Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

10.4.11 vs 10.5.8 for G4 1.33ghz ibook

M

MaximusUK

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jul 21, 2010
21
0
Hi everybody! I have been using a mac at my work for about a year now and recently decided its time for me to switch over. I bought a G4 ibook of Ebay but it didnt come with an operating system. I am pretty good with PC's as I am a long PC user and computing graduate so im sure ill be able to work out how to install mac OS X.

My question to you is which OS is better for my setup: g4 iBook 1.33ghz, 512ram(will be upgraded to 1.5gb), 60gb HDD.

I will be using the mac for Word and light use of photoshop/illustrator + experimenting with some other mac goodies.

Logically Tiger should run more effieciently but is there any software that will run on a PPC Leopard machine that wont run on a PPC Tiger machine? If this is the case I would probably head towards Leopard if the speed drop isnt too much.

What are the underlining advantages and dissadvantages of both OS's for G4 iBook?

Any help would be great.

Kind Regards,



Liam
 
I would advise staying with Tiger, as Leopard is quite a resource hog on those older G4s. I have the 1.07GHz G4 iBook and Leopard did run on that Mac, but it felt a lot slower than Tiger. But if you really need QuickLook and Spaces you can always try 10.5.8 though. Or if you upgrade the HDD you could make a dual boot system.

Use MRoogle to find many similar threads and find out about software that will not work in Leopard or Tiger.



Also have a look at the following links, as the information presented there might be helpful in your future endeavours into Mac OS X and could clear up initial confusion and may even prevent harm to your system or your files.

Mac OS X Basics
Switch 101 - guide with articles made by Apple on how to accustom yourself, after you switched to Mac OS X from Windows​

Mac 101 - How to get started with Mac OS X​

Find out how - tutorial videos made by Apple on how to do certain thing in Mac OS X​

Pro tips - tips made available by Apple for easier ways of doing certain tasks​

Mac OS X Keyboard Shortcuts - Learn about common Mac OS X keyboard shortcuts.​

Mac OS X Beginner's Guide by MacRumors - learn about software, media players, shortcuts and some useful tips, tricks and hints​

Mac Guides - tutorials, product guides and more​



MRoogle - a very effective tool to search these fora using Google and made available by edesignuk, introductory threads: 1, 2 and 3​

 
wow thanks for speedy reply. Is there any software that runs on a PPC Leopard machine but wont run on a PPC Tiger machine?
 
Hmm im not sure really. Im just wondering if there is much compatibility issues running tiger.

Are there any speed optimisation tricks for Leopard like XP?
 
I disagree. My primary computer is a powerbook G4 1 GHz running leopard 10.5.8, and it runs great. I push it pretty hard and ask it to do a lot of tasks simultaneously, yet it still chugs along at a perfectly fine speed. I do occasionally get beachballs (OS X's equivalent to the cursor becoming an hourglass), but it only does that because my machine is hobbling along at an anorexic 768 MB of ram. I'd definitely suggest that you use leopard. Leopard added a lot of great new features, and it runs basically just as fast as tiger 10.4.
 
For leopard just make sure you have at least 768mb of ram for speedy performance. I never noticed a drop in speed until I took out a stick when I was about to upgrade and went to 512mb just to see what it was like. Absolutely horrible. If you use dock magnification and all the visual goodies though leopard might seem slower because of the lower fps when using effects.
 
PowerGamerX said:
For leopard just make sure you have at least 768mb of ram for speedy performance. I never noticed a drop in speed until I took out a stick when I was about to upgrade and went to 512mb just to see what it was like. Absolutely horrible. If you use dock magnification and all the visual goodies though leopard might seem slower because of the lower fps when using effects.
Click to expand...

I would actually recommend no less then 1GB. I run 10.5 Server on my eMac with 2GB of ram though (1.25ghz) and it runs very well.
 
I have an iBook 1.33 with 1GB RAM that I keep for web surfing, email, word processing and so on. I upgraded to Leopard from Tiger; speed seemed maybe a little faster, but I've not done any objective benchmarks. It certainly wasn't slower; however I found that Spaces seemed to slow things down so I've left that switched off, but Leopard enhancements like the two-finger trackpad right click I find really useful.

Regarding software, bear in mind also that it's not just whole apps that may require Leopard, but the latest version of whatever you're using e.g. Safari 5 needs Leopard.

If you're using Photoshop and Illustrator then the versions you're using may also influence you - speaking very generally, the Adobe apps play better with the OS X version that they were designed and updated for, e.g. CS2 for Panther and Tiger.
 
I'd run Leopard as the difference between that and Tiger is minimal. 1.5gb of memory will definitely help with that. Leopard runs just fine on my 12" 1.33 Powerbook and it has the stock 4200rpm 60gb hard drive and 1.25gb of memory. I'd recommend upgrading the hard drive to a larger/faster one like the WD 250gb/320gb. They are both 5400rpm drives but the higher density of the platters makes up for the difference since they are not 7200rpm drives.

There were quite a few apps/features that I wanted which is why I installed Leopard. But now a days, everything is going towards Intel so PPC software will be less and less available as developers drop universal support.

You can also always partition your hard drive into 2 equal halves and install 10.4 on one and 10.5 on the other and judge for yourself. Speed is basically relevant. Good luck.
 
The closest thing I have is an iBook G4 1.2 and I have run both Tiger and Leopard. I prefer Leopard even though I have noticed that some programs take a little longer to work in some areas. Also, startup is definitely in Tigers favor. Again though, I feel the speed difference is negligible. But I do believe it exists.

I just prefer the updated version of OSX.
 
with 1.5GB of RAM...its debatable...is there anyway to try out both and see what they are like under your habits?

Leopard is more efficient with resources than people give it credit for, G4 mini's run it no problem...I think with Leopard its more of a RAM issue rather than a CPU issue. But if you have 1GB+ and don't plan on really flxing hardcore software or multi-tasking a whole lot then you will be fine. You can also disable things like dashboard and animation effects.

If I had Leopard I would at least try it. If I had to buy an os? I would go Tiger
 
MaximusUK said:
wow thanks for speedy reply. Is there any software that runs on a PPC Leopard machine but wont run on a PPC Tiger machine?
Click to expand...

The ones that affected me are. In bracket is the latest version for Tiger.
- iLife '09 (iLife '08)
- vlc 1.0.5 (vlc 0.99)
- Safari 5 (Safari 4.1)
- Omnigraffle Pro 5 (Omnigraffle 4)
- Transmission 2 (Transmission 1.5)

I'm sure there are quite a few others as well.
 
You can run CS3 on Tiger just fine. :) I would recommend CS2, though as it won’t stress your hardware so much.

Tiger is the way to go all the way. Leopard would be slowing the whole machine down unnecessarily.
 
I always used to say Tiger, then I cautiously upgraded my G4 mini (1.25GHz, 1GB, original slow 40GB disk) to Leopard. Wouldn't look back.

Leopard has enough new features and can run enough new software to make up for any perceived speed losses. FWIW though, I find Leopard faster for my uses, though others may not and that's fine.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back