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What is your favorite software setup?

  • Stock/Factory Install

    Votes: 2 7.4%
  • Contemporary OS and software for the model

    Votes: 9 33.3%
  • Fully upgraded to last supported software

    Votes: 12 44.4%
  • Hacked and squeezed to the latest possible!

    Votes: 16 59.3%

  • Total voters
    27

davisdelo

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jul 7, 2019
126
170
Fort Worth, TX
There are so many ways to setup an old Mac, what’s your favorite!?

I really like setting machines up with their factory OS and then software contemporary to their release date, as if you bought it fully loaded when new. For example, my iMac rev D is running Mac OS 8.6 and Photoshop 5.5 because that’s what it would have had been available at the time of its release. But if you can hack an older G4 to run Leopard and FCP 7, I think that’s awesome too :)

So what is your favorite or typical setup on old macs?
 

velocityg4

macrumors 604
Dec 19, 2004
7,330
4,724
Georgia
I like to go to somewhat later versions. The initial releases are usually buggy and not well optimized. The mid range releases are stable and well optimized. While the last releases are generally too slow. So, I guess a year or two after the computer came out.

Although if it supports System 7 or later. I'll take it over System 6. Even if it is slower. I just don't care for System 6 or earlier. Mainly due to lack of interesting software and System 7 is where I started with Macs.

Like my Macintosh II is on System 7. I forget which MS Office version. Some early one. Really I just turn it on every once in a while for the Star Trek screensaver. I also have partitions with System 6.0.8 and System 4. But don't use those do to lack of software and interest. Even though I've recapped the computer. I don't like turning it on much. As I don't want it dying on me.

My IIvx is on 7.6.1 with Photoshop 3.0.5 and appropriate Office version. It's also got a 33Mhz 68040 Accelerator to help run the later OS and a 24 bit video card. Probably my favorite vintage computer. Mainly because a IIvx was my first Mac. Although my original IIvx never had anything close to the upgrades this has.

My 2001 iMac is on Mac OS 9 with Office 2001. It's probably my closest to contemporary Mac. Although it's often running older software, games mostly.

The one I really stretch is my G4 DA on Tiger. Mainly because I need it for retrieving software for the old Macs. Then writing to Zip Disks or Floppies. Otherwise it's on Mac OS 9. It's got Photoshop 6 and CS2. Depending on if it's in Mac OS 9 or X.

Not sure why I put Photoshop on any of these. Besides it being neat. Why the heck would I ever edit anything on them when my main computer is hundreds to tens of thousands of times faster?
 

eyoungren

macrumors Penryn
Aug 31, 2011
29,603
28,363
My daily driver before May 2020 was a Quad G5. That's in the garage now, but I'll review.

16GB ram, 1TB boot drive, 4TB secondary drive. Leopard, 10.5.8.

On boot, a script was run that created several ram disks and then joined those ram disks into one large ram drive. I had to do it this way because of the way OS X Leopard handles virtual memory. End result was an 8GB ram drive.

This ram drive was used as a scratch disk for Adobe CS4 apps. It was used to hold TenFourFox and it's cache. In this way, my entire browsing experience and Adobe experience was all present in ram. About as instantaneous as you can get.

The Leopard UI was modded to have a black menu bar and an overall black theme with dark icons. The only think I could not get dark was the Finder background in List view.

I ran the Quad with six displays, using three video cards. I maintain that setup now; it started with my Quicksilver G4.

I'm on my computers pretty much all day, except when I sleep. I like them the way I want them. I think if I had to deal with stock everything I'd go insane.
 

Project Alice

macrumors 68020
Jul 13, 2008
2,077
2,157
Post Falls, ID
I usually install the latest possible. And when it’s unsupported it’s even more fun to me.
Though since I do have a whole lot of PPC Macs compared to what I used to especially more them one model (lot’s of PBG4s), I do have more that I run “contemporary” just to see how it runs/for fun or whatever.
 
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davisdelo

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jul 7, 2019
126
170
Fort Worth, TX
On boot, a script was run that created several ram disks and then joined those ram disks into one large ram drive. I had to do it this way because of the way OS X Leopard handles virtual memory. End result was an 8GB ram drive.

This ram drive was used as a scratch disk for Adobe CS4 apps. It was used to hold TenFourFox and it's cache. In this way, my entire browsing experience and Adobe experience was all present in ram. About as instantaneous as you can get.
That’s a beast of a G5. Do you have that script available to share? I have leopard make a RAM disk too on startup, but as you know it only does about 2GB by default. I don’t think I’ve ever seen my DC 2.3 G5 use more than 8-10GB of RAM, even when pushing it with large hd FCP projects. Having a giant RAM disk would be really useful.
 
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eyoungren

macrumors Penryn
Aug 31, 2011
29,603
28,363
That’s a beast of a G5. Do you have that script available to share? I have leopard make a RAM disk too on startup, but as you know it only does about 2GB by default. I don’t think I’ve ever seen my DC 2.3 G5 use more than 8-10GB of RAM, even when pushing it with large hd FCP projects. Having a giant RAM disk would be really useful.
Yeah, that's why I decided to use a ram disk.

First, you need Ram Disk Creator for PowerPC (note, this was made by a member here a few years back): https://www.dropbox.com/s/czaeahbxurnfxsk/Ram Disk Creator.zip?dl=0

Second, and this is the manual part I never scripted, use Ram Disk Creator to make as many ram disks as you want to put together. I used 5 ram disks (2GB each) for a total of 10GB. Sorry, I said 8, but apparently it was 10. It's important to name them the same each time because there is a script. I named mine r1, r2, r3, r4 and r5. Just to make it easy.

Copy this script into Script Editor and save it. You can save it as an app so you don't have to open Script Editor each time and run it if you want (I did).

Code:
do shell script "diskutil createRAID concat 'NAME OF YOUR RAM DISK' HFS+ /Volumes/r1 /Volumes/r2 /Volumes/r3 /Volumes/r4  /Volumes/r5" user name "YOUR USERNAME" password "YOUR PASSWORD" with administrator privileges

Make sure you put in the script only the names of the ram disk volumes you intend to merge. What's going to happen is that the command will RAID all the disk volumes and give you ONE complete disk (that's why it's important to only have the names of the volumes you want to merge in the script).

If you have any questions, let me know.

PS. Script and app came right off the final backup of the drive for the Quad (I save everything) so this is as it was the last day I used the Quad.
 
Last edited:

mmphosis

macrumors regular
Jan 3, 2017
219
298
I have G4s running Mac OS 10.5.8.

Turning off Spotlight​

cd /System/Library/
mv LaunchAgents/com.apple.Spotlight.plist LaunchDaemons/com.apple.metadata.mds.plist /Users/myuser/Desktop/

Turn off the 'Use disk for Time Machine?' warning (macworld.com)​

defaults write com.apple.TimeMachine DoNotOfferNewDisksForBackup -bool YES

dashboardadvisoryd (discussions.apple.com)​

sudo launchctl unload -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.dashboard.advisory.fetch.plist

From time to time, I build the latest version of bash from source.
 

Amethyst1

macrumors G3
Oct 28, 2015
9,782
12,180
I love multi-boot setups, so my setup usually involves several OSes, on PPC I tend to go for:
  • Original OS and contemporary software (mostly because these should be fast) - exception: Cheetah or Puma are skipped
  • If possible: 9.2.2 (because it’s the last "classic" OS)
  • If possible: Jaguar (because I love its GUI)
  • Tiger (because it’s my favourite early-yet-still-usable version)
  • Leopard (for maximum application compatibility)
 
Last edited:

z970

macrumors 68040
Jun 2, 2017
3,589
4,541
@mmphosis Small request, do you think you could compile a Bash 5.1.8 binary in PPC OS X 10.5.8 for inclusion in Sorbet Leopard? I can credit you for the compilation, if you wish.

Thank you. :)
 

Doq

macrumors 6502a
Dec 8, 2019
533
798
The Lab DX
Like Amethyst, I'm also on team multi-boot. My companion PowerBook is absolutely overkilled with a 512GB mSATA SSD in-adapter, which gives me plenty (plenty!!) of room for multiple operating environments. Currently, it's configured for a 7-way boot between the primary Tiger, Leopard, Jag, SL-PPC, Debian, OpenBSD, and vanilla Darwin (without OS X).

For machines that aren't that one, I'll install an appropriate OS for what I want to use it for. Most of these are OS 9, but I have gone for a Tiger or Leopard install in some cases.

Here is a nonexhaustive list of essential (to me) software, depending on whether it's OS 9 or OS X. Most of these are on the Garden. Most?
Browser: Classilla (9.3.3 or 9.3.4b, either one works well, YMMV)
Office Suite: Microsoft Office for Mac 2001

Multimedia
  • iTunes (even though I don't have an OG iPod, iTunes is still nice to have)
  • MACAST (music player made by some of the Winamp guys)
  • SoundJam MP (music player that Apple bought out and turned into iTunes)
  • MoreAmp (mostly for FLACs; MACAST nor SoundJam support lossless anything)
Communication
  • KDX (the underrated internet communicator in the weird transitional period between BBS and the modern Internet)
  • Newsstand (a brand new OS 9 app for reading the news)
  • ShadowIRC (IRC client)
Customisation
  • Power Windows (translucent menus and draggable windows)
  • Kaleidoscope (interface skinning)
  • A-Dock (OS X styled dock for OS 9)
Utilities
  • Eclipse (screen saving application, like After Dark but doesn't suck on PPC)
  • Thursby DAVE (SMB support for OS 9 and early OS X)
  • Functional Keys 1.9 (better function key hotkey support, especially for non-Apple keyboards)
  • Greg's Browser (OS X-like multipane browser)
  • iLikeYouMore (file type and creator changer)
  • SwitchRes (easier resolution switching app)
  • Virtual CD/DVD-ROM Utility (mount classic and modern disc images in OS 9)
SimpleText
Browser: InterWebPPC
Office Suite: Microsoft Office for Mac 2008

Multimedia
  • iTunes (the latest supported for the OS installed)
  • Vox (the PPC version didn't turn into suck)
Communication
  • KDX (as always)
  • Ircle (IRC client)
  • Chicken (VNC client)
Customisation
  • iStat Menus (system metrics in your menubar)
  • UNO (only applicable to Tiger)
  • LeopardRebirth (only applicable to Leopard)
Utilities
  • OnyX (big boy tweaker utility for Mac OS X and macOS; there's still versions being made to this day)
  • The Unarchiver (it's the unarchiver)
  • coconutBattery (see battery levels for real)
  • PPCAppStore (app store but for powerpc)
  • Tunnelblick (OpenVPN but for OS X)
  • MacPorts (I'd go for TigerBrew, but nah)
  • iScroll2 (better trackpad functionality, only applicable to Aluminium PowerBooks pre-2005-- you'll softbrick your trackpad if you try and load it on a Titanium don't ask me how I know this)
Chess
 
Last edited:

MacFoxG4

macrumors 6502
Nov 22, 2019
447
623
I lean towards maxing out or even hacking newer software onto my Macs, but there are occasions where I stick with the minimum or close to it.

68Ks

-Classic II: I settled on System 7.1 for this one, which is way below the maximum OS of 7.6.1, but above the minimum of 6.0.8L. I prefer System 7 over 6 and I find 7.1 to be lighter than 7.5.x and 7.6.x, but more stable than 7.0 and 7.0.1. I have Word 5.1a on here and that's about it.

-Centris 650: I went with 7.5.5 for this one, so in between the minimum of 7.1 and maximum of 8.1. 7.5.5 runs what I want to run and while it is slower than 7.1 on here, it is faster than 7.6.x or 8.1. I have Word 5.1a on here too, but I also have Netscape 4, IE 4 and Wolfenstein 3D. Whenever I want to check out a game or other piece of color 68K native software, I put it on here.

PPCs

-WallStreet (aka PDQ): I chose 8.6 for this one. This Mac shipped with 8.5, but can run 8.1 like the earlier Wallstreets. I found OS 9 to be kinda slow on here and the only OS X version I could get to boot was Cheetah. Getting USB Mass Storage support required some digging, but once I found the driver, I was able to permanently switch to 8.6 on this Mac. I primarily run Office 98 on here and use Netscape 4 for limited web browsing, but I do occasionally play some older PPC native and FAT binary games on here like Sci-Fi Pinball.

-Sawtooth: I have Leopard and OS 9.2.2 on this one. This Sawtooth has a 1.5ghz CPU upgrade in it, so installing Leopard was easy. From what I have read online, having this CPU upgrade means that minimum OS for this Mac is now Puma and OS 9.2, so I guess you could say I have the minimum OS on here too. I primarily run TFF, PPCMC, and Office 2004 on the Leopard side. On the OS 9 side I have Photoshop 7, Macormedia Studio MX 2002, Classilla, and Office 98 along with some other stuff.

-iBook G3 Dual USB 700mhz: I have OS 9.2.2, Jaguar, Panther and Tiger on this one. The minimum OS is Puma and OS 9.2.2, so I have one of the minimum OS’s plus the maximum and the in-between ones. On the OS 9 side I have Office 98, Classilla, Photoshop 6, and whatever PPC native games I feel like putting on here. Tiger has TFF, Office v.X, and PPCMC, Panther has PPCMC and Links2, and Jaguar has AppleWorks 6.

Intel

-2006 C2D MBP: This was supposed to have a dual boot of SL and Windows XP, but I somehow messed up this Mac’s ability to boot up OS X, so this one is just Windows XP. It has Office 97 and a variety of 2000s Windows software like Real Player and Microsoft Train Simulator.

-Early 2009 Mac Mini: Currently has a triple boot of SL, Mavericks, and Ubuntu, but that may change. I use SL to handle older Intel and Universal software that doesn’t play nice with Mavericks. Mavericks has Office 2008 along with Chromium Legacy and FF 78. Ubuntu is mainly for stuff that needs the latest Firefox or whatever doesn’t work on Mavericks, but does run on Linux.
 

retta283

Suspended
Jun 8, 2018
3,180
3,482
I always have a generally contemporary setup on my machines, I like them to be time capsules. But I multi-boot all of them, usually I throw an OS on there to get newer app support; hopefully enough to get a workable web browser. Both for PPC and Intel.

Generally I only install these OSes: 9.2.2, Jaguar, Tiger, SL, Mavericks, Sierra, Mojave. I will install Mountain Lion when I can but Mavericks is untenable due to unsupported GPU. 10.0-10.1 have little appeal, Panther has little and even Tiger can just be skinned like Panther if you're a UI fan. Leopard I will occasionally put on the PPCs but never Intel. Lion is useless when ML is much better and can be installed unsupported on most. Yosemite and El Cap are trumped by Sierra in stability and app support. High Sierra is an oddball but I see no reason to use it over Mojave. Catalina and Big Sur are out of the question for anything but app development for myself.

I want to mess with System 7 or OS 8 again though but I have no hardware that'll run it currently, my storage locker has some older Power Macintosh machines but they will crumble upon attempted service so I'm weary to mess with them.
 

eyoungren

macrumors Penryn
Aug 31, 2011
29,603
28,363
I always have a generally contemporary setup on my machines, I like them to be time capsules.
I think that may be a key difference here between a lot of people's setups.

I lived through the time period when these operating systems were new and installed on then current hardware. Other than Panther, which was rock-solid but very boring, I have no particular fondness for making them a time-capsule. I run Tiger/Leopard because that's the farthest I can update to (depending on system). My challenge with these Macs (as so many here also have) has been to see just how far I can push the restrictions and do modern things.

I do appreciate three of the older Macs I have for their representation of the time they were produced, but I'm not into making them a time capsule.

I think it's cool you do that though. Everyone is different about how we use our Macs and no one way is the 'right' way.

What I do with mine though, is the major reason why I shifted to Intel Macs. I got as far as I could go with pushing PowerPC.
 

Applicator

macrumors regular
Jan 20, 2021
118
254
Germany
I like them to be time capsules.
Same here.
TBH, l only use my M1 mini and my iPad Pro for productivity and the regular stuff in general.
My 09 MacBook unibody is our on-the-go Mac and the A 1211 MBP is my car diagnosis hardware.
These are the Macs l always upgrade to the latest (inofficial) release.
All my other Macs are loaded with stock or contemporary software and l enjoy the time-travel-feeling whenever I
boot them up.
I even have downgraded a few of them to their original specs, like my "1,86ghz core Duo, 512 mb, Combo drive, 60gb hdd A1181“.
 

Macbookprodude

Suspended
Jan 1, 2018
3,306
898
Like Amethyst, I'm also on team multi-boot. My companion PowerBook is absolutely overkilled with a 512GB mSATA SSD in-adapter, which gives me plenty (plenty!!) of room for multiple operating environments. Currently, it's configured for a 7-way boot between the primary Tiger, Leopard, Jag, SL-PPC, Debian, OpenBSD, and vanilla Darwin (without OS X).

For machines that aren't that one, I'll install an appropriate OS for what I want to use it for. Most of these are OS 9, but I have gone for a Tiger or Leopard install in some cases.

Here is a nonexhaustive list of essential (to me) software, depending on whether it's OS 9 or OS X. Most of these are on the Garden. Most?
Browser: Classilla (9.3.3 or 9.3.4b, either one works well)
Office Suite: Microsoft Office for Mac 2001

Multimedia
  • iTunes (even though I don't have an OG iPod, iTunes is still nice to have)
  • MACAST (music player made by some of the Winamp guys)
  • SoundJam MP (music player that Apple bought out and turned into iTunes)
  • MoreAmp (mostly for FLACs; MACAST nor SoundJam support lossless anything)
Communication
  • KDX (the underrated internet communicator in the weird transitional period between BBS and the modern Internet)
  • Newsstand (a brand new OS 9 app for reading the news)
  • ShadowIRC (IRC client)
Customisation
  • Power Windows (translucent menus and draggable windows)
  • Kaleidoscope (interface skinning)
  • A-Dock (OS X styled dock for OS 9)
Utilities
  • Eclipse (screen saving application, like After Dark but doesn't suck on PPC)
  • Thursby DAVE (SMB support for OS 9 and early OS X)
  • Functional Keys 1.9 (better function key hotkey support, especially for non-Apple keyboards)
  • Greg's Browser (OS X-like multipane browser)
  • iLikeYouMore (file type and creator changer)
  • SwitchRes (easier resolution switching app)
  • Virtual CD/DVD-ROM Utility (mount classic and modern disc images in OS 9)
SimpleText
Browser: InterWebPPC
Office Suite: Microsoft Office for Mac 2008

Multimedia
  • iTunes (the latest supported for the OS installed)
  • Vox (the PPC version didn't turn into suck)
Communication
  • KDX (as always)
  • Ircle (IRC client)
  • Chicken (VNC client)
Customisation
  • iStat Menus (system metrics in your menubar)
  • UNO (only applicable to Tiger)
  • LeopardRebirth (only applicable to Leopard)
Utilities
  • OnyX (big boy tweaker utility for Mac OS X and macOS; there's still versions being made to this day)
  • The Unarchiver (it's the unarchiver)
  • coconutBattery (see battery levels for real)
  • PPCAppStore (app store but for powerpc)
  • Tunnelblick (OpenVPN but for OS X)
  • MacPorts (I'd go for TigerBrew, but nah)
  • iScroll2 (better trackpad functionality, only applicable to Aluminium PowerBooks pre-2005-- you'll softbrick your trackpad if you try and load it on a Titanium don't ask me how I know this)
Chess
9.3.4b - STAY AWAY FROM THIS ONE.. nothing works with it, garbage BETA A software.. 9.3.3 loads multiple websites and works great. Nothing but problems with 9.3.4 - avoid at all costs ! ShadowIRC (IRC client)? What about Ircle ?
 

Doq

macrumors 6502a
Dec 8, 2019
533
798
The Lab DX
9.3.4b - STAY AWAY FROM THIS ONE.. nothing works with it, garbage BETA A software.. 9.3.3 loads multiple websites and works great. Nothing but problems with 9.3.4 - avoid at all costs ! ShadowIRC (IRC client)? What about Ircle ?
here we go again
I've said this on numerous occassions, but in my personal experience, either version of Classilla works fine for me. I have personally had no issues with either version, and since the lists that I've provided are personal lists, I've chosen to include it.

That said, perhaps in an attempt to appease the masses, I have included a 'your mileage may vary'. Take it as you may.

I wasn't aware that ircle had an OS 9 version. If I could actually pick, I'd much rather have an XChat-esque single window interface instead of the multi-window experiences provided by ShadowIRC and Ircle, but I've yet to find one of these for OS 9 or earlier.
 

WriteNow

macrumors 6502
Aug 27, 2021
381
395
A number of years back, I ran Classic MacOS computers for productivity tasks. On these computers, I ran operating systems that were the computer's contemporary. Newer versions might have something appealing--but always seemed slower. Application software could be contemporary, or a few years older than the compute, depending on the computer. It was all about what worked for my needs. I never needed newer features in application software--and I liked how older software got the job done, often ran faster than newer software, and could stay out of my way when I was using it. So, to cite one example, I used a Quadra for a long time that ran System 7.5 and had application software dated to the early 1990s.
 

eyoungren

macrumors Penryn
Aug 31, 2011
29,603
28,363
A number of years back, I ran Classic MacOS computers for productivity tasks. On these computers, I ran operating systems that were the computer's contemporary. Newer versions might have something appealing--but always seemed slower. Application software could be contemporary, or a few years older than the compute, depending on the computer. It was all about what worked for my needs. I never needed newer features in application software--and I liked how older software got the job done, often ran faster than newer software, and could stay out of my way when I was using it. So, to cite one example, I used a Quadra for a long time that ran System 7.5 and had application software dated to the early 1990s.
There are some apps with file formats/types that make things still possible. I've said for a while now that a PDF is a PDF, no matter what app or platform makes it. The only requirement is that the PDF is made correctly.

Right now you can still get an InDesign CC 2021 file open on a PowerPC Mac using InDesign CS4. That's because .IDML (CS4) is still the downsave format for CC.

Photoshop PSDs are the same still. .docx, .pptx, .xlsx are also still the same. There may be others from other apps I don't know.

It's really when these formats are updated or become obsolete that PowerPC begins to lose its relevancy. But for right now still, as long as your needs are modest, or specific to period apps such as yours are, then there's no need to change.
 

WriteNow

macrumors 6502
Aug 27, 2021
381
395
There are some apps with file formats/types that make things still possible.

Indeed. I was lucky in that the stuff that I needed to port to the modern world was easily ported to the modern world. RTF files in word processors (although there could be issues as I recall--but once known, I could work around those.)

Today's LibreOffice can open a lot of older file formats, which is helpful.

Plain Text files for the win!

Indeed. I use a text editor a lot these days. Part of this is just it keeps things simple and is fast--but one thing I do think about is that the file format has the most chance of being supported one way or another for the rest of my life. I think of the support issue, having seen so many formats come and go over the years...
 
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