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Best Mac OS for Ibook G3

S

skinniezinho

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Jan 1, 2009
1,112
102
Portugal
Hi Guys,I would like to know your opinion about wich Mac OS should I put in my ibook g3 (sig).
Currently it came with 10.4.11 but I feel it somehow slow sometimes (of course it is normal for a machine of this age).

What I do with my ibook is:

Internet (wifi wpa peap with tkip=»eduroam @university)
Read Pdfs (I use skim,but it only supports 10.4)
Read some word documents (microsoft office 2004 has to work)
some msn messenger (If I move backwards,I can use older versions of adium right?)
and that's all..maybe some old games...


Will it got better with some older version of macos,or it is +- the same?
give your opinion :D
 
I was running 10.3.9 on my 800mhz G4 till the day I got rid of it. (I stupidly passed up on the 10.4 upgrade, and it couldn't run 10.5)

It ran very well, but I was limited in my program choices as a lot of stuff requires >10.4, Adium being a big one in my case.
 
dukebound85 said:
since its slow with tiger, id say go with panther as it isnt as resource heavy
Click to expand...

Thanks :)

NewMacbookPlz said:
I was running 10.3.9 on my 800mhz G4 till the day I got rid of it. (I stupidly passed up on the 10.4 upgrade, and it couldn't run 10.5)

It ran very well, but I was limited in my program choices as a lot of stuff requires >10.4, Adium being a big one in my case.
Click to expand...

Well that is what I am afraid off...most of the apps that I see require 10.4 or more,but I do see some people with macos still doing "normal things",will panther apps be easier to found than for 9?
(sorry my bad english)
This G3 is not my main computer,I only take it for school to read the pdfs and so..
 
skinniezinho said:
Thanks :)



Well that is what I am afraid off...most of the apps that I see require 10.4 or more,but I do see some people with macos still doing "normal things",will panther apps be easier to found than for 9?
(sorry my bad english)
This G3 is not my main computer,I only take it for school to read the pdfs and so..
Click to expand...


id take a look at this webiste

it has older versions of programs that most likly will have 10.3 support
http://oldapps.com/
 
In spite of the tough time finding software for OS9, you will find that the G3 is a speed demon running OS9 compared to even Panther.
 
10.4.11 should work ok on one of those, with two exceptions. One is not enough RAM, which is not your problem, or a HDD that is 70% or more occupied. I ran into both of these at different times.
 
maccompaq said:
In spite of the tough time finding software for OS9, you will find that the G3 is a speed demon running OS9 compared to even Panther.
Click to expand...

I never looked for OS9 software.I never ran OS9,maybe it should be a little hardcore for me..

jodelli said:
10.4.11 should work ok on one of those, with two exceptions. One is not enough RAM, which is not your problem, or a HDD that is 70% or more occupied. I ran into both of these at different times.
Click to expand...

It works,but sometimes is slow,I don't have neither memory nor hdd space "problems".

cMacSW said:
I'm running 10.4.11 on a ibook G3, yeah it's slow but not too bad.
Click to expand...

Yes it is not too bad,far from that,it is "acceptable"..but if I could do the same things I do in it and a little faster better :)
Have you ever had any previou os X in your Ibook?Is the speed worth the "pain" that is looking for software?
thanks all of you :)
 
I would personally go with Panther, as it doesn't seem like you really need the other features.
Or Snow Leopard.
Just kiddin'.:D
 
OrangeSVTguy said:
You can try to disable the Dashboard. That sucks up a lot of your most needed CPU and memory.

Tiger ran fine for me when I had a 600mhz and a 900mhz iBook both with 640mb too.
Click to expand...
This tip made a lot of difference,are there any other "tweaks" that can help?

dvdhsu said:
I would personally go with Panther, as it doesn't seem like you really need the other features.
Or Snow Leopard.
Just kiddin'.:D
Click to expand...

gamer2502 said:
Go with panther if you want speed but if you want added features and a better os go for tiger.:apple:
Click to expand...

I think one day I'll try panther,but first I'll have to have time and patience to search for compatible software.
 
skinniezinho said:
This tip made a lot of difference,are there any other "tweaks" that can help?
Click to expand...

If you're using Word, you may notice that typing can result in a lot of lag. You'll type something and the letters will show up on screen a few seconds later.

Anyways, to combat this, make sure you turn off "Live Word Counting". It'll speed things up dramatically. I think it's in the Preferences menu, but if not, just look around.

ft
 
ftaok said:
If you're using Word, you may notice that typing can result in a lot of lag. You'll type something and the letters will show up on screen a few seconds later.

Anyways, to combat this, make sure you turn off "Live Word Counting". It'll speed things up dramatically. I think it's in the Preferences menu, but if not, just look around.

ft
Click to expand...


thanks for the tip.
Decided to give panther a try,,at first glance it seemed not faster than tiger,but after some updates and usage,it is really fast.
The only thing I oculdn't get to work was steermouse,can't seem to find version 2.1 anywhere :!
edit:
2n thing:
java version,while trying to load jdownloader it said I needed an updated java version,from what I understand I only can get that with tiger right?
 
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