Despite some big hopes and dreams to develop SimpleMarkPPC more, 2017 ended up being a quiet year for the site here. I didn’t get as many updates as I wanted, but that’s not the end of the world. It’s not as if PPC software is exploding with new entries. We are essentially a somewhat viable fringe legacy platform. So, here’s a quick rundown of some of the intriguing news of the past year:
TenFourFox remains the most vital application for our G5s to stay connected and relevant on the internet. Cameron deserves his wide appreciation for the coding he does. Great guy! In fact, FPR5b1 is available as I write this.
LeopardRebirth is also a fun little package that updates the look and feel of your Leopard machine. It also includes a solid little PPC Store app. It’s getting updates and features some apps that I’m not familiar with but seem really useful. In some ways, this makes G5Center a little less relevant, but that’s fine. Grab it here.
On the negative end of things, Dropbox has officially stopped working on my G5. Did the server side have enough tweaks to close down our little loophole? Whatever happened, it gave my G5 a final countdown and no longer connects. I haven’t had free time to take a stab at fixing it, so we’ll see if CZO finds a workaround on the old thread here.
In 2018, I am going to do some more experimentation with a few products that might give us a syncing option with our older and newer Macs. Cross-platform would be the best – something relatively simple and brainless to setup too. I’m also going to post a few articles about vintage Macs here and there.
In truth, I feel that 2017 brought us closer to the “end” for our PPC Macs. Once TenFourFox doesn’t become viable, our G5s will still be useful, but they will be useful in the vein of other older vintage Macs. Software will keep on going, and they can serve a purpose – but the temptation to upgrade to even older Intel-based dual Macs will be irresistible. Heck, I picked up a $150 Core2Duo iMac for this purpose, and it’s getting more use as my regular writing/home office machine. Change happens.
Here’s to a great 2018!
— Nathan