It is impossible to find any useful info on the net regarding OS X and the G3. All I ever come across is the useless "G3's are old and must die ... besides, Steve says you need a G4" type of hysteria.
With all due respect to Mr. Jobs, I don't think it takes a genius to regard his "OS X requires a G4" statement a tad skeptically. Of course he wants to sell new iMacs, Ti books and G4 towers. Can't blame him for that and I do indeed hope that Apple sells tons of them.
But, as for the rest of us who neither want nor can afford to junk our still perfectly functional G3 machines, what's needed is some unbiased real-world tests. I do not perform benchmarks or the like, but I have been using OS X in my G4 933 Mhz tower, the dual processor 800 Mhz machine I use at work, as well as in my G3 iMac DV-SE.
As stated in my previous post above, I mainly do video work on the Macs (Final Cut Pro 3 and After Effects 5.5) and am using OS X 100% for these operations in all three machines.
As to why I would use FCP in an iMac G3, well, I do find it useful to do smaller edits and video capturing in the iMac while the G4 is doing the more intensive labor (rendering). I use a firewire HD to transfer files between the machines.
Anyway, my real-world experience with OS X on a G3:
1) RAM does indeed make all the difference. Moving up from 256 MB to 1 GB of RAM on the iMac was a huge improvement. A friend of mine is now getting perfectly acceptable FCP 3 performance on OS X on a 400 Mhz iMac DV+ (original 5400 rpm drive) with 640 MB RAM, as good as or better than the performance she gets with it using OS 9.2.
2) The 7200 rpm HD makes things speedier, yes, but OS X was running quite well on the iMac's original 5400 rpm drive.
3) Have not seen this mentioned anywhere else, but the 10.1.3 update made for an improved speed/performance gain with a G3 processor. I did not notice any speed improvements with the G4 machines under 10.1.3, but it is VERY noticeable with a G3.
So, as far as I'm concerned, here is the bottom line on running OS X on a G3:
- So long as you are using 10.1.3 and have plenty of RAM (no less than 512 MB, I'd say), you can expect to have OS X run as well as OS 9.
- Having more RAM is more more crucial than HD speed. 5400 rpm is perfectly acceptable.
- The OS X GUI on a properly equipped G3 machine (RAM, RAM, and more RAM) will be just as responsive as it will be on a G4.
- You will NOT take any performance hits. I am not about to argue about apps taking 1.5 more seconds to open under OS X than they would under OS 9. It isn't a big concern to me, really. (Plus, that's an OS X - not a G3 vs. G4 - issue). I find that some apps (especially Cleaner 5) open IMMEDIATELY in OS X and take much longer in OS 9 (whether you are using a G3 or a G4).
[I never sat here with a stop watch to see if FCP 3 opens a tenth of a second faster in OS 9 than in OS X and I really don't care if it indeed does. Strangely, this is an issue that seems to concern people a great deal, but I'll have to plead ignorance - or just indifference - at this juncture.]
- There is a reason why Apple's specs say OS X will run on a G3 - because it does! And it can run well. Don't listen to Jobs on this score - he'd much rather sell you a new G4 machine than just a box containing OS X for your old G3.
(And I REALLY wish Ambitious Lemon - much as I respect him - would stop trotting out the "Steve sez we all needs a G4" every post. This is a dubious argument, to say the least. I'm sure that whenever G5's finally become available, Jobs will be crowing that we all need THAT to run OS X.)
Yes, I agree - OS X itself still has some growing to do, and it is evolving along quite nicely. But when all is said and done, OS X as it is TODAY will run equally well in a G3 or a G4.
(Apologies for the long post, but I have been frustrated over not finding anything helpful on the net about this issue, so I'm taking full advantage of the opportunity to add my two cents here.)
