IT House reported on February 21 that before the advent of the MacBook, Apple’s iconic consumer product was the iBook series.
A Reddit post that went viral on Thursday showed that even though it has been 27 years since the first iBook was released, Apple still retains system update servers for the series, and the iBook can connect to modern Wi-Fi networks without any modifications. Triggered user discussion on Apple's long-term software support strategy.
As a product line born after Steve Jobs returned to Apple in 1996, iBook is a more user-friendly and less powerful follow-up to Apple's professional laptop PowerBook. Obviously, this positioning has not affected Apple's support for it.
The poster @Decent-Cow2080 showed an iBook G4 released in 2003 and successfully downloaded several system patches in 2026. Of course, these updates are just patches released over a decade ago, as security support for the iBook G4 ended in 2011.
Even so, these files are still quietly stored on Apple's servers, waiting for anyone who needs them. This is equivalent to Microsoft servers still hosting Windows 98 today (which is not the case).
Remarkably, the 23-year-old device seamlessly connects to modern Wi-Fi networks without any modifications. This is one of the important legacies left by Jobs for iBook G4.
As the first mainstream consumer laptop equipped with Wi-Fi (IT Home Note: Apple called it AirPort at the time), Jobs even used a hula hoop to demonstrate on stage, as if to let people see the future wireless connection method with their own eyes. Nearly three decades later, people continue to marvel at its ability to seamlessly connect to the Internet, which is significant in itself.
