A 500 MHz iMac should run OSX just fine. I've installed it on a 400
MHz, and was surprised how fast it worked - fancy screen effects and
all.
But as other people have pointed out here, this requires enough RAM.
You didnt say which version OSX discs you had, but I would say that the
first full-blown, well-working version of X was 10.3 ("Panther"). This
requires at least 256 Mb RAM. Enough for surfing, mail and word
processing. If you are gonna use big programs like PhotoShop or
InDesign, you need even more. If you want to run Tiger (OS X 10.4) you
will need more RAM than with Panther.
An important point: OSX is much more particular about what kind of RAM
chips it accepts than OS9 was. The necessary firmware update before
OSX will check the RAM, and PERMANENTLY DISABLE RAM NOT UP TO SPECS!
Meaning it won't be avaiable to OS9 anymore either...
Best to check yourself first: run "DIMM First Aid" (sent you off-list).
If it says RAM is OK, you can go on to the firmware update. Both DIMM
First Aid and the firmware update must run under OS9, so don't erase
everything yet..
THEN boot from the first OSX install disc (by holding down the C key on
your keyboard). From the File menu in the installer, choose Disk
Utility (or whatever it is called). This is where you erase the hard
drive. Doing that you also have the chance to "partition" it so it
appears as two separate drives. The point of this is that you can have
OS 9 installed on one partition, and if anything goes wrong with the
OSX partition you can always force the Mac to boot from OS9 (by holding
down the key sequence Shit-Option-Apple-Backspace). Very useful. And
the OS 9 can also be used from inside OSX (as "Classic")
Make a small OS9 partition, say 1-2 Gb, and the rest of the hard drive
for OSX.
Quitting Disk Utility brings you back to the X installer. Just click OK
and go ahead with the default install. After a while it will reboot,
then ask for the second install disc.
Now you have a well-functioning OSX, with Airport support and a nice
mail program and web browser. There are lots of good, free word
processors you can download; I use Mariner Write, which can open and
save Word-documents when needed.
As a last step, boot from the OS9 disc and run that installer on your
small hard drive partition. Then go to Apples site and update to 9.2
Looks complicated when explained here, but all this is really very
straight forward to do 8-)
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