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iBook G3 466Mhz - Recommended OS?

peteullo

peteullo

macrumors regular
Original poster
Dec 13, 2009
245
57
Scranton, PA
I just installed Tiger on a iBook G3 SE w/ 466 Mhz and 576 Mb of Ram also has a 10 Gb Hard drive.

I noticed the computer to be very sluggish after the install (no surprise) but I was wondering which operating system would be the best to run on? I was thinking Panther but I just thought I'd get some opinions from other iBook users.
 
I run Tiger on that very same iBook with max RAM. After disabling Spotlight, Dashboard and shadows under windows it runs quite fast (as for G3 ofc). But I put SSD in it...
 
666sheep said:
I run Tiger on that very same iBook with max RAM. After disabling Spotlight, Dashboard and shadows under windows it runs quite fast (as for G3 ofc). But I put SSD in it...
Click to expand...

I'll give that a try.. I'm not sure I want to put an SSD in it though lol.
 
ibook G3

I had exactly that same model ibook and Tiger was indeed slow, but you are probably experiencing the post install spotlight index phenom. Also adding shadowkiller and even installing UNO will help, UNO gives the whole OS a unified non brushed metal appearance. Brushed metal is harder to render than a simple gradient like UNO. Install the G3 optimized Tenfourfox and Camino, use VLC or mplayer to playback downloaded video or keep your flash player set to 240p and things will be....tolerable. Some swear the last PPC seamonkey is the best for flash playback.

I know most people who come here are only looking for Mac OS X goodness but you should also consider mintppc 9. Its a lightweight debian install that runs well (with enough RAM of course) on that model of ibook, and then you'd be even more up to date as far as VLC, mplayer, iceweasel etc. Its worth looking at if Tiger just is too poky for you. Avoid mintPPC 11 at this point as things like VLC and mplayer don't work, they have altivec only code and crash on G3's as soon as they load.
 
I'd run tiger too, in my opinion it's the oldest Mac OS that is a viable choice (support wise). I run Tiger on my 500mhz iBook G3 with 384mb RAM and it runs fine and I actually ran Tiger on a 300mhz PowerMac G3 B&W with 256mb RAM and that ran okay'ish so it'll fly by :)
 
i would dual boot mac 9.2.2 and panther osx and then use older version of camino for panther

however if you keep tiger try these tips...

-in dock use scale effects and no mag or animate...also turn wallpaper off and use colored
-turn off dashboard and turn off spotlight,if has bluetooth turn that also off

To turn Dashboard off: use terminal
defaults write com.apple.dashboard mcx-disabled -boolean YES

You have to restart the Dock after making either change for it to take effect:
killall Dock

To turn Spotlight off: use terminal

cd /etc
sudo nano hostconfig
SPOTLIGHT=-NO-
ctrl-x
y
enter

Then to get rid of the existing index, run these two commands
sudo mdutil -i off /
sudo mdutil -E /

reboot computer

remove spotlight icon

1. As an administrator, navigate to /System/Library/CoreServices, and delete Search.bundle. If you think might want to re-enable it later, just move it somewhere else or rename it.
2. Open up the Activity Monitor and force quit SystemUIServer. When it reopens, your menu bar will be Spotlight free.
 
I wouldn't go with panther if I were you. My old g3 ran panther fast, but it wasnt very compatible. I'd get a cheap copy of tiger from ebay.
 
I recommend Panther if you want the system to run well. I recommend Tiger if you want to be more up to date, and have more applications work on your system. Your call.
 
Last edited:
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