Hi, today I got an LCIII off my friend for free. I've been trying to decide
what to do with it.

I am assured it works fine, although it does require a reinstall of the OS.
Is it readily available, and how much does it cost? I've never touched old
Macs before; I'm a Windows 2000 and Solaris guy myself, but it was free so I
thought what the hell, let's give it a try.

What e-mail clients would anyone recommend? And can I access the usenet
with it? What about IRC?

Or does anyone use their LCIII for something completely different? Any
ideas would be great.

Many thanks

Colin.

On 11/8/03 9:46 PM, in article
pMirb.2561$PH4.18082965@news-text.cableinet.net, "colin." <colin#@#j0o.com>
wrote:

> Hi, today I got an LCIII off my friend for free. I've been trying to decide
> what to do with it.
>
> I am assured it works fine, although it does require a reinstall of the OS.
> Is it readily available, and how much does it cost? I've never touched old
> Macs before; I'm a Windows 2000 and Solaris guy myself, but it was free so I
> thought what the hell, let's give it a try.
>
> What e-mail clients would anyone recommend? And can I access the usenet
> with it? What about IRC?
>
> Or does anyone use their LCIII for something completely different? Any
> ideas would be great.
>
> Many thanks
>
> Colin.
>
>

I have an old Color Classic in my kitchen. All it is is a repository for my
recipes, and runs a clock screensaver.

Brian

colin. wrote:
>Hi, today I got an LCIII off my friend for free. I've been trying to decide
>what to do with it.

Install NetBSD and learn Unix.

>I am assured it works fine, although it does require a reinstall of the OS.
>Is it readily available, and how much does it cost?

If memory serves, the last OS that will run on the LC III is available
as a free download from Apple. System 7.1, I think...maybe 7.5.

>What e-mail clients would anyone recommend? And can I access the usenet
>with it? What about IRC?

If you can find an Ethernet card with the right interface (PDS, I think)
then you can do regular network stuff. Web browsing you probably won't
want to do because there aren't really modern browsers for ancient Mac
OS and today's MSIE-centric knucklehead web designers don't use
low-impact pages anymore. For email...an old Eudora release if you can
find it. Usenet...MT-Newswatcher has been regarded highly by a lot of
folks for many years.

Play around with the thing, try different software and see what strikes
your fancy.


Jim
--

Longhaired freaky people need not apply.

In article <pMirb.2561$PH4.18082965@news-text.cableinet.net>,
"colin." <colin#@#j0o.com> wrote:

> Hi, today I got an LCIII off my friend for free. I've been trying to decide
> what to do with it.

It will work fine as a basic computer, but given that it's almost 15
years old, you should compare it to a PC that's 10 years old. What you
could do with such a machine, you can do with this Mac. Which is to say:
not much in the present world.


> I am assured it works fine, although it does require a reinstall of the OS.

Probably 8.1 or 7.6 would be the best version of the OS to install on
this machine.

> Is it readily available, and how much does it cost?

Actually, you can get 7.5.3 + the 7.5.5 update for FREE from Apple.
Depending on the RAM in this machine (which I will be surprised if it's
even as high as 32MB), that might be a "good enough" option.

> I've never touched old
> Macs before; I'm a Windows 2000 and Solaris guy myself, but it was free so I
> thought what the hell, let's give it a try.
>
> What e-mail clients would anyone recommend?

Eudora 3.1.3. STRONGLY recommended if you can't find a copy of Claris
Emailer, the best email client the Mac ever produced and one of the few
that could read AOL accounts as well as POP3.

> And can I access the usenet
> with it? What about IRC?

MT-Newswatcher 2.4.4 should do fine with that IIRC. You can find it here:
http://www.macorchard.com/

I think you can use IRCle for this, it's an excellent client (I've used
it for 10 years now!). Also available at macorchard, but keep in mind
with ANYTHING you find there that you must look for what are called the
680x0 class of app.

Here's another great couple of resources for older Macs:
http://jagshouse.com/
http://www.lowendmac.com

> Or does anyone use their LCIII for something completely different? Any
> ideas would be great.

Fax machine
Print server
File server
Yes, WWW server (it can be done!)
Word processor

I'm sure there's loads more!

Let me conclude by saying that this is about as accurate an introduction
into the world of Macintosh as a DOS machine would be an indication of
the world of Windows. Have fun with your LCIII, but do yourself a favour
and visit an Apple Retail Store near you and see what is REALLY going on
with Macs post-1990. As a UNIX person, I think you'll be quite impressed.
--
Cheers,
_Chas_
http://www.apple.com/switch
non-spammers can write to chasm at mac (dot com)

"colin." <colin#@#j0o.com> wrote in message news:<pMirb.2561$PH4.18082965@news-text.cableinet.net>...



Hi, today I got an LCIII off my friend for free. I've been trying to
decide
> what to do with it.

Sweet deal... I bought mine a long time ago for several hundred
dollars - a really good deal at the time!

> I am assured it works fine, although it does require a reinstall of the OS.
> Is it readily available, and how much does it cost?

First, the OS used to be called "system" plus the version #. at 7.6
and above they changed it to "MacOS" plus the version #.

The original system with My LCIII was system 7.1 so that's the
minimum you should install. The maximum an LCIII can handle is MacOS
7.6.1 (install 7.6 and apply the 7.6.1 update). However MacOS 7.6
must be bought. You can buy the CD off ebay probably. For free, you
can download system 7.5.3, and the 7.5.5 update so you'll have 7.5.5
installed. This version works fine. But if you have more than 8 MB
RAM installed, I'd recommend 7.6.1.

I've never touched old
> Macs before; I'm a Windows 2000 and Solaris guy myself, but it was free so I
> thought what the hell, let's give it a try.

Ugh... WinBlows... Yuckie!

> What e-mail clients would anyone recommend? And can I access the usenet
> with it? What about IRC?

I'd recommend version 4.2.2 of Eudora Pro for Macintosh. It will work
with both older macs such as your LCIII and the (then newer) Power
Macs. I recommend this version not just for it's features and ease of
use, but because version 4.3 and up has additional wasted code which
adds a free "banner" version, or a minimal free version all in one
program -- it uses a serial number to verify the options available to
you.

Usenet can be accessed with a 68k based mac such as the LCIII. I'm
not sure, but IRC may be accessable as well. For a good list of
internet programs for macintosh computers, you can visit
[http://www.allmacintosh.com]

Remember though - only applications that are listed as "FAT" binary or
"68k" will work with your LCIII.

>
> Or does anyone use their LCIII for something completely different? Any
> ideas would be great.

I use my LCIII as a backup incase my main computer goes down. It's a
bit slow but it handles e-mail, word processing, and a lot of old mac
"68k" type games well. You can also use iCab web browser with it (an
up to date web browser that works with 68k macs). The browser will be
slow - probably taking 3 minutes or more to load an average web page,
but it does work - it understands javascript and most of the other
current web standards properly. iCab is a beta though and all things
don't work yet, such as full css implementation. You can download
iCab at [http://www.icab.de]. Although the LCIII isn't the fastest
"68k" based mac out there, it does it's job and it does it well.

Just FYI, the LCIII runs on a 25 MHz 68030 Motorola CPU. It has a
hard installed 4MB RAM soldered into the motherboard and you can
install an additional 32MB 72 pin simm 80 ns (or faster) ram chip into
it for a total of 36MB RAM. The OS only takes up 2-5 MB ram I think
if I remember right - depending upon what you have installed.

Have Fun!



>
> Many thanks
>
> Colin.