1.8GHz PowerPC G5, what do?

[FutureMarine]

Hello everyone, my name is Mitch and I just received a Mac Pro. This was from a company my step brother's dad was in. He got it for free when the company upgraded computers. My step brother recently dug up this and asked if I wanted it because I work on computers and stuff for fun as a teen.

It's running on 10.5.8 Mac OS X.

I really don't know what to do as i've never used a*Mac in my life.

Any suggestions as to what I should do? I heard it's not that great since it's the 1.8GHz one, but i'm using it as a PC at my second house because my laptop crapped out on me, i'll take any suggestions to make it better or just to have fun.

Thank you for your time.

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I also found a video on youtube on how to completely reset it so I did that, so I have nothing because it was cluttered.

 

[Zotaccian]

If you have G5 processor then you have PowerMac G5, not Mac Pro Mac Pro contains Intel Xeon chip / chips, not PowerPC.

Because it has single core/processor it's not the fastest around, but if you would have some old PPC software that you need/want to run then it would be decent machine.... but if you don't have then I dunno, other than you can learn basics of OS X with that machine.

With PowerPC there are limitations compared to any x86 (Intel / AMD) PC because many new versions and/or technologies are not supported. It depends on the user if that or the speed is the main issue.

 

[FutureMarine]

If you have G5 processor then you have PowerMac G5, not Mac Pro Mac Pro contains Intel Xeon chip / chips, not PowerPC.

Because it has single core/processor it's not the fastest around, but if you would have some old PPC software that you need/want to run then it would be decent machine.... but if you don't have then I dunno, other than you can learn basics of OS X with that machine.

With PowerPC there are limitations compared to any x86 (Intel / AMD) PC because many new versions and/or technologies are not supported. It depends on the user if that or the speed is the main issue.

I apologize, he told me it was a Mac Pro, thanks for correcting me. Do you think it would be worth it to dual boot it with Linux?

 

[Zotaccian]

Linux support is not the best on those machines, graphics card and WiFi are usually problematic, graphics drivers are not as good as they are on OS X and because Apple uses lots of Broadcom WiFi those usually never work without some tinkering. Of course if you don't have Airport card (WiFi card) installed then will have no problems with its drivers

I've always preferred to use OS X on my PPC machines despite even the newest version (10.5.8) has not been updated for years (there might be tons of security holes but then again malware makers unlikely focus so much on such a small user base that PP Mac users are).

 

[FutureMarine]

Linux support is not the best on those machines, graphics card and WiFi are usually problematic, graphics drivers are not as good as they are on OS X and because Apple uses lots of Broadcom WiFi those usually never work without some tinkering. Of course if you don't have Airport card (WiFi card) installed then will have no problems with its drivers

I've always preferred to use OS X on my PPC machines despite even the newest version (10.5.8) has not been updated for years (there might be tons of security holes but then again malware makers unlikely focus so much on such a small user base that PP Mac users are).

I installed a USB wireless adapter, took me a bit to figure it out but I finally got it and it's awesome. I'm just trying to explore this thing, going to take it apart and clean it out, it's very old so I guarantee it will have lots of dust.

 

[PowerMac G4 MDD]

Hello everyone, my name is Mitch and I just received a Mac Pro. This was from a company my step brother's dad was in. He got it for free when the company upgraded computers. My step brother recently dug up this and asked if I wanted it because I work on computers and stuff for fun as a teen.

It's running on 10.5.8 Mac OS X.

I really don't know what to do as i've never used a*Mac in my life.

Any suggestions as to what I should do? I heard it's not that great since it's the 1.8GHz one, but i'm using it as a PC at my second house because my laptop crapped out on me, i'll take any suggestions to make it better or just to have fun.

Thank you for your time.

----------

I also found a video on youtube on how to completely reset it so I did that, so I have nothing because it was cluttered.

You could use it for a general-use/spare computer. If you like classic games then you could use it for that as well. It's nice to have at least two computers just as a back-up or something. Unlike myself, many kids my age just have one computer and get screwed if it acts up, or something to that extent.

 

[poiihy]

Linux support is not the best on those machines, graphics card and WiFi are usually problematic, graphics drivers are not as good as they are on OS X and because Apple uses lots of Broadcom WiFi those usually never work without some tinkering. Of course if you don't have Airport card (WiFi card) installed then will have no problems with its drivers

I've always preferred to use OS X on my PPC machines despite even the newest version (10.5.8) has not been updated for years (there might be tons of security holes but then again malware makers unlikely focus so much on such a small user base that PP Mac users are).

The small bit of pain would be worth it. Once you get Ubuntu fully functional, then you can run the latest stuff and use it like a new, supported machine.

 

[stewart1981]

Of course the Linux distros that do support PowerPC give you up to date support but it does depend on the software you want to run. If it doesn't matter then go for it, I play with Linux and have always had at least one machine with it on for a decade but if you want specific software that is commercial even if old then you need to stick to Mac OS X. I would happily move to Linux in principle but need various proprietary applications that either run poorly under WINE or not at all for my professional life. One still runs on PowerPC. If it is a back up machine I'd leave it to OS X and play around with the older versions of software. Most current stuff is still available quite cheaply in older editions depending on what you want and will run in that machine.

 

[eyoungren]

Just so you are aware of the possibilities…

The G5 at where I work is this exact model. 1.8Ghz, 4GB ram.

It has been used daily at work since 2005 for building ads (I work for a newspaper), layout out of newspapers, Classifieds, Legals and a bunch of other things related to getting newspaper work out.

We use:
QuarkXPress 8.5.1
Adobe CS4
Adobe Acrobat Pro 9 with Enfocus PitStop 7.5 and Quite A Box of Tricks
Suitcase Fusion 2
TenFourFox (the PowerPC version of Firefox)
and most other apps capable of running on this machine that we may need

A year and a half ago either the logicboard or CPU died. I replaced the entire thing for $60 and it's been back at work doing the same job since then.

This Mac has been on and running continuously since February 2005 when we got it and it's seen a whole bunch of crap thrown at it and dealt with all of it. It's one of the best Macs I've had the priviledge of using.

Everyone piles on the 1.8 and yes, it's one of the least powerful (the 1.6 being the other) but it can and does handle things.

 

[MysticCow]

Mine is a dual 2.0, significantly faster but not state of the art compared to today's computers (i.e. my core i5 mini). I use it for retro gaming, like Tropico (the first one) and The Sims (1). It'll run retro games just beautifully.

It can do some processor intensive work, but you'll need to "set it and forget it" for a while. It's the same thing with any G4 now, also, but the G5 towers can do it fairly faster due to more horsepower.

 

[Zotaccian]

The small bit of pain would be worth it. Once you get Ubuntu fully functional, then you can run the latest stuff and use it like a new, supported machine.

Yeah, I used it with PowerMac G4 Digital Audio which had Radeon 8500. With that machine Ubuntu worked fine, I can't remember for sure but I think that the sleep mode also worked. It was now old Ubuntu from 9 -series... but I've had some issues with iMac G5 and PowerBook G4, iMac G5 had FX5200 with strange color issues and the image not being centered, with PowerBook G4 WiFi didn't work and as I recall I just couldn't get it to work no matter what, can't remember if sleep mode etc. worked.

When Linux works it.... works

 

[gavinstubbs09]

If you come up short on software and need a footing, click the link in my signature. Should provide you a good path to finding good uses for your G5