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macgeek88

Suspended
Original poster
Jan 16, 2013
141
142
Illinois
Hi all,

I just bought a 1.42GHZ 14' iBook G4 with 1.5GB RAM and Leopard 10.5.8 and with power cord for $50 on the Bay and I have some questions.

I got the laptop today and I really like it. I've done some basic tweaks for speeding up leopard like disabling BeamSync, dashboard, spotlight, etc and such.

I know this laptop needs a new battery so I'll be buying one soon but my questions are:

1. If I buy a USB2 Wireless N adapter (I've found one compatible on Amazon), will it make page loading faster? I know the download speed would be better but not sure how that relates to page load speeds. I'm using WebKit as my browser as it's faster than TFF even with tweaks, but some sites take a bit longer to load. I bought the machine as a web browser basically to use while my MacBook Pro and MacBook Air are charging, away, etc and I can take it with me and such without much fear of damage. Even though the adapter is only 10 bucks, I thought I'd ask before I bought it and used up one of my two USB ports if it doesn't help.

2. If the answer to 1 is no, with my specs, would reverting to Tiger 10.4.11 make web browsing any faster? Other than the internet, I'm fairly happy with the general performance so no issues other than online and with sites like Facebook being slow. I'm not going to use YouTube in any form on this machine and will not be using Flash.

Thanks for the help. Of course I'm not expecting this 10 year old machine to perform like my 13 inch rMBP or my MBA, but just trying to get the max of what I can get in terms of speed.

Thanks,

-macgeek88 (Austin)
 

Intell

macrumors P6
Jan 24, 2010
18,955
509
Inside
A USB N WiFi dongle will not make web pages load faster. Tiger will not make pages load faster as TenFourFox is needed for most modern pages.
 

Altemose

macrumors G3
Mar 26, 2013
9,189
487
Elkton, Maryland
1. If I buy a USB2 Wireless N adapter (I've found one compatible on Amazon), will it make page loading faster? I know the download speed would be better but not sure how that relates to page load speeds. I'm using WebKit as my browser as it's faster than TFF even with tweaks, but some sites take a bit longer to load. I bought the machine as a web browser basically to use while my MacBook Pro and MacBook Air are charging, away, etc and I can take it with me and such without much fear of damage. Even though the adapter is only 10 bucks, I thought I'd ask before I bought it and used up one of my two USB ports if it doesn't help.

2. If the answer to 1 is no, with my specs, would reverting to Tiger 10.4.11 make web browsing any faster? Other than the internet, I'm fairly happy with the general performance so no issues other than online and with sites like Facebook being slow. I'm not going to use YouTube in any form on this machine and will not be using Flash.

1. No. Browsing speed is likely to be unaffected by a faster adapter. If you do need the performance of wireless N for transferring files then I recommend the Netgear WNA1000M adapter as it is small enough to only use one USB port.

2. No. Leopard is going to run TenFourFox the same as Tiger and also opens the door for Leopard WebKit.
 

poiihy

macrumors 68020
Aug 22, 2014
2,301
62
2. No. Leopard is going to run TenFourFox the same as Tiger and also opens the door for Leopard WebKit.

No it would run faster because Tiger consumes less resources than Leopard leaving more for apps.
 

Intell

macrumors P6
Jan 24, 2010
18,955
509
Inside
No it would run faster because Tiger consumes less resources than Leopard leaving more for apps.

It would be using TenFourFox, which macgeek88 states runs slower than Leopard WebKit. That would make the web pages load and render slower than on Leopard.
 

poiihy

macrumors 68020
Aug 22, 2014
2,301
62
It would be using TenFourFox, which macgeek88 states runs slower than Leopard WebKit. That would make the web pages load and render slower than on Leopard.

Oh I'm comparing TFF on Tiger and Leopard, but yes LeopardWebkit on Leopard would be faster than TFF on Tiger, but if there was a LW for Tiger that would be faster than LW for Leopard.
 

Altemose

macrumors G3
Mar 26, 2013
9,189
487
Elkton, Maryland
No it would run faster because Tiger consumes less resources than Leopard leaving more for apps.

No. OP already tweaked Leopard to have about the same system resource usage as well as the fact that on Tiger he or she would be limited to TenFourFox which was stated to be slower than Leopard WebKit.
 

bunnspecial

macrumors G3
May 3, 2014
8,310
6,313
Kentucky
There's always TenFourkit, although I think it's now about 2 years out of date so is not a great choice as a browser.
 

eyoungren

macrumors Penryn
Aug 31, 2011
28,698
26,713
There are two factors in how fast a page loads. Hardware and software.

The hardware category includes the internet connection, ram, hard drive performance and the CPU. The software category is the program and it's optimizations.

If you have a fast connection, a speedy hard drive, good ram and a fast CPU then the software category can become irrelevant. But on PowerPC systems, where the CPU is often the limiting factor the the software category becomes more important.

My Mac Pro at work powers through pages on TenFourFox 17 (Intel version) not because of the OS or the browser but because it has a Quad core Intel Xeon 2.8Ghz processor. The MP has 1GB less than the single 1.8Ghz G5 that sits across the room, but beats the G5 every time because the processor is more powerful.

And that's what it comes down to. There's more Javascript and more useless crap (analytics, ad tracking, bad coding) on websites nowdays that requires more intense processing.

Since our G4s and G5s are limited by their processors then the deciding factor becomes the browser and it's optimizations.

Leopard Webkit is faster then TenFourFox because it uses different code that handles all this web page junk better.

Neither Leopard nor Tiger will change that as they do not affect the programs themselves.
 

Gamer9430

macrumors 68020
Apr 22, 2014
2,247
1,401
USA
Well, I did all the standard speedups on Mine, like you mentioned. Turn on all the GL Stuff in secrets as well, as it does help. I Love LW for my iBook, it's much faster than TFF, even though its out of date. About the battery, expect to be screwed if you buy one off of eBay, as I was. Don't buy one from Hi-PC, and if you want a Bigger capacity battery, don't expect it.

Sorry about my battery rant, just mad about it. Anyway, that's my two cents on iBook G4 optimizing...
 

Altemose

macrumors G3
Mar 26, 2013
9,189
487
Elkton, Maryland
Well, I did all the standard speedups on Mine, like you mentioned. Turn on all the GL Stuff in secrets as well, as it does help. I Love LW for my iBook, it's much faster than TFF, even though its out of date. About the battery, expect to be screwed if you buy one off of eBay, as I was. Don't buy one from Hi-PC, and if you want a Bigger capacity battery, don't expect it.

Sorry about my battery rant, just mad about it. Anyway, that's my two cents on iBook G4 optimizing...

I think you need to return that battery as there are plenty of good ones available from third parties on eBay. You either got a lemon battery or just a bad model battery.
 

macgeek88

Suspended
Original poster
Jan 16, 2013
141
142
Illinois
Thank you everyone for your contributions and help!

I've decided to not buy the adapter, stick with LW, and I also have just faced the facts about Facebook being slow. I turned off JavaScript in Safari as well as Java and plugins, installed AdBlock, and will just use m.facebook.com which is javascript free. Not pretty, but usable. I couldn't believe how fast this thing is on the internet with javascript disabled!!!! Granted there are things that won't work but for message boards and other sites I'll be ok for light browsing.

I will however, be buying a battery for this thing here soon.
 

Altemose

macrumors G3
Mar 26, 2013
9,189
487
Elkton, Maryland
Thank you everyone for your contributions and help!

I've decided to not buy the adapter, stick with LW, and I also have just faced the facts about Facebook being slow. I turned off JavaScript in Safari as well as Java and plugins, installed AdBlock, and will just use m.facebook.com which is javascript free. Not pretty, but usable. I couldn't believe how fast this thing is on the internet with javascript disabled!!!! Granted there are things that won't work but for message boards and other sites I'll be ok for light browsing.

I will however, be buying a battery for this thing here soon.

May I recommend making a separate Fluid app for sites like Facebook, Pandora, etc.
 

gooser

macrumors 6502a
Jul 4, 2013
514
51
i just got the same spec one as yours yesterday and mine also needs a battery. mine is going to be given to my girlfriend which she will use primarily as a portable dvd player.
 
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