iMac 2006 17" A1195 Usability in 2019

[Jedah_001]

Hello I stumble upon an old iMac 2006 5.2 A1195 17" with 1.83 GHz Core 2 Duo (T5600) and 2X256MB of DDR2
Now it has Leopard 10.5, Safari is obsolete, cant open properly 99% of the pages, Youtube doesnt work, cant install a single app.... Its a garbagee

The plan is:
To upgrade this junk with 2X1GB RAM = 2GB, Max for this model. I will benefit with ability to install Mac OS X 10.7 Lion
The question is:
Will i be able to surf the internet with 2GB and 10.7 OS? Does Safari works? Does any browser works? Will i be able to watch Youtube? Netflix? Videos? H264 playback? What apps still works?

 

[retta283]

Lion is better than Leopard, but it will not remain this way. You might want to consider installing Linux or Windows on it.
But if you wish to stay with OS X, I have a few comments.

Versions of Firefox and Chrome from 2016/17 are still available online to download. I think Opera still supports Lion. Safari works okay with all updates, but you might find a lot of broken pages or nonfunctional pieces.

H.264 works fine on Lion, even with a GMA 950 chipset. I have found some newer MP4 containers will not open in old versions of OS X, but your results will vary... YouTube works fine on Firefox/Chrome, even in hi-def. Don't use Netflix, but I imagine it would work good too.

I would need to know what kind of apps you want to use in order to know if it would work.

You may also consider using an unofficial patch to upgrade to 10.8 Mountain Lion, but the gains in app support are few.

 

[Jedah_001]

Lion is better than Leopard, but it will not remain this way. You might want to consider installing Linux or Windows on it.
But if you wish to stay with OS X, I have a few comments.

Versions of Firefox and Chrome from 2016/17 are still available online to download. I think Opera still supports Lion. Safari works okay with all updates, but you might find a lot of broken pages or nonfunctional pieces.

H.264 works fine on Lion, even with a GMA 950 chipset. I have found some newer MP4 containers will not open in old versions of OS X, but your results will vary... YouTube works fine on Firefox/Chrome, even in hi-def. Don't use Netflix, but I imagine it would work good too.

I would need to know what kind of apps you want to use in order to know if it would work.

You may also consider using an unofficial patch to upgrade to 10.8 Mountain Lion, but the gains in app support are few.

Thank you so much for the reply.
I have never used Mac OS X before and this whole system is very interesting to me.
My intention is to keep it for a year or so... as an occasional media consuming device in my other room and of course for Internet Browsing.

Things im planing to use would be:

• Archiver app for Zip Rar....
• Media Players VLC KMPLayer Winamp....
• Some Utility apps for HDD cleaning and OS optimization
• Office suite apps... Word Excel Powerpoint...
• Internet Browsers Firefox Chrome Safari.....
• Email Client Airmail?
• Skype

and a little bit stretching

• Photo and Video editing apps, Pixelmator, Lightroom, iMovie...
  

I know, i know im asking too much from a 2006 device

 

[retta283]

Thank you so much for the reply.
I have never used Mac OS X before and this whole system is very interesting to me.
My intention is to keep it for a year or so... as an occasional media consuming device in my other room and of course for Internet Browsing.

Things im planing to use would be:

• Archiver app for Zip Rar....
• Media Players VLC KMPLayer Winamp....
• Some Utility apps for HDD cleaning and OS optimization
• Office suite apps... Word Excel Powerpoint...
• Internet Browsers Firefox Chrome Safari.....
• Email Client Airmail?
• Skype

and a little bit stretching

• Photo and Video editing apps, Pixelmator, Lightroom, iMovie...

I know, i know im asking too much from a 2006 device

You should be okay with Lion then, if it's not a long-term machine.

I'd recommend The Unarchiver for Rar files, OS X can open zip on its own.
VLC and Winamp should have versions on their site for Lion, KMPlayer is not a Mac program.

You don't really need to use utility apps on Mac, and the built-in Disk Utility is good for HDD management.
Office 2011 and 2008 are available for Lion, and should work fine for most things. Looks like Airmail is not for Lion, but if you just have a Gmail or Yahoo account you can use the built-in Mail app instead.

Skype's app doesn't work on Lion AFAIK, but you can use the Web version. I can imagine you can find editing software for Lion online, but it is probably gonna be from a third party source so I can't say what your results will be. iLife 11 will run on Lion and comes with iMovie/iPhoto.

These 2006 iMacs are still fairly capable for light usage. I have the same model you do, and even though I don't use it much now I used to use it as a jukebox and light web browser.

 

[Jedah_001]

OK i found SODIM 2X1GB DDR2. Now i have 2GBs of RAM.
The problem is I'm struggling to make bootable USB flash drive out of Mac OS X Lion 10.7.5

So i'm following the procedure with Disk Utility.
Erasing USB Flash Drive with Format: MAc OS Extended (Journaled)
Then Restoring InstallESD.dmg file to the drive with the Restore option.
USB Flash Drive structure is GPT. In Info says Bootable : YES
BUT when i Restart Mac by holding Option key.. Only Macintosh HD shows up. USB Flash drive not recognized.

Any other solutions?
I found some program called TransMac on Windows OS so im gonna try with that. Maybe burn a DVD disc?

 

[retta283]

In my case, the flash drive is Journaled, but the actual partition is just Mac OS Extended.


Your DMG could be damaged, and I doubt it's an original from Apple. You may need to buy it from them and restore that to the flash drive. I doubt burning a DVD would make a difference, but if you have a lot of spares, might be worth a try. If it's a USB 3 drive it won't be able to boot from it.

 

[Jedah_001]

Ok I've managed to install Lion 10.7.5 using external DVD drive. Had some problems with the integrated DVD-drive due to bad/weak laser.
Thanks for the support @retta283... Here's some pics of the system.

 

[retta283]

Glad to see you got it up and running, hope it works well for you.

I might have to pull mine out now and get it running again.

 

[nambuccaheadsau]

Lion was a shocking operating system.

Far better for myour machine would be Snow Leopard OS X.6 and updated to OS X.6.8. Apple Online still sells Snow Leopard. Only US $19.99 and includes free shipping.


https://www.apple.com/shop/product/MC573Z/A/mac-os-x-106-snow-leopard