Installed Leopard on PowerBook G4

[Lartymarf]

Itty bitty 12" PowerBook G4.
1.5 GHz, 1.25 GB RAM.

And.... drums... it DOES ROCK!

Backed up to ext firewire hdd using SuperDuper.
Did an Erase and Install of Leopard.
Then used Migration Assistant to move everything back over.

Took 2 hours to do the install and migration, then another hour
to mess around with it until Leopard knew where everything is
located at.

Now, it just FLIES. It is just as fast as Tiger, maybe even a tad
more snappy.

No issues, no problems, no warning signs, no blue screens, no
red or yellow exclamation marks... flawless.

 

[AlBDamned]

Itty bitty 12" PowerBook G4.
1.5 GHz, 1.25 GB RAM.

And.... drums... it DOES ROCK!

Backed up to ext firewire hdd using SuperDuper.
Did an Erase and Install of Leopard.
Then used Migration Assistant to move everything back over.

Took 2 hours to do the install and migration, then another hour
to mess around with it until Leopard knew where everything is
located at.

Now, it just FLIES. It is just as fast as Tiger, maybe even a tad
more snappy.

No issues, no problems, no warning signs, no blue screens, no
red or yellow exclamation marks... flawless.

I wonder if there's any operational benefit to doing it like that as opposed to doing an archive and install. I'd be really worried about reactivation of various apps but the idea of a fresh install is appealing.

 

[p0intblank]

I too thought the same thing, but it eventually caught up with me. It may be an issue with Leopard... not sure. Some things do seem faster still, but some other things are, for some reason, quite laggy. Photo Booth, for example, took a big performance hit for me. I'm hoping this will be fixed in a software update some time.

Other than that, though, I'm quite surprised by the performance my PowerBook is still pumping out. You can't say that about Vista and a three year old Windows notebook.

 

[Lartymarf]

I wonder if there's any operational benefit to doing it like that as opposed to doing an archive and install. I'd be really worried about reactivation of various apps but the idea of a fresh install is appealing.

What's interesting is I didn't have to reactivate anything.

The way Migration Assistant worked was it moved all the apps,
settings, libraries, and documents back over to a user profile in
Leopard... and it preserved everything. I didn't have to type
in any product serial numbers etc to activate software that I had
bought and installed on my comp.

It literally picked right up where I left off, but started from a fresh
erase and install.

A point to add, my SuperDuper backup was a complete duplicate
of what I had on my harddrive.

Oh and the dock animation etc are SILKY SMOOTH.

One of my biggest concern was whether the new OS was
going to bog down my system or not... well.. answer is nope!

 

[AlBDamned]

What's interesting is I didn't have to reactivate anything.

The way Migration Assistant worked was it moved all the apps,
settings, libraries, and documents back over to a user profile in
Leopard... and it preserved everything. I didn't have to type
in any product serial numbers etc to activate software that I had
bought and installed on my comp.

It literally picked right up where I left off, but started from a fresh
erase and install.

A point to add, my SuperDuper backup was a complete duplicate
of what I had on my harddrive.

Oh and the dock animation etc are SILKY SMOOTH.

One of my biggest concern was whether the new OS was
going to bog down my system or not... well.. answer is nope!

Sounds good

Often if you're reinstalling apps to the same computer, because it's the same serial numbers and activation codes matched with the same computer ID, it's usually fine (I'm specifically thinking about Quark here).

But still, I'd be a little nervous!

Glad to hear it's all working smoothly, though. When I first installed Leopard I thought everything was a bit quicker than with Tiger, but I'm starting to notice a few lags so may consider the fresh install route.

 

[the Helix]

Leopard on PB G4 15" 1.67

It took just over and hour to Archive & Install Leopard on it.

Everything works just fine. I was surprised that even with all the new features (spaces, cover view, 3D dock, etc...), the PB G4 runs as fast, if not slightly faster, as it did when it was on Tiger.

Except for the initial anomalies (i.e., a few apps crashing in the process of updating), now everything works great. The only problem is that I had not known that there was no longer OS 9 (Classic) support on Leopard.

Oh, and did I mention: Safari seems snappier! ;-)

 

[Lartymarf]

It took just over and hour to Archive & Install Leopard on it.

Everything works just fine. I was surprised that even with all the new features (spaces, cover view, 3D dock, etc...), the PB G4 runs as fast, if not slightly faster, as it did when it was on Tiger.

Except for the initial anomalies (i.e., a few apps crashing in the process of updating), now everything works great. The only problem is that I had not known that there was no longer OS 9 (Classic) support on Leopard.

Oh, and did I mention: Safari seems snappier! ;-)

For comparison, none of my applications crashed while being moved and
after the move.

And yes! It could be psychological, but Safari does seem a little snappier.

 

[kresh]

Itty bitty 12" PowerBook G4.
1.5 GHz, 1.25 GB RAM.

And.... drums... it DOES ROCK!

Backed up to ext firewire hdd using SuperDuper.
Did an Erase and Install of Leopard.
Then used Migration Assistant to move everything back over.

Took 2 hours to do the install and migration, then another hour
to mess around with it until Leopard knew where everything is
located at.

Now, it just FLIES. It is just as fast as Tiger, maybe even a tad
more snappy.

No issues, no problems, no warning signs, no blue screens, no
red or yellow exclamation marks... flawless.

I have a G4 Mac Mini OC'd to 1.5GHz and 1GB Ram (thread: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/380200/)

I love Leopard it's really fast, except for Finder in "List" view. It crawls in list view. Can you tell a difference between Tiger and Leopard in Finder?

 

[Lartymarf]

I have a G4 Mac Mini OC'd to 1.5GHz and 1GB Ram (thread: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/380200/)

I love Leopard it's really fast, except for Finder in "List" view. It crawls in list view. Can you tell a difference between Tiger and Leopard in Finder?

Hmm.. I just went into List View and went in and out of folders to see
how responsive it was.. and I have to admit it is pretty darn responsive.
I am not experiencing any lag.

When did you do your install? And what method did you use?
Also, how many times have you rebooted your computer since
the install?

 

[kresh]

Hmm.. I just went into List View and went in and out of folders to see
how responsive it was.. and I have to admit it is pretty darn responsive.
I am not experiencing any lag.

When did you do your install? And what method did you use?
Also, how many times have you rebooted your computer since
the install?

On Tiger I am using an external Fireware as boot and was not using the internal drive for anything. I did an erase and install on the internal and used migration assistant to copy my main user account over to Leopard.

I installed Leopard about 3 days ago. I've stopped SpotLight from indexing all my external drives, and it finished indexing the night after I installed.

I'm debating on whether I should boot up Tiger on the Firewire drive and delete all my .ds store files on my internal drive.

I can't think of anything else to try.

Thanks for checking your list view for me. I appreciate it, I'll call Apple tomorrow.

 

[John Jacob]

Anybody tried on the rev A Powerbook 12" (the 867MHz model)? That's what I have, and I'll be upgrading straight from Panther, so I'd like to know how it's going to be.

 

[iSaint]

It took just over and hour to Archive & Install Leopard on it.

Everything works just fine. I was surprised that even with all the new features (spaces, cover view, 3D dock, etc...), the PB G4 runs as fast, if not slightly faster, as it did when it was on Tiger.

Except for the initial anomalies (i.e., a few apps crashing in the process of updating), now everything works great. The only problem is that I had not known that there was no longer OS 9 (Classic) support on Leopard.

Oh, and did I mention: Safari seems snappier! ;-)

I could write the same thing. Same computer.

Dashboard has crashed upon waking a few times, but not recently.

 

[AlBDamned]

Anybody tried on the rev A Powerbook 12" (the 867MHz model)? That's what I have, and I'll be upgrading straight from Panther, so I'd like to know how it's going to be.

That's a brave move to be honest. If Panther's fine I'd be wary because that PB is the absolute bare nuts minimum spec.

 

[John Jacob]

That's a brave move to be honest. If Panther's fine I'd be wary because that PB is the absolute bare nuts minimum spec.

There's way too much software that won't work with Panther; Tiger seems to be the bare minimum these days. And now that Leopard's out, I really don't want to upgrade to Tiger.

 

[AlBDamned]

There's way too much software that won't work with Panther; Tiger seems to be the bare minimum these days. And now that Leopard's out, I really don't want to upgrade to Tiger.

You could probably find some cheap Tiger discs that would make it more worthwhile?

 

[John Jacob]

You could probably find some cheap Tiger discs that would make it more worthwhile?

Yeah, I probably could, but hey, now that Leopard's out, why not give it a try? I do meet the "minimum" specs to run Leopard. I'm planning to buy the 5 license pack, so I can share it with my dad (I converted him to Macs too ). And if it's too slow, I'll go back to Panther.

 

[the Helix]

2¢

Yeah, I probably could, but hey, now that Leopard's out, why not give it a try? I do meet the "minimum" specs to run Leopard. I'm planning to buy the 5 license pack, so I can share it with my dad (I converted him to Macs too ). And if it's too slow, I'll go back to Panther.

Personally, I don't think Leopard will be slower on your PB. The only difference will be that some of the other features will not be available to you - for example the higher end de-interlace function on the DVD player, the animated backgrounds on iChat, etc... I suppose all that will happen is that these features will be shut off for you.

However, those that do operate on the specs of your PB ought to run just as fast as in any other PB.

my 2¢