What OS/Purpose for iMac G3

Hey everyone,

I just recently purchased a baseline iMac 24", and MacBook Pro 13" (Higher end 13 model) in the last two weeks. So far I'm loving them, but now I have no use for my iMac G3 which previously was serving the purpose of being my Mac (I had a PC desktop and laptop).

So my question is this, what should I do with this machine now?

I have the following operating systems given to me:
Mac OS X 10.2
Mac OS X 10.3
Mac OS X 10.3 Server (Unl. Client)
Mac OS 9.2 Retail
Mac OS 9 Retail
Mac OS 8.6 Retail
Mac OS 8.5.1 Retail

I have Office 2004 for OS X, but I know someone who has a lot of old classic software they're willing to part with (Photoshop 6/Office 98) on disc. I can also get some games. It DOES seem I can manage to get more software for classic.

This machine will serve next to no purpose on the internet. But I would like it to be able to network with my current Macs.

My question is this. How well will it work with OS X as a Server, vs how well will it work with classic? Some people tell me these machines were better designed to run with 8.6-9.22 in mind.

Here's the specs:
333 MHz G3
160 MB SDRAM 66
15 GB Quantum Fireball LCT
ATI RAGE 6MB

So I appreciate any feedback. I have a perfect place for it to be set up, and I do not want to get rid of it, but I would like to give it some kind of purpose.

Thanks in advance,
Steve

Shake 'n' Bake said:

Too slow and not enough storage to be a server. If you want a server, get a 667 MHz G4.

I'd put OS 9.2 on there. It is easy enough to network and will work lightning fast. Like you said, there are some great apps for OS 9. My favorite is Hypercard.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the input!

I am inclined to agree here. It IS lightening fast with any version of the classic OS. I am going to now install OS9 and set it up. My initial thought was to make it a dedicated classic box (I always used Windows until recently, so I only ever dabbled with classic).

Plus, classic is a great distraction free work environment when doing stuff in MS Office.

WardC said:

I have an old iMac Blueberry 333MHz sitting around right now that I am trying to figure out what to do with....considering donating it to Goodwill. I cannot for the best of me trash any Mac, at all. The old Mac can run (and I have installed) OS X 10.2 Jaguar. I think it may run Panther as well. BUT -- both of these OSes run super slow and it really doesn't make sense. I installed OS X on the old iMac due to internet problems when running IE5 with OS 9.2.2 -- the pages do not load properly anymore, the internet coding that is being used today just doesn't stack up to what was the norm in 2000. Pages just load all funky and garbled in IE 5.2. Safari was the only choice (or Firefox) but you have to be running OS X to run these browsers....thus SLOW. So, I have this clunker iMac sitting right next to me, and I'm using a 20" 2.0GHz iMac running Leopard now, which all runs great. The clunker, I mean the old 333MHz which is just sitting there, not turned on, taking up space. It's beautiful, yes, a neat looking machine, but it won't surf the internet to save it's life. I think Goodwill will probably be the answer. Somebody out there needs a learner machine that they can run Bugdom on to have some fun.

Click to expand...

Exactly. It will run panther, FYI.

However, the internet, even with a modern browser, is slow on OS 9. But if it's not your primary machine, there's really no reason to need the internet on it. The WamCom project keeps the latest possible build of Mozilla for OS 9 up to date (although the project itself is getting abandoned). iCab 3 also works well. Enough for basic news sweeps and downloading apps. However, this machine is NOT ideal for browsing regularly.

Internet on panther = Slow & sort of broken
Internet on Jaguar = Slower and broken
Internet on OS 9 = Slowish and broken.

@ Shake n' Bake
Good point. I may not even bother to network. With the size of USB sticks today, any file transfers I can probably do that way.

But like we've agreed, with a new iMac and MBP on the internet, this machine has plenty of purposes running software that was machine centric (ex. Designed without the internet in mind). These were right when the internet began to take off, thus a lot of their software is great offline.