A few questions about Leopard (G5 iMac PPC machine)

[Benbikeman]

I run a MBP on Lion, and today bought an old iMac G5 running Leopard (10.5.8) as a kitchen machine.

Mostly I just wanted something to display recipes while cooking, plus let me listen to music, play movies, etc.

However, I'm new to PPC machines, and I'm finding a few quirks, two in particular on iTunes. It's running 10.5.2 (11), which is the same as my MBP, but ...

First, iTunes accesses my library fine via Home Sharing, but all View options except View as List are greyed-out. Is there any way to get Grid and Coverflow views, or is the machine too weedy to handle those?

Second, iTunes doesn't seem to have a Books menu. I find most of my recipes on the web these days, so it's not a big deal, but it would be nice to have some recipe books on it as well. Is there any way to do that?

Third, Spotify apparently dropped PPC support some time back, so I had to do a web-search to find an old version (it's on CNET in case anyone else needs it). Am I likely to hit this issue with other software? I'm not expecting to install much extra software on it, but you never know.

Anything else I should be aware of about PPC machines in general or a G5 iMac in particular?

I have to say that for a 2005 machine, the performance is really quite impressive! I wouldn't dream of attempting to use a 2005 Windows machine.

 

[Jethryn Freyman]

First, iTunes accesses my library fine via Home Sharing, but all View options except View as List are greyed-out. Is there any way to get Grid and Coverflow views, or is the machine too weedy to handle those?

It's an iTunes thing, it does it to save bandwidth with sharing. Even my 466MHz G4 Mac can run Cover Flow (badly)

 

[AdrianK]

First, iTunes accesses my library fine via Home Sharing, but all View options except View as List are greyed-out. Is there any way to get Grid and Coverflow views, or is the machine too weedy to handle those?

From my limited use of home sharing, I believe that's the only view option available.

Second, iTunes doesn't seem to have a Books menu. I find most of my recipes on the web these days, so it's not a big deal, but it would be nice to have some recipe books on it as well. Is there any way to do that?

iTunes just doesn't have that functionality...

Am I likely to hit this issue with other software? I'm not expecting to install much extra software on it, but you never know.

Depends on whether the developer of the software you want supports 10.5 and the PowerPC architecture. Naturally, older versions of software are more likely to be supported.

 

[Benbikeman]

Ah, thanks - hadn't occurred to me it was a Home Sharing thing, but that makes sense.

The books thing was just me getting confused ... although I've been using a Mac for a while, I avoided iTunes as much as possible until iTunes Match, uh, changed my tune. I can see my books on my MBP, so assumed iTunes could open them, but just seen that it can't. I'll see if Calibre will run on it.

 

[Benbikeman]

Next question ...

I have movies on my MBP. Is there a way to stream these to a Mac running Leopard?

 

[AdrianK]

Next question ...

I have movies on my MBP. Is there a way to stream these to a Mac running Leopard?

On your MBP; Go to System Preferences > Sharing > File Sharing - Tick the box > Press the plus and select the folder where your movies are.

Your MBP should now show up in the side bar of the Finder on your iMac, where you'll be able to access the files in the folder you added for sharing.

 

[Nameci]

.delete

 

[Benbikeman]

Thanks, Adrian. That turned out to be very simple!

I also found a PPC version of VLC to play them (I use this as it plays absolutely everything I've ever thrown at it).