OS X on a PowerBook 1400c 400 Mhz G3

[LCGuy]

They sure do make 16MB PC100 DIMMs, I've got one.

 

[Franklinstein]

To summarize everybody else's responses, no, the 1400 will not run OS X. Nor will the 5300, upon which the 1400 is heavily based (the two are, in fact, electrically compatible). NuBus is not your friend if you want OS X, which also eliminates the 61/71/8100 models, the 7200, the 52/6200 machines, or the 7500 with an original 601 (this chip doesn't work either). The PowerPC 601 is more or less an intermediary between the established POWER chipset upon which PPC is based and the more streamlined chips to follow. For example, the 601 included many original POWER instructions and a unified cache; the later chips do not have these instructions, and they have separate I and D caches. There are several instances in Apple's developer notes that warn developers about these differences.

So that just leaves PCI models with 603s or 604s. The 3400 and 2400c will run OS X very well. I recommend using a 240MHz 3400c (with its maximum RAM and at least a 10GB drive) or a 2400c with a G3 upgrade (even the 240MHz model is fine) and its max ram, with a larger hard drive and the CardBus modification.

True, the PMU isn't completely supported on the 3400/2400/Kanga (so, no sleep, no backlight control, etc), and the 3400 and Kanga won't properly support CardBus without a new card cage being installed, but they do work well otherwise.

My 2400c runs 10.2.6, with a 240MHz G3 upgrade and 112MB of RAM. It has a 20GB hard drive, and the CardBus mod - CardBus cards work great under 10.2 up thru 10.2.6, but you can only use one card at a time. I use a Linksys 802.11g card (with AirPort software v.3.1.1) and have no problems with it. Even the video looks good, for being thousands of colours.