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First Mac Ever (iBook G4)
- Thread starter nineteen73
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Hello All!
This is my first post on and very first MAC to have ever owned. As a long time PC user, I never considered ever buying an Apple product. But never say never, right?
However, I recently purchase an iBook G4from my best friend, for my son who needed a laptop for his high school homework. I was so intrigued with his laptop, I went online and bought two more iBooks for my daughter and myself.
My first question is memory.
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht2206
Can I used any type of laptop memory, including ram from older PC laptops, if they meet these specs? If the bus speed is higher than PC2100 or PC2700, but is SO-DIMM and 200 pin, can I still use them?
Last question, once I upgrade the memory on each iBook to 1.5gb, should Office 356 run decently on these laptops? Each laptop has OS X 10.5.8. Office 365 minimum specs states I could, but I wanted to see what your past experiences have been with this product. If your experiences have been poor, what other office suite product would you recommend? iWorks? OpenOffice?
Thanks for your help!
Keep in mind that your Mac is only as new as 9 years old. Software is limited. PowerPC Macs are still great computers, but I find them better-suited for PowerPC enthusiasts such as myself. No doubt that you won't enjoy yours, but expect to not be running any new software. The latest version of Office that can run on one is Office 2008, but 2004 is way faster. TenFourFox is a great and up-to-date browser, but know that it's a pretty slow browser at that. (it chews RAM like crazy). iWork is a much better suite, BTW, and I am sure iWork '05 or '06 would be fine. '08 is great but cutting it close for a slower computer. You need specific RAM for your iBook G4, so look that up on eBay. Expect it to be pricy. If you or your kids like YouTube, YouView is a good stand-alone application that allows you to search for and watch YouTube videos instantly! No flash and little lag! PowerPC Macs are great, but you gotta know what to run on one for it to be use at its fullest potential in today's world. (a world where the internet gets slower and slower for no reason)
So the two iBooks came loaded with a ton of applications including Office 2004. I left my daughter's PPC as is. However, I don't like receiving a laptop preloaded with software, especially when left with just under 7gb of hard drive space. So I'm currently installing 10.5. Of the optional files offered during installation, I opted only for X11. I figured the printer drivers, additional fonts, and foreign languages were nonessential. It also saved me around 10gb of space! But it'll be great to start of with a barebones PPC.
So the two iBooks came loaded with a ton of applications including Office 2004. I left my daughter's PPC as is. However, I don't like receiving a laptop preloaded with software, especially when left with just under 7gb of hard drive space. So I'm currently installing 10.5. Of the optional files offered during installation, I opted only for X11. I figured the printer drivers, additional fonts, and foreign languages were nonessential. It also saved me around 10gb of space! But it'll be great to start of with a barebones PPC.
It is quite annoying when you receive software that you don't need and is just clogging up the hard drive. What else was on it that it was down to 7 GB free?
Being new to Mac I wasn't sure exactly what applications came with OS X, but here's what stood out:
- Office 2004
- iWorks 6
- Garage Band
- iPhoto
- iMovie
- Firefox
- Kidspiration
- Photoshop CS
- File Maker
- Sophos Antivirus
There was more but I can't remember what else was installed.I wasn't satisfied uninstalling the apps. I prefer a clean slate to work with.
No, I wasn't given the disks. Are those worth getting?
This is my first official post on my iBook using TenFourFox, Webkit for Leopard is currently downloading, and my wireless Logitech mouse works!
Oki Doki, this posts via Webkit. It seems more sluggish than TenFourFox. I'll continue to use both browsers and see which one I like better.
Linux will be closer to OS X as they are both derived from Unix. That's mostly under the hood though and you may not notice it unless you use the terminal a lot. Linux distributions use a variety of user interfaces, so whether you find it close to Windows or OS X depends on which UI you use. There are tons of UIs available for Linux, but not all of them are a good choice for a G4. GNOME 3 and KDE will be way too heavyweight for older hardware, but something lightweight like LXDE or XFCE should run smoothly. If you install Lubuntu, you'll get LXDE preconfigured. I used it once on an Asus and it was very quick.
One thing that is very similar to OS X is the way you install software. Software is stored in central repositories (usually operated by the distribution maintainers) that you access via either the command line or a graphical interface to the command line. This is a similar idea to OS X's App Store. The difference is that Linux uses multiple repositories and you can manually add others that you want. In Windows, you install software by going to the individual sites of the software you want and downloading it. When it comes time to update, Linux and OS X have their software in a central location and can update everything in one shot, whereas Windows requires you to update each application individually.
This may not be too noticeable on a PPC though, since no version of OS X that will run on it has been updated in years and you'll have to find software yourself that's still supported.
Neither Linux or OS X is as susceptible to malware as Windows because you don't run as a fully privileged user all the time, but the versions of OS X you are limited to on a G4 will have a lot of security vulnerabilities due to being unpatched for years. Whether that's a problem or not depends on your use. I would never use it as an internet facing server or use any unmaintained browser or email client, but it will probably be okay if you use TenFourFox and are behind a router. There are other steps that can be taken to increase security, like disabling unused services, removing unneeded setuid and setgid programs, etc. Anti virus is pointless for both Linux and OS X and will just give you a big performance penalty.
This leads me to some follow up questions then. Where can I find the information needed to secure my PC and also disable features not needed to help it run quicker and smoothly?
The Secrets prefpane might help. Just doubleclick on it when you unzip it to install it to System Preferences. You can use it to modify/disable a lot of stuff in there.
Pay particular attention to graphics/motion. You want to kill anything that's animated. Also disable BeamSync. Disabling icon previews and avoiding the use of Quicklook can speed things up too. In fact, you may be able to disable Quicklook altogether. I've done that on Mavericks (for a different reason) and it's generally just removing the QL launch agent so the service fails to load.
Altemose has an optimization thread for Leopard as well. He should be along to post the link as I don't have it right now.
As far as security, well, realize that Apple does not send security patches any more. You can use the Firewall tab in the security section in System Preferences to lock things down as much as you can (might also want to use secure memory). You can also set the Mac to require a password to log back in when it wakes from sleep.
And of course you also want to disable single user login. You can find that in the Login Options in the Users section in System Preferences.
Lastly, you may want to pick up a copy of Little Snitch. LS tells you EVERYTHING about your connections to the outside world. Every app or process can be regulated using LS. It does this by a series of rules where you specify what these things can or can not do.
Hope that helps.
Oh. And if you are wondering about viruses, trojans, etc, well PowerPC is much less susceptible to all of that. However, should you wish to have an A/V app, you can install Clam A/V or Sophos Anitivirus. Both run in the background and scan according to your settings.
I really appreciate the warm reception and help you and everyone have given me.
I look forward to this link!
Another question came to mind, I installed MacTubes on my daughters iBook. But when we did searches through Mactubes and tried to play the results, they wouldn't play due to Flash and Java. I'm aware that these lil laptops are limited, so I wont be disappointed if I don't visit these sites, but if there are ways around it, I'm interested. Lastly, is Netflix a possibility? One way or the other, my daughter's iBooks meant for homework, not a distraction! LOL!
I look forward to this link!
Another question came to mind, I installed MacTubes on my daughters iBook. But when we did searches through Mactubes and tried to play the results, they wouldn't play due to Flash and Java. I'm aware that these lil laptops are limited, so I wont be disappointed if I don't visit these sites, but if there are ways around it, I'm interested. Lastly, is Netflix a possibility? One way or the other, my daughter's iBooks meant for homework, not a distraction! LOL!
There have been a few modified Flash plugins for PowerPC out there. Here's mine. The plugin goes here: Macintosh HD>Library>Internet Plug-ins. Note that what this really is is the last version of Flash for PowerPC, but it's modified to display as if it's Flash 11 so that websites are fooled.I really appreciate the warm reception and help you and everyone have given me.
I look forward to this link!
Another question came to mind, I installed MacTubes on my daughters iBook. But when we did searches through Mactubes and tried to play the results, they wouldn't play due to Flash and Java. I'm aware that these lil laptops are limited, so I wont be disappointed if I don't visit these sites, but if there are ways around it, I'm interested. Lastly, is Netflix a possibility? One way or the other, my daughter's iBooks meant for homework, not a distraction! LOL!
Note that you cannot use it in TenFourFox as T4Fx has plugins disabled. You may also want to look at MacTubes preferences and set it to display video using QuickTime instead.
As to Netflix, it's my understanding that it is possible, but you need a PC running Plex (complicated set up) to serve Netflix to the PowerPC Mac. Intell would know more about that.
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Here. Did a quick search for it for you.
I would NOT use Safari 5. That is the version where many reported issues of it being extremely slow, and more so on older machines. I have it on my iMac G5 because it was an accidental upgrade to it, and it is very messed up. Safari 4 is fine, but outdated. I would look at TenFourFox or Webkit for sure.
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I really appreciate the warm reception and help you and everyone have given me.
I look forward to this link!
Another question came to mind, I installed MacTubes on my daughters iBook. But when we did searches through Mactubes and tried to play the results, they wouldn't play due to Flash and Java. I'm aware that these lil laptops are limited, so I wont be disappointed if I don't visit these sites, but if there are ways around it, I'm interested. Lastly, is Netflix a possibility? One way or the other, my daughter's iBooks meant for homework, not a distraction! LOL!
I would try YouView then. It's pretty similar and very reliable in case MacTubes isn't working as it should. If you Google it, type 'YouView by Mr. Gecko'. (there are multiple unrelated things with the same name, so that will narrow it down to the alias of the person who created it). Good luck with your iBooks--still a pleasure to use over a Windows PC today.
You can get rid of Sophos and install ClamXAV if you really want a virus scanner. Honestly, there are so few OS X viruses that I could count them on one hand. Where you need to have a scanner is for the evil Office Macros that can screw things up. So get ClamXAV, because you only need to scan every so often for Office Macro crap and real-time scanning on a Mac is a waste of time and processor cycles.
I had to look up Kidspiration and it looks good for a child to use. I'd keep it just because.
Get rid of Firefox and install TenFourFox. TFF is much more current and is optimized correctly for PowerPC. You can also install Leopard WebKit (and then get ClickToFlash and ClickToPlugin) for Youtube use.
Agreed. Sophos is pointless, and trying to use this in a Mac lab caused a bunch of problems. I use TFF for everything, and if for some reason I need YouTube I use Safari with YouTube5. However, YouTube works fine in TFF at 360p (only option I get).
The main reason why I always suggest ClickToFlash and ClickToPlugin is that it makes web browsing much more manageable. No Flash comes up unless you specifically allow it, and we all know how sucky Flash is and how much resources it eats up. So I always make sure to keep away from it as often as possible.
I'm a Mac user since 1996 and I haven't yet been hit by a virus.
In my office filled with Windows computers, we've already had several major attacks and the Macs always escaped unharmed.
I would tend to agree with you. However, you have to consider the unconventional.
There has lately been one or two pieces of malware that have been JAVA-based. The first one was written in Intel code and affected Intel Mac users of Firefox. But the JAVA-based code meant that the payload of the malware got delivered to PowerPC Macs as well. It's only because the payload was Intel only that no PowerPC Macs were affected.
The second piece of malware was based off of Flash. Adobe patched it quickly, but guess what? There's no patch for PowerPC Macs. So, this can affect us.
It's a new game now. It's not like it used to be where you got something from a download or an infected disk. This is one of the reasons that Cameron Kaiser has disabled plugins on TenFourFox and highly recommends that none of us use JAVA or Flash.
Yes, it can affect us, but the likelihood is small enough to not really worry. Again, I still use ClickToFlash and ClickToPlugin on Leopard WebKit so nothing runs without my clicking on it to give permission. I use TFF, which disables Flash 100%. And on my really old systems (the ones that use OS 9 exclusively) Classilla kills Flash by default, since it registers as a mobile browser.
Even on my i5 mini, I hardly, if ever, use Flash (there is a very rare exception like local news sites that use Flash). Flash is almost a non-concern to me anymore.