On Wednesday, December 11, 2002, at 12:11 , -=((* Josh Watkins *))=- wrote:
> [My new iMac Rev A has] a Imac PowR G3 466mhz/1meg upgrade card, and > 256 megs of ram . . . with my system specs, what OS do you all > recommend running? OS X Jaguar. No question. You have double the minimum memory requirements, and a faster processor than the machine's original specs to boot. > I plan on doing mostly Internet stuff(cable modem), word processing > etc.. This only reinforces my recommendation. As a UNIX-based operating system, OS X is more tightly integrated with the Internet than any other version of the Mac OS. That, plus its built-in E-mail application is extremely powerful and easy to use. It comes with ALL the basics you need for the Internet, actually, including Microsoft Internet Explorer for browsing and iChat for on-line chatting. Many independent apps are available for these things, too. Speaking of which, if you DO go the OS X route, I recommend OmniWeb as a browser alternative. Built specifically for OS X in Cocoa, it renders most pages beautifully, making most pages look like professionally printed text, especially when compared to Internet Explorer's plain Jane rendering. Also, being Cocoa-based, it's the only browser I know that has built-in spell checking that highlights any word you've misspelled when you're entering in an on-line form. Great for web-based E-mail! ;) OmniWeb is available for free download at http://www.omnigroup.com. > so what do you all recommend as I want as much speed as possible, a > fancy GUI isn't a must I always liked 8-9 OS's... OK. OS X is a LITTLE slower, but given you machine's specs, it shouldn't be noticeable. And, fancy GUI aside, Mac OS X is absolutely, bar none, the most stable Mac OS ever written, thanks to its bulletproof UNIX base and protected memory. Comparison from my own experience: Mac OS 8.6: Hard crash that required using the reset switch once every two weeks on average Mac OS X: Since upgrading in July of 2001, only FIVE hard crashes... TOTAL In Classic Mac OS, if an application crashes, it often takes the whole OS down with it as a crashing application can wreak havoc with areas of memory in use by the operating system. This generally results in the whole system hanging, leaving you with no alternative but to hard reset to regain control, usually losing everything still open in all other applications in the process. Mac OS X, OTOH, has protected memory, which basically means an application is given a specific area of memory to work with and, no matter what happens, can't affect anything outside that area. So, if the app crashes, it's virtually impossible for it to affect the operating system or other applications. If an app crashes, all you lose is what was in THAT app. The operating system and all other open applications continue humming along perfectly. You don't even have to restart! :) So, you might gain a SLIGHT speed advantage using an older OS... but that advantage would be nullified by the relative instability. IMHO, Jaguar is the only way to fly. (Actually, technically speaking, I'm still not using Jaguar... I'm using OS X 10.1.5, since I haven't been able to afford the upgrade just yet, though I WILL be getting it... right now, though, I just came off a rather expensive trip to Orlando. :) Still, the stability figures above represent all versions up to 10.1.5, and I hear Jaguar is even MORE stable... so my opinions are based on my experiences with versions of OS X prior to 10.2 and from opinions expressed by users of Jaguar). > also if you could walk me through as I have heard you need certian > "Imac" updates in some of these OS's..which I'm new too obviously.. This is the one aspect which is a little outside my technical abilities. Today, I have one of the new Flat Panel Combo Drive iMacs which are already factory ready to accept OS X. I used to have a Rev B iMac running OS X, but it was so long ago, I can't remember now what updates (if any) I needed for it to run X. However, I'm sure there are many people on this list who would be happy to guide you through what you need to do to get it running on a Rev A. :) John A. Ardelli Owner/Moderator BIFIDA-L: The Original Spina Bifida Discussion List The Crystal Corner - The Original Dark Crystal Discussion List -- The iMac List is sponsored by <http://lowendmac.com/> and... 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