Leopard and an iBook with 1.25GB of RAM - useful?

[br0adband]

Hi there,

Been a long time since I've been around these parts, but recently I acquired an older iBook G4 (white) and was thinking about adding a full 1GB stick of RAM to it and giving Leopard a shot for my Wife. She loves OSX, but I'm a diehard Windows user, always have been. It's worth the cost for the new features to her (and to myself as well if she's happy), but I'm concerned about the performance on the older processor - 1 GHz PPC - and how it might affect things.

I believe because of the ATI Radeon 9200 a ton of the GUI effects simply won't be of any use, so I guess what I'm asking is:

Are the additional features and benefits of Leopard worth acquiring (I can get Leopard for about $80 from a local distributor, brand new) or should she just let me restore the machine to Tiger and then update it as far as it can go, which at this point is what, 10.4.11 I think. Saw something about that earlier.

That's the basic question: is Leopard worth the expense, or is Tiger still "the cat's meow" on this older machine?

Many thanks for any tips or advice or suggestions that are offered.

Have fun, always...

 

[VoidBoi]

Leopard runs fine on my iBook (1GHz G4, 512MB) although I only use it for irssi, Adium, LaTeX and a bit of browsing.

Adding the 1GB would be well worth it IMO.

 

[br0adband]

Yah, the Wife typically does some writing, watching DVDs, and chatting online so I wouldn't guess it should be that big of a deal.

Any chance you have a screenshot someplace of your iBook with Leopard on it running? She was interested in what it might look like considering most of the GUI effects aren't going to work - or at least I don't think they do. The ATI Radeon 9200 in the iBook she's going to get is pretty weak by today's standards.

If you can do a screenshot, I'd be eternally grateful. Maybe Imageshack hosting, or you can PM me a link if you'd prefer it not be public.

Thanks for the info, also.

 

[thewhitehart]

The only GUI effects that don't work, as far as I know, are the photobooth backdrop effects, and perhaps the "widget splash" when adding a new widget to the dashboard. Every other GUI effect should work. Using an ibook, the backdrop effects are a moot point anyway without an iSight.

 

[br0adband]

Ok, that sortakinda makes sense. I know about the widget "splash" - the waves - but not quite able to visualize what you mean by a backdrop. I'm guessing the ability to show live video (!?!) with the reflections on the lower part of the screen? I guess we'll figure it out when we get things up and running.

Anyone know of a cheap retailer (pricewise, I mean) for 1GB DDR2100 sticks so I can max this puppy out?

 

[notsofatjames]

....- but not quite able to visualize what you mean by a backdrop. I'm guessing the ability to show live video (!?!) with the reflections on the lower part of the screen ...

In leopard theres a new feature in iChat, where you can have a video as a background, and then overlay live video from iSight on top, so you can look like your on a rollercoaster whilst chatting on iChat etc..

 

[VoidBoi]

Any chance you have a screenshot someplace of your iBook with Leopard on it running? She was interested in what it might look like considering most of the GUI effects aren't going to work - or at least I don't think they do. The ATI Radeon 9200 in the iBook she's going to get is pretty weak by today's standards.

If you can do a screenshot, I'd be eternally grateful. Maybe Imageshack hosting, or you can PM me a link if you'd prefer it not be public.

The menu bar isn't transparent on a Radeon 9200. (I prefer it this way.) That's probably the only difference she'll notice. This is how my iBook looks:



NOTE: I've changed the dock to the "alternate" style. Normally it looks like the "shelf" style you've probably seen all over the internet.

It's probably a very similar iBook to mine. It's a very nice laptop.

 

[br0adband]

Wow, that looks fantastic, and thanks for taking the time to take the shot. Showing it to my Wife now, she likes it and of course will tweak out the visual stuff herself with some theme I'm guessing.

And thanks to notsofatjames for that info as well.

Now, when it gets here on Friday I'll be checking it out thoroughly with the original Panther install on it and then we'll go from there once I get a RAM upgrade.

Have fun, always...