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

jsucher

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 1, 2006
3
0
I am buying an iBook and I need to know the best OS that I should run on my system. I am using it for iTunes and word processing with the occasional web browsing because I have airport, but my house isn't wireless. The iBook is 800 MhZ or less and 512 mb or RAM or less. Any suggestions?
 

WildCowboy

Administrator/Editor
Staff member
Jan 20, 2005
18,390
2,829
I run Tiger on my 500 MHz iBook with 384 MB of RAM and it's much snappier than Panther was. It can't handle the Core Image eye candy like the ripple effect in Dashboard, but it runs pretty well on my machine.
 

frankblundt

macrumors 65816
Sep 19, 2005
1,271
0
South of the border
Tiger should be fine, tho more RAM would be better. There seem to be mixed feelings around here as to whether Tiger runs faster or slower than Panther on the older Macs, I'm in the former camp.

I wouldn't go any earlier, unless you want to go full retro and load System 7
 

OnceUGoMac

macrumors 6502a
Mar 3, 2004
914
1
I have an 800 MHz, G4 iBook with 640 MB RAM and it runs Tiger quite well sans the ripple effect as the video card is not up to par.
 

dpaanlka

macrumors 601
Nov 16, 2004
4,868
30
Illinois
Tiger is literally fine on any system with AGP based video and a ton of RAM for the tasks you are speaking. This includes the earliest AGP systems with like 350mhz processors. Your 800mhz iBook is more than adequate, and you will even be able to do movie editing with iMovie if you desired.

Tiger is getting pretty old now and Leopard is just around the corner... an earlier version of the OS is going to feel old quickly without access to the latest versions of software, including Safari and iTunes.
 

Foxglove9

macrumors 68000
Jan 14, 2006
1,632
249
New York City
This is a good question. My sister is looking to get a used mac for internet browsing and word processing. And I was looking into a cheap imac G3 but was afraid Tiger would crawl on the machine and she wouldn't like it.

So you think Tiger would be okay on a G3 too?
 

840quadra

Moderator
Staff member
Feb 1, 2005
9,256
5,968
Twin Cities Minnesota
Foxglove9 said:
This is a good question. My sister is looking to get a used mac for internet browsing and word processing. And I was looking into a cheap imac G3 but was afraid Tiger would crawl on the machine and she wouldn't like it.

So you think Tiger would be okay on a G3 too?

I run Tiger on a 350mhz Powermac G3 with only 256mb of RAM. It actually works well and is stable. It isn't going to feel as quick as a G4 computer, but it should be fine for most tasks!
 

Porco

macrumors 68040
Mar 28, 2005
3,315
6,909
Tiger. I run Tiger on my ageing G3 600Mhz iBook, 640MB RAM and it's fine for the things you describe. I upgraded it from Panther, and whilst the performance/usability difference is not a marked improvement like it was going from Jaguar to Panther, it's more than worth it for the features such as improved security, dashboard, spotlight and numerous other little niceties. Max out the RAM if possible.
 

Hockeypuck

macrumors regular
Sep 29, 2006
102
0
Foxglove9 said:
This is a good question. My sister is looking to get a used mac for internet browsing and word processing. And I was looking into a cheap imac G3 but was afraid Tiger would crawl on the machine and she wouldn't like it.

So you think Tiger would be okay on a G3 too?

We run Tiger on a Graphite G3 iMac and a G3 iBook just fine. Like the others said, you don't get the rotating box effects and stuff, but they work fine.
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.