Which Mac OS for old iBook G3? Needs Firefox.

[homestarmy]

My doc has an old G3 12.1" iBook G3. I believe it is at 500MHz and it has 128MB of RAM.

It is running the REALLY HORRIBLE 10.0 OS.

She needs it to work for basic tasks such as web browsing, and she needs Firefox to be able to view something for her son's class.

• I see 10.1 was supposed to be a free upgrade... how would I go about getting that?
  
  Or she can go to 10.3 with her current 128MB of RAM.
  
  Or if I put in a 256MB stick, she can go to 10.4.

What is best for her? Will 10.4 be pointless on such a slow Mac? Or what version will allow her to run Firefox? I really tried on 10.0 and it just wasn't happening!

Any other tips (besides telling her to pick up another computer - she will soon)?

Thanks so much!

 

[Elif Tymes]

I ran 10.4 flawlessly on an 800Mhz iBook G3....

 

[n0cmonkey]

Max out the ram and get 10.4.

 

[chcarnage]

Although 10.1 is an improvement, the effort to search it isn't worth it nowadays if upgradeing to 10.3 or 10.4 is an option. If it is affordable, do what n0cmonkey says. I don't have an idea where to get 10.1 or 10.3 anyway.

The newest Firefox version requires OS X 10.2 but surely there are older versions for download at mozilla.org.

 

[drag]

What I'd do is put that 256 megs worth of ram in there, install Linux and setup XCFE on it. Or maybe something even more minimal like Icewm or whatever.

That'll get you firefox support just fine. Also most codecs. As well as Org for normal desktop tasks. The only bad part is no flash plugin support.

 

[timswim78]

I'd say go with 10.3. It seems to run faster than 10.4 on older systems. Although, many programs require 10.4, so maybe you should just go with that. And as n0cmonkey said, get more RAM!

 

[chcarnage]

Originally posted by: timswim78
I'd say go with 10.3. It seems to run faster than 10.4 on older systems. Although, many programs require 10.4, so maybe you should just go with that. And as n0cmonkey said, get more RAM!

256 MB + 10.3 might be the sweet spot for the iBook, performance-wise. Maybe I'm somewhat optimistic considering 10.4...

However, don't install 10.2 because its performance is inferior to 10.3.

 

[Tegeril]

Originally posted by: chcarnage

Originally posted by: timswim78
I'd say go with 10.3. It seems to run faster than 10.4 on older systems. Although, many programs require 10.4, so maybe you should just go with that. And as n0cmonkey said, get more RAM!

256 MB + 10.3 might be the sweet spot for the iBook, performance-wise. Maybe I'm somewhat optimistic considering 10.4...

However, don't install 10.2 because its performance is inferior to 10.3.

Bingo. Though, if you can get your hands on a 512MB ram stick, you might consider 10.4, but 10.3 is probably the sweet spot, and with that 512 for 640 total, you'd be doing the best you could possible do on that hardware.

 

[homestarmy]

Originally posted by: drag
What I'd do is put that 256 megs worth of ram in there, install Linux and setup XCFE on it. Or maybe something even more minimal like Icewm or whatever.

That'll get you firefox support just fine. Also most codecs. As well as Org for normal desktop tasks. The only bad part is no flash plugin support.

Ha! Linux is not an option for me, as I am not willing to take the time out to learn the process AND teach it to someone less fluent.

 

[homestarmy]

Originally posted by: chcarnage

Originally posted by: timswim78
I'd say go with 10.3. It seems to run faster than 10.4 on older systems. Although, many programs require 10.4, so maybe you should just go with that. And as n0cmonkey said, get more RAM!

256 MB + 10.3 might be the sweet spot for the iBook, performance-wise. Maybe I'm somewhat optimistic considering 10.4...

However, don't install 10.2 because its performance is inferior to 10.3.

Hmm... I already have access to 10.4 on CD, so I'll have to see what I can do about 10.3.

I will likely go with 256MB, as she will be getting a new laptop probably very soon. She is used to it being slow and is ok with that as long as it will do what she needs for the time being. Will there be a big performance hit going from 10.3 to 10.4?

Also, it would definitely require a full format, right?

To back up everything, I can format my external 2.5" USB HDD as FAT32 and just drag everything over, right? Is there something else I would need to know about backing up?

If you didn't realize already, OSX isn't my strong suit. I have done some basic things and now work with it daily at my internship, however.

Thanks so much for all of your replies!!

 

[chcarnage]

Originally posted by: homestarmy
Hmm... I already have access to 10.4 on CD, so I'll have to see what I can do about 10.3.

I will likely go with 256MB, as she will be getting a new laptop probably very soon. She is used to it being slow and is ok with that as long as it will do what she needs for the time being. Will there be a big performance hit going from 10.3 to 10.4?

With dashboard and stuff the disk swapping will increase and we all know how fast notebook hard disks are, but I don't know how big the hit will be.

Also, OS X prior to 10.2 runs like molasses. 10.0 runs like frozen molasses. Whatever you do, the performance will increase. Personally I'd jump the gun and try 10.4, also because I wouldn't like to invest time to find a 10.3 version.

Originally posted by: homestarmy

Also, it would definitely require a full format, right?

To back up everything, I can format my external 2.5" USB HDD as FAT32 and just drag everything over, right? Is there something else I would need to know about backing up?

If you didn't realize already, OSX isn't my strong suit. I have done some basic things and now work with it daily at my internship, however.

Thanks so much for all of your replies!!

Yes you could do this but FAT32 doesn't support files >4 GB, and all icons will be lost in the process since FAT32 doesn't support the ressource fork of HFS. There is a backup software named Carbon Copy Cloner but it doesn't support 10.0 at all and newer versions require 10.2. So the best solution to copy the stuff is to create a HFS+ partition on the external drive when it runs on the mac.

You can try to upgrade the 10.0 installation, I wonder if the 10.4 install disks allow it for versions prior to 10.2.

When the upgrade is finished, I suggest running DeLocalizer on the new system to free up some hard disk space, OS X installs a ton of language packets that you won't need.

 

[homestarmy]

Awesome tips! Thanks so much! I'm going to come back here and reread before I look into it for them.

I probably will try 10.4 since I already have it, and I have it on CD. It's not as easy to get it on CD, right?

 

[chcarnage]

Originally posted by: homestarmy
Awesome tips! Thanks so much! I'm going to come back here and reread before I look into it for them.

I probably will try 10.4 since I already have it, and I have it on CD. It's not as easy to get it on CD, right?

10.4 normally comes on DVD. One has to contact Apple to get a copy on CD.

 

[SoundTheSurrender]

Originally posted by: drag
What I'd do is put that 256 megs worth of ram in there, install Linux and setup XCFE on it. Or maybe something even more minimal like Icewm or whatever.

That'll get you firefox support just fine. Also most codecs. As well as Org for normal desktop tasks. The only bad part is no flash plugin support.

LOL.