I can’t wait for the EV future and even work for a manufacturer building them… But this post is the reality in the US market right now.
The cars are too expensive, the charging infrastructure is not there for people living in apartments (which at least where I live, accounts for the majority of new housing construction), our local power grid is already sagging because we haven’t built a power plant in decades… And a significant amount of people have commutes totaling or exceeding 80mi (round trip) because the jobs are in the city, but don’t pay well enough to live there, so they have to rent in the more rural towns and rely on the interstates to get around.
Could we, in America, make the 2030 deadline? Perhaps, but only if the government actually did something about it. We would need a massive infrastructure investment, we would need some regulations that define the cars requirements that are something other than “doesn’t blow smoke”. We would need a more aggressive subsidization program (like most of the other countries that are attempting to push heavy EV adoption)… And above all, it needs to be affordable to everyone, not just the person looking to swap out their BMW or Lexus for the new hotness. It’s gotta be affordable to the blue collar hard worker that is currently driving a late 90s pickup truck, or an early 2000s Camry. It’s gotta be affordable to the family that is buying a four-owner minivan. And it can’t be just because you point out “But the electricity is cheaper than gas! You’ll save in the long run…” Because they’d rather pay for the convenience and peace of mind that comes from knowing there’s a filing station every 10 miles, vs having to plan their existence around 30min charging stops.
If battery tech improves and range anxiety disappears, along with better rapid charging? None of this will be an issue anymore. Because that’s what everyone I’ve talked to is worried about: range and charging time. They want their replacement car to be BETTER than what it replaced. As would everyone, no? Especially when dealing with Americans, asking them the assign value to ‘being efficient/good for the environment’ doesn’t work. So yes, you’ve spent more up front, you’ve reduced the total distance you can drive on a full tank, you made refueling a hassle, and have to also hire a contractor to wire up charging capability in your garage. But you are now personally less responsible for carbon emissions!
…it’s a hard sell. What’s also a hard sell: I am one person. I do not need an SUV. I drive a coupe Civic right now… Where’s my compact econobox EV? Do I have to buy a big luxury sedan or SUV (or truck! Though I appreciate Ford and Rivian for making those options available) just to have an EV?
If you like Amiga Workbench, you can always try MorphOS. But that is not a straightforward process to get into. And it’s not free software…
If it’s an earlier model, they make great ‘retro’ games and software machines. Install 10.4 Tiger, set up the Classic (OS 9 environment). That gives you a decent chance of running stuff from System 6-ish (late 80s) up to mid 2000s. Not like Macs had a lot of games or unique software, but it can be cool for the heck of it.
Also, with their FireWire ports, it can be handy if you still have old DV or HDV camcorders, pretty straightforward to capture old tapes. The later models are better for this purpose, more processing power and better graphics cards.
If neither of those use cases appeals to you or sounds like an applicable use case, the G5 towers are the best to use for ATX case mods. But you did mention you didn’t see a point in that. Therefore… Recycle it or pass it on to someone who is interested in tinkering with it. After 20 years, just like a lot of computers from that era, they don’t have alot of justified use cases… And that’s okay!