Complete Mac newbie buys iBook G3

So a while back my Dell Latitude D610 died, which meant I needed another laptop. Luckily I had $130 set aside at this point, as I had been saving up for a gaming laptop of any sort. So anyhow, a few calls and a missed G4 later, a guy in Atlanta calls me. "Yeah, I have a couple Macs, but I'm not really sure what generation they are. Come down to my warehouse and take a look" so I finally convinced my parents to take me down. When I got there, he pulled out three laptops. A 12" Mac for $120, a 15" Mac for $135 and a Dell Inspiron for $70 (I had asked about sub $100 options as well, being an unemployed student.) So I leave with my newly purchased iBook, all the OS X 10.1 system restore CDs for a Blueberry iMac (Want one of those too, some day. XD) a carrying bag and a resoldered yo-yo charger.

So now only a week later exactly, someone tripped over the charger and tore the re-soldered wires (still runs on AC power but won't charge) and I've managed to upgrade the OS to OS X 10.1.5.

My main question is, can an iBook G3 still be useful? What OS would you suggest I install, and what upgrades are available? My boyfriend has OS 10.5, would that install? Thanks in advance!

And also, before anything begins, I'm sorry if there's another topic about this already. I just don't have a lot of time online, and my iBook's current browsers (Camino and an old Firefox) don't always load pages correctly. Thanks for any help. :3

Yeah, thankies! It is rather slow... When I go to "About this mac" all I get is "192 MB and PowerPC G3 processor". I might try to get a friend of mine to torrent OS X 10.4 for me. I'd buy it, but sadly all I have left is $10 and the end of my yo-yo charger doesn't look like it's going to hold out much longer. D:

As for the iBook G4, I actually have a friend who's supposed to sell me his this summer for $145. I might keep the G3 as well, I'm something of a computer collector so it'd be a nice thing to have even though I'd much much rather have a Clamshell. I love how colorful those were. <3

I did a search on the model number, and I'm fairly sure it's a 500 mhz considering what I do know about it. It's got a 10GB hard drive (The other models with the same ID turned up with 15GB hard drives) and was used as a school computer (It has "RMS" scratched into the plastic on the bottom.) pointing to it probably being the cheapest model possible. One feature, however, that I've never seen in other iBook G3 pictures, is a tiny button above the headphone jack with a logo looking vaguely like this (<) next to it.

As for getting OS 9, can someone help me with that mayhaps? I actually managed to get the OS X CD to install on the laptop the day I bought it (Bad move, I think a more recent OS X was on it since it was running Youtube) and it had an OS 9 folder, but I deleted it because classic apps weren't running. Do you think it might be on the install disc where I can get to it?

Well, I may have found some OS 9 files on the program restore disc. (I looked all over the OS X disc, but only found OS X junk with no OS 9 install) They're two icons, of a blue folder with a macface. One was called "Mac boot 9.2" or something like that (I forget and I can't look since I forgot the charger at home. The laptop will only run when plugged in now since the end of the charger has come unsoldered.) and the other is called "system". I tried copypasting the two into the Classic folder in my system folder, but it wouldn't let me. I started the computer up with the CD in the drive and I swear it booted into OS 9, and was talking about wiping my hard drive to restore the previous configuration, but it said the configuration wouldn't work on my computer. Ghetto rigging time, maybe? ^_^;

Also, I know this probably isn't the place, but might anyone have a spare, neglected Clamshell they'd be willing to part with? I don't have any money (I have like, $6 left) but I collect old school video games, so I could definitely barter for one. It doesn't have to be working, (might prefer that actually, that "mac revival" thread has me wanting to save up for a netbook and stuff it in. XD) or have a charger, but both would definitely result in me being willing to trade off some of my more rare stuff. I know beggers can't be choosers, (And why be choosy? Clamshells look awesome no matter what. <3) but my ideal Clamshell would be a tangerine, lime or blueberry model with OS 9 installed and a decent charger. If I like it better than my DualUSB I can just transplant the Airport card into the Clammy, and if not I can keep it as a secondary laptop and copy the OS 9 off of it, and use the charger for both laptops.

Thanks in advance all, and thanks for your help so far too. This is one of the most helpful communities I've ever been to. :3

EDIT: For more helpful info on what I can and can't do, I did get a small bundle of CDs with the computer. One OS X 10.1 install CD with no OS 9, Three software restore CDs, one CD containing Appleworks and a Mac Hardware test CD. They came in a folder with a blueberry Apple on it, and after the install the "computer" logo in Finder appears as a Blueberry G3, which is why I assume it was designed for said computer. At one point one of the discs contained Bugdom, which I installed (nostalgia, used to play it in elementary school though it won't work since I lack classic) and still contains another game called Nanosaur on it, so it's obvious these restore discs must contain some sort of trace of OS 9.

Okay, now that I have the charger on me and am capable of getting online, I can finally tell you the actual names of these mystery files I found.

Imageboot9.2, Mac OS ROM, System, Apple menu items and Control panels.