Is the Ibook G4 ok for internet?

[jrsx]

I'd recommend Leopard over Tiger too. I've been using it fine on my iMac G4 (1.25GHz, 768MB memory).

The one thing about Linux on iBooks and PowerBooks is that getting the battery status to work is a hassle. Other than that it's fine.

Tiger does have support for Classic, which was discontinued in Leopard. That's probably the only reason I would ever downgrade, though. Overall, Leopard is much better than Tiger.

 

[AmestrisXServe]

I'd recommend Leopard over Tiger too. I've been using it fine on my iMac G4 (1.25GHz, 768MB memory).

The one thing about Linux on iBooks and PowerBooks is that getting the battery status to work is a hassle. Other than that it's fine.

My only disagreement with you here, is yet again Tiger.

The OP of course will do what he wishes, but you and I have a big difference in opinion about Tiger it seems.

Although I might suggest iStat Menus over Menu Meters. But that's a personal preference kind of thing.

iStat, IMHO, does about the same thing as MenuMeters, but is a little more system-heavy, and a bit messier in displays. It gives those little menu panels, instead of just dropdowns, and I don't recall if you can configure it as much as MM, but either would work, and are very useful in conjunction with Process Wizard.

As to Tiger vs. Leopard, I think to comes down to use dependency. Your main problem seemed to be SMB, with W2K3. I find both suitable OSes I even run Panther on G3 and G4 systems, when I want a very lightweight OS. One of my complaints about Leopard is that it killed some very valuable extensions and prefpanes that I run in 10.4. Again, that is use-specific.

I can tell you that there are quite a few tricks that I can pull off in Tiger that are simply impossible in leopard, however, if you want to use MacPorts, or Brew, then Leopard is better.

One oddity that I noticed in Leopard is that, while Terminal now supports multiple preferences for views, it often doesn't save changes on exit. I never had this problem on 10.4.x, and I'm rather obsessive on the appearance and colours in terminal, using an old, green or amber, monochrome theme, that I find relaxing to my tired eyes, over black on white, or white on black.

I also see less RAM usage in Tiger, but I expect that if you reconfigure Leopard, it can behave. I am a bit shocked that you had it running on a 400MHz TiBook, which is a tad impressive.

You may want to contribute some pointers for how to configure Leopard in a slim mode, or if you wish, send me whatever you have on the subject, and I can turn it into a column for easy reading.

One of my personal favourite prefpanes for Leopard/Tiger is Shapeshifter, which I believe breaks in Leopard, although I can't say with certainty. Perhaps it was just that my custom theme didn't work in Leopard, or some other reason that had me stop using it on 10.5. I do prefer the dark theme that I use, over the glittery, basic Aqua theme, as it is far more subdued.

I'd recommend Leopard over Tiger too. I've been using it fine on my iMac G4 (1.25GHz, 768MB memory).

The one thing about Linux on iBooks and PowerBooks is that getting the battery status to work is a hassle. Other than that it's fine.

Is that still a problem with Ubuntu 10.04 LTE PPC, or YDL 7?

For the record, you can often do a great deal of cross-system compatibility with port, brew, and git, especially if you install gtk2 +aqua+no_x11, to use gtk in native mode.

As long as you don't mind compiling, you can port most Linux programmes from src, to work on PPC OSX, instead of PPC Linux distros. The GCC compiler for OSX, does work.

You can even run Gnome / Nautilus in parallel to OSX Aqua / Finder, by using these tools. This allows you to compile and use some more recent software, although dependency trees, and kernel extensions can give you a hassle.

 

[eyoungren]

iStat, IMHO, does about the same thing as MenuMeters, but is a little more system-heavy, and a bit messier in displays. It gives those little menu panels, instead of just dropdowns, and I don't recall if you can configure it as much as MM, but either would work, and are very useful in conjunction with Process Wizard.

I'll admit that iStat is a bit more system heavy. Part of the problem with version 2.x was that there was (is) a memory leak with the clock. It will keep ratcheting up the ram that SystemUI Server grabs until the system freezes. Bjango fixed that in version 3.x, but of course, that's Intel only. For me though iStat has more versatility by way of details.

As to Tiger vs. Leopard, I think to comes down to use dependency. Your main problem seemed to be SMB, with W2K3. I find both suitable OSes I even run Panther on G3 and G4 systems, when I want a very lightweight OS. One of my complaints about Leopard is that it killed some very valuable extensions and prefpanes that I run in 10.4. Again, that is use-specific.

I think this may be because based on your posts you seem to in IT, or at least very well versed in it. I'm just a Graphic Designer that was given the second job of running the network and happens to be the person everyone comes running to when their PC won't work right. So, I'm coming from a perspective of design apps and useability – and "Erik, why won't this work? Fix my computer please, no I haven't tried restarting. Erik, I can't connect to the network and can you make the Windows 7 shared printer work with the Windows 2000 machine over there? I can't scan, where's my PDF proof, etc, etc!!!!"

I can tell you that there are quite a few tricks that I can pull off in Tiger that are simply impossible in leopard, however, if you want to use MacPorts, or Brew, then Leopard is better.

Totally believe you. My familiarity with MacPorts and Brew is name recognition only. If you want to talk InDesign, Acrobat 9 Pro, Enfocus PitStop Pro, Illy and Photoshop though I can contribute much more. *Note, I'm not being sarcastic, just trying to make a joke.

One oddity that I noticed in Leopard is that, while Terminal now supports multiple preferences for views, it often doesn't save changes on exit. I never had this problem on 10.4.x, and I'm rather obsessive on the appearance and colours in terminal, using an old, green or amber, monochrome theme, that I find relaxing to my tired eyes, over black on white, or white on black.

Totally get that, but my use of Terminal is usually because I NEED it to do something versus actually working in it as part of my workflow. But having come from a DOS world I totally know where you're going with this.

I also see less RAM usage in Tiger, but I expect that if you reconfigure Leopard, it can behave. I am a bit shocked that you had it running on a 400MHz TiBook, which is a tad impressive.

It's a bit slow, but Target Disk Mode and 1GB of ram helped. My coworker used our 450 AGP G4 for several years on Leopard with 1.75GB ram and running the same design apps I do. Adobe CS4 and so on.

You may want to contribute some pointers for how to configure Leopard in a slim mode, or if you wish, send me whatever you have on the subject, and I can turn it into a column for easy reading.

The main thing is shutting off some of the eye candy. ShadowKiller, turning off icon previews, killing spotlight and exposé (unless you use them of course). You can also grab some RAM back by killing virtual memory. The only downside to that is that if the Mac runs out of ram at any given point it will freeze up. But, running without VM reduces system load. I also use a Pref Pane called Secrets that allows you to fine tune preferences. Onyx will let you kill animations, 2D dock instead of 3D, and so on.

But that's also the thing too. Leopard optimizes RAM fairly well. But you can also Purge (Developer tools) if you need - I made an Applescript app that uses a do shell script command for this and then used Fast Scripts to give it a keyboard command and Rocket Dock to hide it from the App switcher and the dock. Works pretty well.

One of my personal favourite prefpanes for Leopard/Tiger is Shapeshifter, which I believe breaks in Leopard, although I can't say with certainty. Perhaps it was just that my custom theme didn't work in Leopard, or some other reason that had me stop using it on 10.5. I do prefer the dark theme that I use, over the glittery, basic Aqua theme, as it is far more subdued.

Ah yes! I'm with you. Big Shapeshifter fan! What happened is that Leopard killed early versions of APE, which unfortunately killed Unsanity and work to update Shapeshifter died.

However, there is Candybar and Magnifique which can completely style the system. I have an all black theme with icons, menu bar, dock and system graphics using those two tools and themes I picked up from deviant art. I'm also a serious fan of Stylish in TenFourFox and have my browser customized the way I want it. Using the FT DeepDark theme for the black. Big fan of black.

 

[tom vilsack]

Ah! Now I feel silly.
I did not understand what he meant, but now I do.

It's okay,half the time I don't understand what I mean either...thxs Skybell. ;-)

 

[RedCroissant]

I need a temporary laptop, and would prefer a mac. My current Windows laptop is unable to charge now because the power jack is bent, so it is basically SOL.

So I found an Ibook G4 from a trusted seller on ebay and might order it, but need input.

Can anyone point me in the right direction as to if its good? Thanks guys. You have already been very helpful in my previous threads.

It is very good and from what I've seen of the price quote, that's a great deal.

For a while after I sold my iMac, my trusty 1.33GHZ 1.5GB RAM 12" iBook G4 was my primary machine for iTunes streaming, Handbrake(yes it works), intermediate surfing, and more importantly: it got me through my last couple of semesters at ASU just fine. It's because of that that the iBook and PPC Macs in general became an interest of mine and I just kept getting more of them. 3 iBooks, 2 iMacs, a PowerMac G4 QS, PowerMac G5 Quad, and a Pismo and I still have the PPC fever.

The only thing that I would confirm (and have a record of) is that ALL of the ports work and what type of optical drive it has. If the FW port isn't working, then I would not buy it.

Other than that, it looks like a great deal.