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Favorite OS X Version (PPC versions only)?
- Thread starter MysticCow
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The first version of OS X I used extensively(i.e. lived with every day) was Lion(10.7) and used it for nearly 2 years.
When I got into PPC Macs, I gravitated toward Leopard because it feels the most "natural" to me with many of the same UI elements and the same general look as Lion. Using it extensively with PPC Macs has also made me do things other ways with my newer computes. For example, I can't stand NOT having the HDDs visible o the desktop, and my instinct for opening applications is to open a finder window and go to the applications folder. For that reason, Leopard was my selection above.
At the same time, I've come to appreciate Tiger for what it is, and even the older versions on their own merits. To me at least, the "thought process" that comes with using Tiger makes it the most comfortable for someone who-again-started with a newer version. Having always been a heavy user of things like Spotlight, I find the lack of it in anything before 10.4 to be a bit of a handicap. I know that Sherlock can and does find files, but you have to admit that with as seamlessly as Spotlight works it using Sherlock seems like a bit of a handicap.
Interestingly enough, though, I find it a bit funny that 10.10 has returned to a bit of a Sherlock-like UI with it being in the center of the screen and also prominently incorporating internet search results.
When I got into PPC Macs, I gravitated toward Leopard because it feels the most "natural" to me with many of the same UI elements and the same general look as Lion. Using it extensively with PPC Macs has also made me do things other ways with my newer computes. For example, I can't stand NOT having the HDDs visible o the desktop, and my instinct for opening applications is to open a finder window and go to the applications folder. For that reason, Leopard was my selection above.
At the same time, I've come to appreciate Tiger for what it is, and even the older versions on their own merits. To me at least, the "thought process" that comes with using Tiger makes it the most comfortable for someone who-again-started with a newer version. Having always been a heavy user of things like Spotlight, I find the lack of it in anything before 10.4 to be a bit of a handicap. I know that Sherlock can and does find files, but you have to admit that with as seamlessly as Spotlight works it using Sherlock seems like a bit of a handicap.
Interestingly enough, though, I find it a bit funny that 10.10 has returned to a bit of a Sherlock-like UI with it being in the center of the screen and also prominently incorporating internet search results.
With time comes nostalgia. Which release has been your favorite OS X version of all time when it comes to our beloved OS X release?
Extra points for why.
As much as I love Leopard, I'm going to have to go with Tiger as my favorite. Tiger is the perfect match between stability, speed, and moderness. Leopard is more modern and I like the design of the interface, but you have to sacrifice speed on lower end G4s and graphic cards. Also, Tiger can be installed on any Gx PPC CPU (with or without hacks), and can even be installed on 60x CPUs thanks to @LightBulbFun's custom kernel.
Leopard.
It integrates the best is a mixed PC/Mac environment, can handle network disconnections gracefully, still retains the most support under PowerPC and had the most up to date code/UI.
A close second for me though would be Panther. Panther is by far the most stable version of OS X I have encountered.
It's boring as hell to look at but solid.
It integrates the best is a mixed PC/Mac environment, can handle network disconnections gracefully, still retains the most support under PowerPC and had the most up to date code/UI.
A close second for me though would be Panther. Panther is by far the most stable version of OS X I have encountered.
It's boring as hell to look at but solid.
While it was still usable, Panther was easily the best OS X for a long time. Tiger brought some nice features, but Panther was VERY fast and didn't require as much RAM as 10.4 and 10.5 do. It was crazy fast on G3s and was IMO the first OS X that was really stable enough to use all the time. In 2016, Leopard is easily the best. Time Machine alone makes it worth running on virtually any G4 and G5 system.
Hard to say. I can come up with arguments for Panther, Tiger *and* Leopard.
Panther was the fastest compared to the other two on the same supported hardware. Leopard is still the most supported, has Time Machine and better integration with the Windows PC world. And Tiger was there in the middle, faster than Leopard, but less supported -- but it still runs TFF which is critical. If TFF did not run on Tiger then I'd say unequivocally, Panther > Tiger. But since no highly-compatible, modern browser that is up to date and with security fixes runs Panther that I'm aware of, Tiger is in the running.
On faster PPC Macs (G5s and G4s running faster than 1.5 GHz or so), I'd go with Leopard hands down. On slower Macs, even those that are supported by Leopard officially (i.e. 867 MHz G4 and above), I'd go with Tiger if I did a lot of web browsing AND I didn't run apps that support 10.5 but not 10.4. If I had a slower/older PPC Mac (G3 or G4 less than 1.25 or 1.33 GHz) and didn't much use the browser on it, I'd run Panther.
So really, to me it depends on the speed of the machine and how you planned to use it. But if that answer is considered a copout and I *had* to pick ONE version to run on ALL my PPC Macs all the time, practicality suggests I'd pick Tiger.
Panther was the fastest compared to the other two on the same supported hardware. Leopard is still the most supported, has Time Machine and better integration with the Windows PC world. And Tiger was there in the middle, faster than Leopard, but less supported -- but it still runs TFF which is critical. If TFF did not run on Tiger then I'd say unequivocally, Panther > Tiger. But since no highly-compatible, modern browser that is up to date and with security fixes runs Panther that I'm aware of, Tiger is in the running.
On faster PPC Macs (G5s and G4s running faster than 1.5 GHz or so), I'd go with Leopard hands down. On slower Macs, even those that are supported by Leopard officially (i.e. 867 MHz G4 and above), I'd go with Tiger if I did a lot of web browsing AND I didn't run apps that support 10.5 but not 10.4. If I had a slower/older PPC Mac (G3 or G4 less than 1.25 or 1.33 GHz) and didn't much use the browser on it, I'd run Panther.
So really, to me it depends on the speed of the machine and how you planned to use it. But if that answer is considered a copout and I *had* to pick ONE version to run on ALL my PPC Macs all the time, practicality suggests I'd pick Tiger.
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I'm certain anyone who honestly thinks any OS X prior to Panther was the best has got to be crazy. There are virtually no redeeming qualities to those versions that didn't get passed along to newer. There is a reason many of us would choose OS 9 over those.
Jag was a huge improvement over Puma, especially in startup. Now granted Panther had the fastest startup of ANY PPC Mac OS X, Jaguar actually started up instead of hang for five minutes and then finish starting up.
Jaguar isn't at all a bad OS, and I consider it the first usable version of OS X. Panther is in every way better, but I have several computers currently running Jaguar as their main OS and they continue to work well.
Anything earlier than Jag is asking for trouble.
Anything earlier than Jag is asking for trouble.
It's hard to pick, but I'll settle with Tiger. Panther is indeed fast on G3s, and a good selection for those, but simply the fact that most software that is still (moderately) useful/up-to-date requires at least Tiger, makes me prefer the latter. Now, Leopard has more new features, a slight edge on said useful/up-to-date software compatibility over Tiger, and a gorgeous UI, but, it won't run on G3s (no, the early beta doesn't count), and is quite beefier than Tiger on hardware. I would still go for Leopard on G5s and higher end G4s, such as my eMac 1.42GHz and iMac G5. But, because Tiger is the "man-in-the-middle" OS X version, combining moderate hardware resource intensity, G3 to G5 support, and still having quite a few useful apps available for it, I'll settle with that.
The first version that I used was 10.2, and I've used every subsequent version. 10.4 was probably my favourite; it was pretty much "feature complete" by that point, and didn't have the slowdown that Gamer9430 mentions above. If 10.6 was PPC then I'd vote for that though!
As a side note, I have a GigE G4 with every "public" OS X version from beta up to 10.5.
10.0 was an absolute nightmare to even install in my experience-I had to take the computer back to a single 128mb Apple OEM stick of RAM and use a Rage 128 video card(I'd run everything else on a 2MX). Even public beta was more forgiving.
I have a B&W G3 with all the developer previews and OS X server installed. It's fun to see the progress on them in that.
If it weren't for the fact that it's a work computer I depend on, I'd install every Intel version of OS X on it. It's currently running 10.4.11 and 10.9, although performance under 10.4 is sort of crummy. I'm using a firmware-compatible 8800GT from MacVidCards, and even though he tried several things @LightBulbFun couldn't get it working with acceleration in Tiger(the install started off as one for the MBP with the 8600M GPU). Admittedly, though, it is nice that Tiger takes about 10 seconds to boot off an SSD
10.0 was an absolute nightmare to even install in my experience-I had to take the computer back to a single 128mb Apple OEM stick of RAM and use a Rage 128 video card(I'd run everything else on a 2MX). Even public beta was more forgiving.
I have a B&W G3 with all the developer previews and OS X server installed. It's fun to see the progress on them in that.
If it weren't for the fact that it's a work computer I depend on, I'd install every Intel version of OS X on it. It's currently running 10.4.11 and 10.9, although performance under 10.4 is sort of crummy. I'm using a firmware-compatible 8800GT from MacVidCards, and even though he tried several things @LightBulbFun couldn't get it working with acceleration in Tiger(the install started off as one for the MBP with the 8600M GPU). Admittedly, though, it is nice that Tiger takes about 10 seconds to boot off an SSD
I'm torn between Jaguar and Leopard.
I have a soft spot in my heart for Jaguar, as it was the first version of OS X that I used regularly. And I used it up until Tiger, skipping Panther.
Leopard is what I run on most of my PowerPC machines, simply because it's better for living amongst more modern Macs running newer versions of OS X.
I have a soft spot in my heart for Jaguar, as it was the first version of OS X that I used regularly. And I used it up until Tiger, skipping Panther.
Leopard is what I run on most of my PowerPC machines, simply because it's better for living amongst more modern Macs running newer versions of OS X.
Tiger, hands down. I run it on both my eMac and PowerBook G4, for two reasons. One, it's faster and more responsive than Leopard; it doesn't leave me hanging with a beachball as often. Two, it looks better than any other version of OS X, period. The UI is just perfect IMO.
Tiger does everything I need it to, and I enjoy using it.
[doublepost=1463961660][/doublepost]
For that matter, Tiger had BootCamp as well IIRC.
Tiger does everything I need it to, and I enjoy using it.
[doublepost=1463961660][/doublepost]
For that matter, Tiger had BootCamp as well IIRC.
I'm going to plump for Tiger. Fast, stable, feature complete and it has the lovely Aqua interface. Runs well on any G4. Plus it was the first version I used when I came back to Macs in 2006 (albeit Intel).
Only technically as a beta...
Only technically as a beta...
This thread is about PPC Macs, I think.Tiger, hands down. I run it on both my eMac and PowerBook G4, for two reasons. One, it's faster and more responsive than Leopard; it doesn't leave me hanging with a beachball as often. Two, it looks better than any other version of OS X, period. The UI is just perfect IMO.
Tiger does everything I need it to, and I enjoy using it.
For that matter, Tiger had BootCamp as well IIRC.
Boot Camp was never available (and can't work) on PPC Macs.
Boot Camp remained officially a beta until Leopard was released, and was not part of the Tiger system install.
When I did some tests on my G5 with an SSD a while back I actually found that Panther took a few more seconds to boot compared with Tiger/Leopard (which both took a similar amount of time). Perhaps on more performance-constrained systems Panther would be quicker though, not sure.
And no love from anyone for the "pure" Aqua/pinstripes of Jaguar?
And no love from anyone for the "pure" Aqua/pinstripes of Jaguar?
I've heard people complain about the pinstrips of Tiger, but it is nothing compared to earlier OS X versions.
It makes the OS a perfect match for the pinstripes on an iMac G3 or an acrylic Cinema/Studio display
Only technically as a beta...
Ah, I see. I know PPC Macs never had BootCamp, but I could have sworn I used it on Tiger back in the day on my Intel Mac mini.
Checked Wikipedia since it's definitely the most accurate source on the Internet....
1.0-1.4 were beta versions on 10.4 and could only be used on Intel Macs. Version 2.0 was released with Leopard and was the first public and official version of Boot Camp.
1.0-1.4 were beta versions on 10.4 and could only be used on Intel Macs. Version 2.0 was released with Leopard and was the first public and official version of Boot Camp.
As you said also, it's Intel only.
If you want to run Windows on a PPC Mac, the only option is MS Virtual PC, which unfortunately is a bit limited. I have VPC with Windows XP installed on my Quad at work, and it's a pig to the point that I don't even use it. I've been advised that VPC works better with less than its total allowed amount of memory allocated, and I keep meaning to try it. An older version of Windows might be better also, but XP is what came bundled with my copy of VPC.
On the other hand, I've given a couple of retired CoreDuo iMacs at work a new lease on life by installing Windows 7. One that I know of is being used to run one specific software package that's windows only in a lab, and they really like it since it's plenty fast for what they need and it takes up less space than even something like an old mini P4 box(+monitor) would. Unfortunately, with the loss in support for Snow Leopard for major programs-in particular browsers-on the horizon, I think that Windows will soon become a good option for keeping CoreDuo Intel Macs going. Of course, with the exception of the Mac Pro, all 32 bit EFI systems may soon be in that boat since Mountain Lion is the newest "comfortable" OS for GMA 950 in a lot of these systems.
One of the things Leopard did away with was pinstripes and metal. For that alone, Leopard has always had my vote.
That said, there is one one reason I prefer Tiger over Leopard and that is the fact that you can still run APE on Tiger and therefore you can use Shapeshifter. And Shapeshifter worked on the fly. No having to log out and then back in.
Sure, we have some different ways to do things in Leopard but there are still things that cannot be affected. Shapeshifter on the other hand themed everything.
That said, there is one one reason I prefer Tiger over Leopard and that is the fact that you can still run APE on Tiger and therefore you can use Shapeshifter. And Shapeshifter worked on the fly. No having to log out and then back in.
Sure, we have some different ways to do things in Leopard but there are still things that cannot be affected. Shapeshifter on the other hand themed everything.