iBook sale erupts in chaos, stampede
This story has been covered in the media, and it's quite amazing (at least to me) how insane people got about it. Someone is even selling an
Henrico County T-Shirt on eBay
The chaos that this essential computer giveaway caused will likely be felt for years to come, as municipalities reconsider their methods for selling surplus equipment to the public. For Apple, this event is a PR nightmare -- while it clearly shows that demand for a cheap laptop computer is there, to be associated with the chaos is not a good thing.
I still can't believe it. A four year old iBook is less usefull then a door stop. Hell, there are better computers at weirdstuff for $50. An iBook that old won't run OSX (the G3 never ran OSX very well) and no body makes software for OS9 anymore.
At least if it was a windows machine it would have software you could use. (I can't believe I said that!) But it is true. A mac that old isn't worth the hassle!
I have a 3-year old iBook, and remember pricing them out on eBay before buying (I eventually bought new). My 700Mhz iBook still runs OSX ok. Machines from the year before would not be great, and would not be ideal for software currently available, but wouldn't be the end of the world.
Now, on the other hand, it's an old laptop. Old laptops *are* less useful. Their displays break, their components wear out, their batteries are useless (my 3-year old iBook has had a ~20minute battery for, well, at least 9 months now).
So, yeah, I agree, in principle, but I can see how folks would get stirred into a frenzy. Alas, having access to less-old versions of such tools, it's hard to imagine how excited people without such access would be.
my 4 year old ibook (g3, 500mhz) runs osX and might be slow at things like adobe applications and has a slow cd drive, but uses other programs fine.
so i'm not surprised that people would ay $50 for it. as long as they're not doing anything graphics oriented, it's still a good computer.
If you're too poor to acquire a computer by any other (legal) means, it most certainly is worth it.
I'm not surprised that people would go to the trouble of getting the $50 iBook either -- on ebay, the laptops costs $350 on up, so you're looking at a signifigant savings.
Even if you part out the iBook, you're looking at $129 for the battery and $79 for the power adapter. I can think of many uses for a $50 iBook -- sure it may not be the fastest machine on the block, but it can still do plenty.