I love how many of those machines are still around and still in use today. Low End Mac, for example, has a thriving user base, and there are still other groups about maintaining vintage Macs.
Unfortunately, the price on a lot of the older machines has gone way up, as people try to capitalize on the vintage trend.
I have a G4/800 iMac (the lamp one) that I still use, with Mac OS 9.2 on it.
It's not cheap, but for those who like the aesthetics of the Powermac G5 tower, there is a conversion kit to put a normal ATX motherboard in it, and a standard PC power supply:<p><a href="https://www.thelaserhive.com/product/g5-atx-kit-psu-holder/" rel="nofollow">https://www.thelaserhive.com/product/g5-atx-kit-psu-holder/</a><p>Makes it pretty easy to choose a new motherboard such as for a Ryzen 2700, with fast M.2 NVME SSD, etc.
Debian can be installed on G5 (although the latest stable Debian 9 "Stretch" isn't supported, what you can do is install Debian 8 "Jessie" or the unstable branch "Sid") [1].<p>Also note the PPC 750 and PPC 7400, used in the Mac G3 and G4 computers, are NOT affected by meltdown & spectre, so if you want a secure desktop, try Debian on G4 [2].<p>[1] <a href="https://wiki.powerprogress.org/Debian_PPC_Starters_Manual" rel="nofollow">https://wiki.powerprogress.org/Debian_PPC_Starters_Manual</a>
[2] <a href="https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/computers-unaffected-meltdown-spectre/" rel="nofollow">https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/computers-unaffected-meltdown-...</a>
I don’t have any PowerPC machines going any more. But for those who do, it seems that a modern web browser might still be an option: <a href="http://www.floodgap.com/software/tenfourfox/" rel="nofollow">http://www.floodgap.com/software/tenfourfox/</a>
I just happened to buy a Dual 1.8Ghz model for $10 CAD at a garage sale yesterday. Beautiful machine. Also had a keyboard, but unfortunately isn't a mechanical one (rubber domes over membrane.)
G5, the first 64bit desktop mac. [1]<p>Another fun fact, I named the Apache Velocity project after the 'velocity engine' in that chip.<p>[1] <a href="https://everymac.com/systems/apple/powermac_g5/faq/powermac-g5-first-64-bit-pc-velocity-engine-quad-core.html" rel="nofollow">https://everymac.com/systems/apple/powermac_g5/faq/powermac-...</a>
This was an awesome machine with a great architecture, but unfortunately it didn't have legs [1] for the long run. The G5 processor architecture was in the end too power hungry, especially for the laptop space - with the fabled "PowerBook G5" never arriving.<p>[1] <a href="https://janit.iki.fi/shit/3Ghz.m4a" rel="nofollow">https://janit.iki.fi/shit/3Ghz.m4a</a>
I have a single-core model from 2003 that I pulled from a trash heap. I still use it for scanning film and anything else that Adobe CS2 can handle. I also have a OS X tiger partition to run classic applications on. Great computer/space-heater ;)
I have the dual G5 2GHz standard model and it's still kickin'! Sure, the clock battery is way beyond its lifetime. But with a modern Linux distro and ntp it's a minor setback.
I only just retired my '03 dual-2GHz G5 at the end of last year, and only because of space constraints in my current house. It was and still is a great piece of equipment.