which OS X for my iMac G3

[macguy]

My recently purchased iMac G3 ( 500 MHz ) has a 10 GB hard drive that is dedicated to OS 9.2. I do believe that it would be to crowded to have both systems on the 10 GB drive and I don't want to go shopping for a larger drive or the hassle to install a larger drive and then simply throw away the current drive. I've gone thru that exercise with far to many other Macs.

I want to install OS X to a firewire drive and have the iMac G3 host this drive.

The cats i have are the Jag, the Panther, the Tiger, the Leopard and the SnowLeopard.

I know that the Snow Leopard requires a Intel.

Which OS X should i install ?

 

[Strimkind]

Both Leopards are out due to the G3 PPC. Leopard required a 800mhz G4 or better.

I have been installing 10.4 on G3 iMacs and it works great. I recommend at a minimum 256MB of RAM but I suggest 320MB or more.

10.3 and below do not have a working modern web browser anymore. 10.4 still has Firefox and Opera.

 

[Bunsen]

10.3.x or 10.4.x in my opinion.

 

[jruschme]

10.3 and below do not have a working modern web browser anymore.

What about Camino 1.6, particularly a G3-optimized build? iCab 4.8 32-bit (latest version) will also run on 10.3.9 and above.

As for OS recommendation, there is a lot to be said for a maxing the memory and installing Tiger. Out of curiousity, what is the video on your iMac?

 

[protocol7]

Video should be 16mb ATI. A bit weak for Tiger but depends on what you plan to use it for.

 

[ClassicHasClass]

Camino 1.6 is essentially an evolved Firefox 2, with all the attendant drawbacks. It does work pretty well, but it has the older JavaScript and DOM, and it is significantly slower. In fact, Classilla's JavaScript is actually more advanced than Camino 1.6!

That said, it is probably the best option for 10.3, but I'd put 10.4 on the G3 and run something more recent.

 

[LCGuy]

I'd go with 10.4 - provided you have a decent amount of RAM it should run pretty well, and will let you run newer software than 10.3.

 

[phreakout]

Tiger will run fine on your iMac G3, although online streaming video (Youtube, etc.) will be choppy, especially at 360p or higher; your iMac will be playing catchup with the sound and video. The work around would be to download those videos to an FLV file and then play it back using VLC player. This is just an example. Firefox version 3.6.10 (latest version?) is supported under Tiger.

If you don't want to be sluggish yet have more compatibility with other software, I would highly recommend Panther (10.3). It is less hungry for RAM and resources to run. Firefox version 2.0.0.20 is the last supported under Panther and Jaguar. Or you could just use Safari.

You can install OSX to an external Fire-wire hard drive, but you'll need to remember that the iMac, by default, will boot from the internal drive first. You'll need to invoke the boot menu (hold down Option key at power up) every time you want to boot into OSX or you'll need to go into System Preferences (or Startup Control Panel under OS 9.x.x) and select the OSX hard drive to always boot to OSX.

Oh, and don't forget to check that Carbon Lib v1.4 or 1.6 along with Firmware 4.1.9f4 are installed before installing OSX.

73s de Phreakout. :rambo:

 

[Gorgonops]

If you don't want to be sluggish yet have more compatibility with other software, I would highly recommend Panther (10.3). It is less hungry for RAM and resources to run. Firefox version 2.0.0.20 is the last supported under Panther and Jaguar.

Flash won't run any faster on an older OS.

The two main culprits for Tiger running "sluggishly" compared to earlier versions are Dashboard and Spotlight, which suck up memory and processor cycles in the background. Here is how to disable Dashboard, and Here's how to disable Spotlight. (Although telling Spotlight not to index your hard disk is probably good enough.)

The increase in available software you'd get from having the newer OS in my opinion completely negates the resource usage arguments against it. With Dashboard disabled I don't think Tiger is *any* slower than 10.3 anyway. (Basing this on experience with a 400Mhz G4-ed B&W, anyway.)

Or you could just use Safari.

Apple strongly links Safari to OS X versions. Running old versions of web browsers is a bad idea in and of itself, and running old unpatched versions of Safari is *extra* bad. (Safari regularly gets P0wned faster than IE at hacker conventions.)

 

[Christopher]

I'm running Camino 2.0.4 on Tiger right now.

Why are we pointing this user to an outdated version?