Tangerine and my favorite Grape. and of course always cringing when someone would call macOS X (Mac OS Ex.) always correcting them that it was macOS X (ten) LOL still find myself doing that. (I need a life.) One thing I have noticed that actually makes me gasp every time I see you cleaning a retro mac or even a pc, is that when you are cleaning the Keyboards and Mice you spray whatever cleaning fluid you are using directly on the device, back in my day that was a huge No, No. Always sprayed it on the cleaning cloth and then cleaning whatever needed to be clean. LOL

I bought this computer and monitor in 1999 I had the dvd drive, and no removable media. I had to set up an ftp server to access my files for school. I also had a tv tuner card installed in mine. It was great for gaming too I played Unreal Tournament on LAN

My first computer. Took me from os9 to the early osx internet. That’s what I was in front of when 911 happened. Downloading pics and reading live updating blogs with the tv on in the background.

My experience with ADB & PC serial software dongles was that they went wonky when plugged into a USB adapter.

I bought one from a friend who's a graphics designer, he had fitted a Sonnet 450 MHz G4 daughter card and a high-end ATI Radeon graphics card to it. I found the G4 upgrade killed off the two FireWire 400 ports, so I fitted an expansion card with two FW 400 and two USB 2.0 ports plus another card with four more USB 2.0 ports. I also boosted the optic drive with a DVD Rewritable drive. It was so nice to work on with the drop-down access. I also boosted the RAM to its maximum of 1 GB. I had two 60 GB HDDs installed, one for Tiger and the other with OS 9.

Got my first II+ in 1982, then a IIGS, a Mac IIfx, 170, 540c, beige G3, wallstreet, quicksilver, Titanium (667early), PB17" (5.9), quad core G5, MacBook Pro (several), Mac Pro (2010). If I didn't pour tea or cocoa on the keyboard, it likely is still running. Might have to upgrade again some day. Have fun

There were other colors.

Im 24 going on 25, born the same year as this thing. They had the old translucent imacs at my elementary school when i was growing up but my moms mac was way newer by then (2007) . These old designs with the frutiger aero influences give me so much nostalgia, i almost wanna use one of these power mac’s as my next gaming PC case 😂

Hey Colin, its going good.

When I graduated university in 1999 my family bought me a 350MHz B&W with this same 17" CRT. My CRT failed within a year, and Apple gave me $600 to buy a monitorof my choosing, as they weren't offering replacements for these. I ended up buying a high end Viewsonic 17" with the money.

The moment you mentioned some criticizing the Powermac G4 for looking unprofessional, it made me realize how different of a time the 90s were; with the mindset back then of colorful things being deemed childlike, I could see why this was considered a big risk.

Classic apple thinking, create cool-looking computers charge an arm and a leg have practically no freeware and sell it a market that doesn't care about looks wants computers they can afford with tons of freeware.And this is from the mind of steve jobs who thought he could cure his cancer with acupuncture.

Saturday night nostalgia, I bought 16 of these built to the N'th with new 21" monitors, (not Apple, Mitsu black) they came In on an early Friday evening, my crew stayed OT to install them and I had the CPU installed on the desk to be seen... Great boxes back in the day

I do like the first iMac's radical appearance - but I do not agree that the other Macs before that were dull, beige boxes. That goes from the Windows and OS/2 PC at the time! No, the Mac stood out with a deliberate industrial design and off-white Platinum color. It made them (well most of them), look fresh. One of the things I _love_ about Apples is how they make tech look so good.

It was about 1995-1996, I was using 7200 in school. In 1998, I was called up by my country to join the army and returned to society in 2000. My first job was in a graphic design company, and that was the first time I saw a B&W G3. There were many other Macs in the company, from the old white G3 to the 7200, 9600 and even the UMAX Mac, but none of them caught anyone's eye like the B&W G3. How I loved the apple of those days! The graphic design, the typeface and the imagery conveyed, the good old days.

My grandpa bought this one when they were new so he could edit videos. Back when Mac was unparalleled in graphic /video editing. I thought about getting one, but I have a cube and I barely use it. Need to get Os9 on it so I can play some games

I have a G4 era 17” monitor and I spent 4 months hunting down a NOS flyback. Considering it does 1600x1200 at 60hz and mine still has solid convergence and purity, I feel it was worth the time spent.

I have one. This one has Mac OS 9.2.2 and it does run well. OS X 10.3 is installed and that’s pretty snappy too, though the user interface is not nearly as good as Tiger (10.4). If you find one and the monitor won’t work, try resetting the PRAM (opt+cmd+p+r on startup, repeat 3-4 times).

this aesthetic, even though we were always a windows family, is so nostalgic and beautiful for me man. There are tons of case features from this era that are incredible even by todays standards. Apple wasn't the only manufacturer making removable or swinging motherboard trays. I've actually made an matx open air case using a removable motherboard tray from an old pentium 2 system.

Boring beige boxes? Apple’s Espresso/Snow White design was beautiful. They stood out at the time, just look up the motif. It’s stunning. The boxes were originally white, they’re only beige now because of the properties of ABS plastic and it’s reaction to UV light.

I have worked for 2 years on one of this G3 macs. In that time it was one of few computers cloud work on 512mb PSD file with 64mb of RAM without crashing or slowing down.

A beautiful machine. Today's electronics need to have designs and colors with this much personality.

I have obtain a G3 Blue with Both OS 9.6, and 10.3 in which I am happy, now I have to rig a line to reach a line to the internet modem so i could go on line, but with a collection of 5 computers why bother... Have both Platforms Windows, and MAC. Love your videos.

Well, 23 years later I still have my G3/400 B&W and it still works perfectly! Of course it’s super slow compared to today’s Macs, but how many Windoze PCs still work after all this time?

That ugly Bondi blue causes temporary blindness. (joke) My two work horses at that time were a "graphite" gray G4 450 and a G4 Dual 500 that I bought used for a song. I even had a matching graphite gray 12" Wacom tablet, and the Diamondtron. As soon as Intel came in all that stuff was garbage. Early Rosetta Stone was pretty clunky if I remember correctly. I wasn't running a museum so all that was replaced by an 8 core cheese grater. The ones that really got screwed were the ones who bought those outrageously priced G5 cheese graters. The Intel switch was a kick in the (shins).

As a freelance graphic designer throughout the 90's into the 20-teens I bought Macs not just because they were an industry standard but mostly they worked reliably, were easily upgraded and there service longevity was unmatched compared to other options available during those times. That came at a very steep price so replacing & upgrading a workstation was very much a calculated risk. My first brand new computer was an 8100/80 (competition to find one was fierce in the first month of the release) and that beast typically ran 14 hour hard days, 6 days a week. Had plenty of income to replace that warhorse in the late 90's but those G2's and beige G3's weren't that much of a performance advancement. RAM, CPU, network and video card upgrades to the 8100 offered far more bang for the buck than buying a new computer. Working with and on them was all pretty much the same anyway. The these things came about. Every comment and opine in this video is spot-on and it covers them all. When the blue & white G3's came out, I promptly jumped to buy one, the faster bus speed alone was convincing enough. That machine really changed the game (so to speak). A 350 MHz maxed out with 1G RAM and internal Zip drive was a considerable investment then, but the architecture of it was otherworldly. Didn't need to open the cover very often, unlike the 8100, but it felt like living the dream when I did. Migrating from the frustrations of SCSI peripherals to the ease and convenience of firewire was like loosing some very bad habits. Yeah, the keyboard sucked rotten eggs and that hockey puck mouse was bloody awful but, fortunately, they wore out fairly quickly and the ADB port allowed the use of my trusted and much loved extended keyboard/mouse combo. It was like reuniting with a pair of comfy old sneakers. The early model limitation of one internal hard drive was and still is really disappointing - especially since the power supply leads are right there - but at least a couple of hot swap external hard drives were available through the firewire ports and USB 1 ports offered some compensation. I don't think the optional SCSI card was ever used, that stuff was tasked to the old machine after all. Still think the blue & white G3 is the most aesthetically beautiful computer I've ever owned, and it has been the most trouble free Motorola processor Mac I've ever had. It work flawlessly to this day, even though it doesn't have much practacle use other than print spooling, scanning and other obsolete peripheral chores. Too bad table surface real estate is so very valuable, looking at it sure is easy on the eyes.

The beige G3 had even more pc-compatible options (besides RAM, ide drives both fixed and removable, pci usb cards, etc): one jumper in the motherboard allows you to use a standard (YES you read it well) pc ATX PSU in place of the original apple one; just be sure to set it right or you'll blow the entire computer but I did this mod on 2 beige G3s and worked flawlessly ( because I wanted a more powerful PSU in order to power 3 pci cards, 2 ide drives, one zip, one dvd burner)

Raise the hand those who have never own anything from Apple 🙋‍♀ guess I think too much different.... that Apple 🤨..

Sorry to sound like a typical fan, but I miss this era of Apple. The newer models are kind of emulating a THX 1138 aesthetic, where the 2000's and earlier Macs had a fun/non-serious element to them.

I once had PowerMac blue and white, that was upgraded to G4 and 21" CRT Studio display.

Ah, the silver age of home computing. It didn't have the technical simplicity and hackability of computers from the golden age, like the Apple II or the Commodore 64. But industrial design really came into the forefront in the tech industry, with bold, bright, optimistic designs, and tech companies who weren't Microsoft still had some honesty and flexibility in them. Apple didn't yet have a walled garden, Google wasn't yet an Orwellian omni-spy, and Facebook simply didn't even exist yet.

the orginal apple mac keyboards were mostly made by alps electric for the ADB bus like the m0116 m0115 and m350 aka apple standard keyboard apple extended keyboard apple extended keyboard II they were all mechanical keyboard with apls SKCM orange and salmon for them m0115 and m0116 and dampened tackle alps for the apple extended keyboard ii, i convert these joints to USB and sell them as people actualy like them

I still have my B&W G3. I've upgraded it to a 550mhz G4. Added hard drives and 256 mb of ram. Also replaced the graphics card with the original Radeon card.