I just read this article:
https://lowendmac.com/2018/a-week-in-the-modern-world-with-a-powerpc-mac/
The author used a PowerBook G4 at 1.67 Ghz with 2 GB of RAM and a 256 GB SSD, and he said 10.4-Fox was still
SLOW. He was single-tasking too.
And his YouTube was slow too.
How come he had the above problems? Can someone do a deep dive and suggest some solutions?
1. Is it the CPU's fault? (Would getting a G5 help?)
2. Is it the 2 GB RAM's fault? (Would getting more RAM help? How much is enough for 10.4-Fox? 4 GB, 8 GB, 16 GB? What does your experience say?)
3. Is it 10.4-Fox's fault? Is the software badly written and badly optimized?
4. How come his YouTube was slow? I assume he was using TenFiveTube? (Is normal Youtube.com even viewable on a PPC?)
What do you experts think? And are the article's author outcomes good for most users? Are these problems what everyday PPC users have to put up with?
1) What
@Dronecatcher said.
2) At most, sort of, but only in matters when one is dealing with a web app, in-browser (something like Discord, which unfortunately does not run on older browsers due to the minimum standard for Javascript/XHR of many ‘modern” web sites), in which the in-browser demands are placed on the web browser’s computer (rather than on the remote server’s end). In plain terms, such web sites (YouTube is one) are effectively initializing and loading
their remote application on
your local computer each time you use their site. These sites expect users to be running current-ish hardware, which will initialize and launch more quickly than a 2005-era Mac. So on this, it’s less a matter of RAM and more a matter of processing power.
3) Somewhat. First, best to update to the latest InterwebPPC (on the Garden and Archive-dot-org).
In addition, you will want to make browser optimizations (several of which can be picked up
here (and glaincing over the instructions on the first post in that link’s thread).
4) YT is slow because YT, as with many modern, in-browser “apps”, relies on latest-release JS/XHR, and such sites do a terrible job at “degrading gracefully” for older browsers and older hardware.
Until a few years ago (and by “few”, I mean closer to ten years ago, not three years ago), web site developers followed a tacit understanding, derived from the early days of web development, that a web site should still be able to render fairly similarly irrespective of system/OS/browser the end user was accessing the site.
This began to change with more proprietary standards which were brought in by major “apps” which strive to distinguish themselves as having a “killer” feature which no other competitor has. To lesser extent, newer browser standards entered the picture and web developers to come of age during the implementing of those new standards lacked that “graceful degredation” forethought/hindsight to include in their web development.
Consequently, legacy browsers, whether on current or old hardware, will not render some features properly on those web sites which ignore “graceful degradation” as a development objective. A good example of this in action is opening the instructions for an iFixit guide: no PowerPC Mozilla browser, not even InterwebPPC, will be able to render the XHR-based page code which loads the page
as one scrolls, leaving many of the images as grey placeholders.
5) That LowEndMac blog entry is five years old. One can still use their late PowerPC Mac with, say, Leopard, and a browser with the latest security updates, such as InterwebPPC, but while the security side is being maintained, the
feature side is not and can’t really be — not on the old bones of, say, OSX Leopard.
