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Ih8reno

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Aug 10, 2012
1,383
206
I just ordered a 512mb stick on ebay for my 500mhz 12" ibook g3. Will I notice a difference in speed for web sites and other things? The ibook currently runs ios 10.3.9. With the ram I'll have 640mb total system memory.

Thanks!
 

rjcalifornia

macrumors 6502a
Oct 4, 2012
668
7
El Salvador
I just ordered a 512mb stick on ebay for my 500mhz 12" ibook g3. Will I notice a difference in speed for web sites and other things? The ibook currently runs ios 10.3.9. With the ram I'll have 640mb total system memory.

Thanks!

you may wanna consider installing Linux on that machine. 10.3.9 is so outdated
 

Ih8reno

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Aug 10, 2012
1,383
206
Hmm, not sure I want to do that. I'd rather upgrade to 10.4 and keep it on osx
 

Ih8reno

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Aug 10, 2012
1,383
206
Have the ram installed and still on osx 10.3.9 (using it right now to post this!) and everything runs a lot smoother. Not sure if moving to osx 10.4 would be a good idea though. Wouldn't this 500mhz processor have even more trouble running that updated os?
 

eyoungren

macrumors Penryn
Aug 31, 2011
28,792
26,879
Have the ram installed and still on osx 10.3.9 (using it right now to post this!) and everything runs a lot smoother. Not sure if moving to osx 10.4 would be a good idea though. Wouldn't this 500mhz processor have even more trouble running that updated os?
Not really. 10.4 will be more optimized. You'll also have access to more apps, particularly TenFourFox which is Firefox for PowerPC Mac. The current stable version of that browser is version 17 and Floodgap, the maker of T4Fx makes a G3 version.

Note, your Mac is about 50mhz faster than the G4 my coworker runs on and she's running Leopard with the Adobe Creative Suite 4. It's a bit slow, but not a dog. My point being, that your G3 will be fine on Tiger.
 

rabidz7

macrumors 65816
Jun 24, 2012
1,205
3
Ohio
I'd definitely install Debian with LXDE. 640MB will be tough to use, but might be useable, again, this is coming from someone who can't browse the web with 4GB.
Debian LXDE would definitely make everything faster. You could also try OS 9, but I reccomend Linux.
 

MrPilot

macrumors 6502
Apr 30, 2013
316
24
I'd definitely install Debian with LXDE. 640MB will be tough to use, but might be useable, again, this is coming from someone who can't browse the web with 4GB.
Debian LXDE would definitely make everything faster. You could also try OS 9, but I reccomend Linux.

so can you, with debian, use:
iTunes or something that will sync music/movies/books etc with your iphone?

How about an office suite that will format the more advanced docs correctly between industry leader microsoft office?

How about XBMC or maybe video editing like imovie or photo manager like iphoto with all its editing capabilities? Can you create music like with protools/logic/cubase/garage band ?

Work with aperture or photoshop? Flash video?
Games?

I don't what I would be able to use with linux... and I'm quite curious :)
 

rabidz7

macrumors 65816
Jun 24, 2012
1,205
3
Ohio
so can you, with debian, use:
iTunes or something that will sync music/movies/books etc with your iphone?

How about an office suite that will format the more advanced docs correctly between industry leader microsoft office?

How about XBMC or maybe video editing like imovie or photo manager like iphoto with all its editing capabilities? Can you create music like with protools/logic/cubase/garage band ?

Work with aperture or photoshop? Flash video?
Games?

I don't what I would be able to use with linux... and I'm quite curious :)

iTunes: Mplayer, jailbreak the iPhone, drag the files in.
Office: Libre Office
XBMC: Mplayer
iPhoto: Gimp
Photoshop/Aperture: Gimp
Flash video, NO you can not, and never will be able to use that atrocity of software called flash.
Download the utube videos and play them in Mplayer
Games: Tons of hardcore games! Minesweeper, chess, mohong...
 

MrPilot

macrumors 6502
Apr 30, 2013
316
24
iTunes: Mplayer, jailbreak the iPhone, drag the files in.
Office: Libre Office
XBMC: Mplayer
iPhoto: Gimp
Photoshop/Aperture: Gimp
Flash video, NO you can not, and never will be able to use that atrocity of software called flash.
Download the utube videos and play them in Mplayer
Games: Tons of hardcore games! Minesweeper, chess, mohong...

Libreoffice does a terrible job at best with microsoft office docs. I have it installed and I have yet to open up single document without a hiccup. (v4.x)

Mplayer have no library manager, no plugin system, unusable with HD video on this PBG4.

Gimp sounds like it MIGHT work, havent tested it yet. Does Gimp allow to manage your photo albums?

Flash does more than just video :( Our electronic flight bags (EFB:s) are based on java and flash. Same goes for our CBT-training which I use for the checks every year.

I am however greateful for your answer, it helped me to realize just how bad of an experience debian would be for me.

I almost think MorphOS would be a better choice
 

rabidz7

macrumors 65816
Jun 24, 2012
1,205
3
Ohio
Libreoffice does a terrible job at best with microsoft office docs. I have it installed and I have yet to open up single document without a hiccup. (v4.x)

Mplayer have no library manager, no plugin system, unusable with HD video on this PBG4.

Gimp sounds like it MIGHT work, havent tested it yet. Does Gimp allow to manage your photo albums?

Flash does more than just video :( Our electronic flight bags (EFB:s) are based on java and flash. Same goes for our CBT-training which I use for the checks every year.

I am however greateful for your answer, it helped me to realize just how bad of an experience debian would be for me.

I almost think MorphOS would be a better choice

If you want to dual boot you can install an optical HDD caddy and put Debian on an HDD in the caddy, that would let you try Debian without always using it, you might find that you like it.
 

MrPilot

macrumors 6502
Apr 30, 2013
316
24
If you want to dual boot you can install an optical HDD caddy and put Debian on an HDD in the caddy, that would let you try Debian without always using it, you might find that you like it.

yeah, that's a good way to try it.

Is there anything from debian that you miss when in osx?
P.S
Sorry for the hijack... I suppose this discussion is interesting for someone with a G3 ;)
 

666sheep

macrumors 68040
Dec 7, 2009
3,686
291
Poland
Note, your Mac is about 50mhz faster than the G4 my coworker runs on and she's running Leopard with the Adobe Creative Suite 4. It's a bit slow, but not a dog. My point being, that your G3 will be fine on Tiger.

G4 though makes a hell of difference thanks to AltiVec. It's much faster clock for clock than G3 when it comes to Altivec accelerated OS features.

My G3 500 Dual USB iBook was a dog with Tiger and 640MB RAM. With 10.3.9 it was a lot snappier. But I was using it for mainly for CS2 these days, no Internet browsing etc. iBook's crappy HDD had certainly a lot of impact on performance.

On the other hand, my 466 Clamshell with 576 RAM runs Tiger smoothly thanks to SSD and OS optimization (no shadows, Spotlight etc.). Even browsing with Camino is bearable.
 

eyoungren

macrumors Penryn
Aug 31, 2011
28,792
26,879
G4 though makes a hell of difference thanks to AltiVec. It's much faster clock for clock than G3 when it comes to Altivec accelerated OS features.

My G3 500 Dual USB iBook was a dog with Tiger and 640MB RAM. With 10.3.9 it was a lot snappier. But I was using it for mainly for CS2 these days, no Internet browsing etc. iBook's crappy HDD had certainly a lot of impact on performance.

On the other hand, my 466 Clamshell with 576 RAM runs Tiger smoothly thanks to SSD and OS optimization (no shadows, Spotlight etc.). Even browsing with Camino is bearable.
The particular G4 I mentioned is the first model that Apple released, so it has the old G3 bus, PCI and no target disk mode capability. Does that make a difference, or does the fact that it's a G4 trump everything?
 
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