---------- Original message ---------- Subject: Best MacOS x on a G3 B&W? Date: Wednesday, 11. January 2012 From: seeker <[email protected]> To: "G-Group" <[email protected]> > what if any would be the ideal version of macOS x to > install on g3 b&w with maxed ram? i am a huge fan of opensource, but > i have fallen head over heals for mac osx and would like to keep these > machines as such.... so any help?
I’m running Mac OS X 10.4.11 Tiger. My B&W has its original 350 MHz G3 processor, and I maxed out the memery 4×215 MB PC100 DIMMs to 1 GB. Sady I do rely on 10.4 because of internet functionality: I use TenFourFox. I also have a Cube G4 with 450 MHz running Tiger. BTW TenFourFox on a G3 with some fancy must-have extensions (like NoScript and AdBlock Plus) also put the speed brake on it. You just feel that it is too much for this old little bugger! My experience: the bottleneck is the 350 MHz processor. But even with a faster one it wouldn’t be the same experience as it is on, say, a G4 Dual 1GHz running Tiger or a G5 Dual-2 GHz with at least 2 GB memory running Leopard. The second problem that the B&W has is the absence of an AGP bus. PCI just isn’t fast enough for Quartz Extreme. Under heavy I/O load (i.e. because I’m copying files on the USB bus --> USB 2.0 expansion card --> PCI bus --> CPU --> IDE channel) graphics becomes snatchy. Without Quartz Extreme (with the original ATi Rage 128 PCI graphics card) it will be snatchy anyhow. The best OS? I can see Mac OS 8.5.1 (the original bundled OS) rocking on it! Mac OS 8.6 or 9.x is maybe the best choice if you want to go for speed. Or a slim Linux/BSD distro. (But which one? Is there one for PowerPCs?) Mac OS X 10.3 might also be an option, but there is just soo much great software that requires at least 10.4 to run… 10.3 just makes you feel bad about your decision. 10.2 will do as well, but I heard that 10.3 is even faster than 10.2 was. Also, 10.3 is the first to feature all that usability that you expect when going for Mac OS X. The backstep to 10.2 just feels like loosing something. Well, it did to me: I’ve tried. IF you don’t go for speed, 10.4 is propably good for you. Cheers, Andreas aka Mac User #330250 -- You received this message because you are a member of G-Group, a group for those using G3, G4, and G5 desktop Macs - with a particular focus on Power Macs. The list FAQ is at http://lowendmac.com/lists/g-list.shtml and our netiquette guide is at http://www.lowendmac.com/lists/netiquette.shtml To post to this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/g3-5-list
