Now that the Powerbook is dead (for the most part; the 12" and 17" are around for a bit), I felt like we needed an 'RIP Powerbook' thread to remember the computer that revolutionized the notebook computer industry over and over again.
First off, the Powerbook 100:
It was small, it was light, and it revolutionized the computer industry. The first laptop to have the keyboard in the back with a trackball in front! Specs include: 16 MHz 68HC000, 4 MB RAM, and a 20 MB hard drive for $2500.
The Powerbook Duo:
It was
really tiny, and had a dock to turn it into a desktop replacement. Very nice.
The Powerbook 500:
The first laptop with a trackpad and stereo speakers. Also one of the first with a PCMCIA slot, and it had two battery bays.
The Powerbook 5300:
Although its debut was marred by exploding batteries and a recall, it was the first PowerPC Powerbook. It was also really nice to use - I still remember the one my dad had.
The Powerbook G3:
This was a stylish laptop. It was also the ultimate desktop replacement, with two drive bays that could hold dual batteries, dual disk drives, or a combination. The Pismo is still a really nice, serviceable laptop, even today.
The Powerbook G4:
My dad got the original 400 MHz TiBook, and is still using it today (thinking about upgrading to a MacBook Pro (ugh). He still gets comments on how good it looks, even though it's going on 5 years old now, and the screen is starting to do weird things.
After the G4, the lineup is now...dead.
For comparison with the Powerbook 100, 15 years later the flagship Powerbook (high-end 15") has 1.67 GHz (100x), 512 MB RAM (128x), and a 100 GB hard drive (5000x).
Yeah, I didn't get every Powerbook in there. If you have a particular Powerbook you liked, stick it in the thread. All of our little black/silver friends are welcome.
Edit: Re: FFL in the next post - I would have put them in, but they didn't really have anything super-special, and I had to finish writing the post to get on with watching the keynote stream.
