Tiger on a 603/604??

[Quadraman]

There are thousands and thousands of software titles for your older PPC Macs. Your 6500 is exactly as capable as it was the day you bought it. And more functional if you consider all the apps that were written between then and now.
I don't understand this fixation on having the newest and greatest software.

Peace,

Drew

Then, it was easy to walk into a store and buy software for the classic OS. It's not that easy now.

 

[The Macster]

I don't understand this fixation on having the newest and greatest software.

Well, newer software tends to be better, in that its features are improved and extended and the code is quite often optimised for better performance (just look at the OS X versions, for instance, to prove the latter point). I've never seen the attraction of running old software when your machine will take something newer, which is why I always run the newest versions that I can coerce onto my machines. It's also great to be able to experience the latest and greatest in Mac software without having to buy a newish Mac to do so!

 

[alk]

"Better" is a subjective measure. Performance is not. I'd wager that the majority of modern software is actually LESS tuned than older software.

Modern software requires modern hardware for a reason - those extra features (whether they are features in your or my opinion is another argument) often require extra horsepower. Consider Quartz graphics. Try that on a 68k...

As for OS X versions, it is widely recognized that 10.3 is the most optimized OS X and that "pound for pound" 10.4 is slower. Of course, 10.4 has to spend it's time doing a lot of things that 10.3 doesn't such as maintaining the Dashboard, etc. Up to 10.3, Apple definitely did make speed improvements in the core OS, however, and 10.3 is probably the fastest OS X we'll ever see. From here on out, it will be less about optimizing code and more about adding "features."

I'm not trying to argue with you, and I don't deny that there are some modern applications that are really nice. For instance, I like RSS and RSS readers. However, that doesn't mean my 6500 is less useful because it can't run Safari 2, it just makes it less relevant. I can still do everything I could do two years ago, so the capability hasn't gone away...

Peace,

Drew

 

[The Macster]

The difference in performance terms between 10.3 and 10.4 seems to be subjective - some say Tiger is faster even on G3s, while others say 10.3. In my experience 10.4 is very fast - although I haven't tried 10.3 I can't imagine it could really be any faster! Remember that you can easily disable the Dashboard (and I think Spotlight too)

 

[cuvtixo]

There really doesn't seem to be much that I can see happening on the classic OS front in terms of new software development, not even in the shareware/freeware area, so OS X seems to be a necessity rather than an option.

PowerPC Linux. Yellow Dog Linux. If you want the BSD family, NetBSD or OpenBSD. Yes, unixish (or un*x) software is a "necessity," because development = support. (I consider Googling forums and emailing strangers legitimate support, much better than I ever got over the phone) I've tried messing with the "Open" Darwin core, but without the fancy Quartz GUI that Apple provides in OSX, Darwin doesn't have much to recommend it. [] ]'>

Java is also a problem. If MRJ was updated... [xx(] ]'>

If I did not care about support (formal or informal) or updated software or games, I would salvage old Servers from DEC and Sun, not old Macs. [] ]'>

 

[ChristTrekker]

My only complaint is it still chokes on any page that makes use of CSS.

Depends on how complex the CSS is. Color, font styling, etc...usually no problem for me. Complex layouts, DOM manipulation and such...yeah, that can cause problems.

 

[Quadraman]

There really doesn't seem to be much that I can see happening on the classic OS front in terms of new software development, not even in the shareware/freeware area, so OS X seems to be a necessity rather than an option.

PowerPC Linux. Yellow Dog Linux. If you want the BSD family, NetBSD or OpenBSD. Yes, unixish (or un*x) software is a "necessity," because development = support. (I consider Googling forums and emailing strangers legitimate support, much better than I ever got over the phone) I've tried messing with the "Open" Darwin core, but without the fancy Quartz GUI that Apple provides in OSX, Darwin doesn't have much to recommend it. [] ]'>

Java is also a problem. If MRJ was updated... [xx(] ]'>

If I did not care about support (formal or informal) or updated software or games, I would salvage old Servers from DEC and Sun, not old Macs. [] ]'>

Linux is not MacOS.

 

[cuvtixo]

Linux is not MacOS.

I would think 68k hardware enthusiasts would naturally turn to alternative OS's. :?:

When Mac code started to require PowerPC, and linux on the Quadra was shaky, I spent a lot of time with macminix, and some German professor's *nix running on MacOS- Mac06 - POSIX for MacOS www.dsitri.de/projects/mac06/ It killed me how expensive Tenon products were.

MacOS for the collectible in the attic- Sure, but if I'm using electricty, I want to at least pretend it does something useful. [)] ]'> :

 

[Maccess]

Just some comments on some earlier posts:

I've recently rediscovered Opera 5 for Mac. Much faster than any other browser on early PPCs. Way faster than netscape, faster than IE, faster than Opera 6.

Carbon apps are reeeeaalllyyy sssllllooowww on OS 9, better to get the Classic OS native version if it's available. (if it has that funky OS X alias and hidden folder setup, it's usually carbon).

If you want to run the latest and greatest, you need the latest and greatest hardware.

Older hardware has an optimal operating system which is not necessarily the latest system that will run on it. As a general rule it is the version pervious to the last system that will run on it.

My rules are:

68000 - System 6

68030 - System 6, System 7.1.2P, System 7.5.5 (for special applications/reasons)

68040 - System 7.1.2P, System 7.5.5/7.6.1 (for special applications/reasons)

Nubus PPC - Mac OS 8.1/8.6

PCI Power Mac - 8.6 (mainly because of USB support), 9.22 (if it's a faster PCI Mac.

Any Mac with a G3 (native or accelerated) - 8.6, 9.1, 9.22

G3 Beige - 9.22, 10.2/10.3

 

[Temetka]

Here's a question.

Some machine had 2 or even 4 604e processors. Does OS X see the extra CPU's and take advantage of them. I can only assume that it would offer a hefty improvement in speed.

 

[alk]

OS X doesn't use multiple 60x CPUs. This is probably a limitation of BootX and the boot code as opposed to OS X which should just work w/ multiple CPUs. Alas, it appears that XPostFacto will never be updated to support dual/quad 604e Macs.

Peace,

Drew

 

[Quadraman]

OS X doesn't use multiple 60x CPUs. This is probably a limitation of BootX and the boot code as opposed to OS X which should just work w/ multiple CPUs. Alas, it appears that XPostFacto will never be updated to support dual/quad 604e Macs.
Peace,

Drew

Can you imagine running it on a MaxxBoxx??? As it stands, we may never see an Xpostfacto 5 if Ryan Rempel doesn't come out of whatever black hole he disappeared into.