How difficult will 10.5.8 be today?

[RockPortTech]

Greetings All, I just picked up a 2005 Mac Mini from Ebay for $35, it has 1gb ram and an 80gb hdd, i know its not much but i really have to watch my pennies, I gave my daughter my macbook pro a couple years back and have been missing macs ever since.

My new mac is a PowerPC i do believe and has the 1.42 processor in it, no wifi, no bt, so all my peripherals are wired in like the keyboard and mouse, my question is how hard is it going to be to find some decent software for OS X 10.5.8 Leopard which is the one I have installed and as I recall is the absolute latest I CAN install on this machine?

I know I should probably try to find a newer mac, but it's not possible at this time due to budget constraints, what is the latest version if iLife that I can run on Leopard? What is the maximum amount of ram installable on this mac mini (only has one mem slot) I was fortunate enough to have a stick of 1 gb ram compatible since i bought it with 256 installed.

Any advice would be VERY welcomed as to browsers (i can watch YouTube if i turn the resolution on the videos to the lowest), software etc. that is compatible with Leopard 10.5.8, I have tried to Google stuff, but there are VERY limited resources available it seems for older mac software.

Thank you in advance!!

 

[Fishrrman]

For browsing, I believe there is a specially-compiled version of Firefox for PowerPC Macs. I think the name is "Ten-Four Fox" (or similar to that).
This should give you relatively up-to-date browsing capabilities on an older Mac.

For "office-suite" software, you might be able to find an older version of OpenOffice that works (not sure).
Of course, AppleWorks should still run.

Wondering if a third-party USB/Wifi "dongle" would work for the wifi? (but if you have a wired connection available, might as well use that and forget about wireless on this computer).

There are also USB/bluetooth adapters, but wondering if there would be OS/software problems.

 

[Altemose]

Greetings All, I just picked up a 2005 Mac Mini from Ebay for $35, it has 1gb ram and an 80gb hdd, i know its not much but i really have to watch my pennies, I gave my daughter my macbook pro a couple years back and have been missing macs ever since.

My new mac is a PowerPC i do believe and has the 1.42 processor in it, no wifi, no bt, so all my peripherals are wired in like the keyboard and mouse, my question is how hard is it going to be to find some decent software for OS X 10.5.8 Leopard which is the one I have installed and as I recall is the absolute latest I CAN install on this machine?

I know I should probably try to find a newer mac, but it's not possible at this time due to budget constraints, what is the latest version if iLife that I can run on Leopard? What is the maximum amount of ram installable on this mac mini (only has one mem slot) I was fortunate enough to have a stick of 1 gb ram compatible since i bought it with 256 installed.

Any advice would be VERY welcomed as to browsers (i can watch YouTube if i turn the resolution on the videos to the lowest), software etc. that is compatible with Leopard 10.5.8, I have tried to Google stuff, but there are VERY limited resources available it seems for older mac software.

Thank you in advance!!

Create a post in the PowerPC Macs forum on here and the team of experts will take care of you. To find software, go to Gavin Stubbs PowerPC Archive! There you will find pages of applications for PPC Macs. Browsing is going to be limited to TenFourFox or Leopard WebKit. I recommend TenFourFox along with eyoungren's guide on tweaks for the best performance. YouTube is going to be best served with MacTubes (used in QuickTime mode) or YouView.

 

[ratsg]

IMHO, the 10.4 & 10.5 time period was a pinnacle for Mac OS X.

If you go with 10.4, you have the Classic environment.

If you go with 10.5, you loose Classic, but gain Apple supported ZFS, at least RO.

There is a lot more that went away, but your direction should be focused based on what your needs and requirements are.

 

[RockPortTech]

For browsing, I believe there is a specially-compiled version of Firefox for PowerPC Macs. I think the name is "Ten-Four Fox" (or similar to that).
This should give you relatively up-to-date browsing capabilities on an older Mac.

For "office-suite" software, you might be able to find an older version of OpenOffice that works (not sure).
Of course, AppleWorks should still run.

Wondering if a third-party USB/Wifi "dongle" would work for the wifi? (but if you have a wired connection available, might as well use that and forget about wireless on this computer).

There are also USB/bluetooth adapters, but wondering if there would be OS/software problems.

Thanks Fishrrman, i am indeed running TenFourFox and can even surf YouTube with lowered video resolution, one of my neighbors kids just happened to be home from college and rushed to her room while i was conversing with her dad and overheard us, came back out with iLife '09 and iWork!!! They work flawlessly, except for iMovie I think is the only one that does not run ok. I am all set now as far as hardware/software! God Bless people that hoard software lol.

And Altermose, I did create a thread there in the PowerPC forum and received some replies, the site you stated is great, i managed to get a few old software archives that rounded out some stuff for .pdf viewing and unzipping as well as a neato burning app, Disco i think it is, I had to buy that one but its worth every cent.

Cheers for all the help Everyone!!