Leopard requirements eliminate G3 machines

[daneoni]

Just found this and it seems the G3 has been squashed. I guess 10.6 will logically scrap the G4 as well

You must have a Macintosh computer with:
an Intel processor or a PowerPC G4 or G5 processor
a DVD drive
built-in FireWire
at least 256 MB of RAM for a Power-PC based Mac and 512 MB for an Intel-based Mac (additional RAM is recommended for development purposes)
a built-in display or a display connected to an Apple-supplied video card supported by your computer
at least 6 GB of disk space available, or 8 GB if you install the developer tools

Link to article here.

 

[kainjow]

10.4 is too slow for those older machines anyways. Spotlight and Dashboard suck resources. 10.3.9 is the best for G3s and G4s IMO.

 

[mkrishnan]

I *le shrug* at the possibility of Leopard not supporting the G3... but ... I think maybe it would be good to not read too much into the developer preview requirements? I mean the developer preview is a jury rig. By virtue of its nature. Its requirements do not necessarily represent real system requirements for Leopard. And how many people out there pay for ADC membership and develop on G3s? Might as well skip a year's membership and buy a relatively recent computer!

 

[Blue Velvet]

10.3.9 is the best for G3s and G4s IMO.

This dual 1.42 runs Tiger far better than 10.3 ever did.

 

[kainjow]

This dual 1.42 runs Tiger far better than 10.3 ever did.

Sure, dual proc G4s are the exception , but for the majority of single proc G3/G4s, I think 10.3.9 runs the most efficient.

 

[840quadra]

10.4 is too slow for those older machines anyways. Spotlight and Dashboard suck resources. 10.3.9 is the best for G3s and G4s IMO.

I don't agree with that.

Tiger is noticeably faster on my G3 350, G4 500, G4 1.2, and my G5 Dual 2.0.

Others (including Blue Velvet) have noted this when the switchover to Tiger occurred.

I *le shrug* at the possibility of Leopard not supporting the G3... but ... I think maybe it would be good to not read too much into the developer preview requirements? I mean the developer preview is a jury rig. By virtue of its nature. Its requirements do not necessarily represent real system requirements for Leopard. And how many people out there pay for ADC membership and develop on G3s? Might as well skip a year's membership and buy a relatively recent computer!

Agreed!

 

[bousozoku]

Sure, dual proc G4s are the exception , but for the majority of single proc G3/G4s, I think 10.3.9 runs the most efficient.

Sorry to disagree but 10.4.x is much better on my 1.33 GHz PowerBook G4 than 10.3.9 ever was. Virtual Memory problems have been corrected since 10.3.6 introduced them. 10.3.9 never corrected them.

 

[WildCowboy]

I'll throw my hat into the ring as well. Tiger beats the pants off of Panther on my 500 Mhz iBook. No, I don't get all of CoreImage eye candy, but it's a lot snappier than Panther, and that's what matters.

 

[BornAgainMac]

Perhaps Tiger is slow if you are indexing a drive with many PDFs in the background. After all the disk indexes are built, I agree that Tiger is faster on my G3 than Panther.

 

[sunfast]

10.4 is too slow for those older machines anyways. Spotlight and Dashboard suck resources. 10.3.9 is the best for G3s and G4s IMO.

That's interesting you think that because several single G4 machines (iBooks, PowerBooks, Mini) came with 10.4 pre-installed. Surely it must have been designed to run well on them.

 

[revenuee]

well we couldn't expect G3's to be able to run new OS's forever.

that's what?

G3, G4, G5, Intel

never mind the dual proc machines and dual core machines, and dual dual core machines

sure the G3 ibooks were available into 2003 and that's only 3 years old

but with so many processor generation moves -- i'm surprised they were supported this long

 

[MonkeyClaw]

Sure, dual proc G4s are the exception , but for the majority of single proc G3/G4s, I think 10.3.9 runs the most efficient.

I dunno, Tiger is noticeably faster and more efficient on my PowerBook G4. And why shouldn't it, Apple continued to sell PowerBooks up until the release of the 17" MBP in what March? I'd say that by 10.7, the G4 will be phased out but Leopard and whatever comes next should run just dandy.

 

[Warbrain]

For those who are saying that some G4s shouldn't run anything above 10.3.9...you have no idea how powerful a G4 really is. Altivec anyone? Yea, it can still kick some ass, even if it's 1 Ghz.

I think Apple will support the G3 in the public release of Leopard. They probably didn't want anyone trying it out on a G3 because it wasn't entirely stable yet. I'm sure it'll show up.

 

[Eidorian]

10.4 is too slow for those older machines anyways. Spotlight and Dashboard suck resources. 10.3.9 is the best for G3s and G4s IMO.

10.4.3 runs like lightning on my old Power Mac G3. Then again I do have PCI Extreme on it.

 

[Sun Baked]

# an Intel processor or a PowerPC G4 or G5 processor
# a DVD drive

Looks like a lot of the education machines are going to bite the dust also, but the G3 and DVD were expected even though people were trying to deny that their recent G3 were still going to run it.

Also expect them to possibly knock out the first PCI G4 and make AGP video or newer a requirement.

 

[dextertangocci]

The G4 will be supported in all the new versions of OSX until at least 2009, because of the people who bought PB's and iBooks this year, and bought Apple care with them

 

[Bibulous]

The G4 will be supported in all the new versions of OSX until at least 2009, because of the people who bought PB's and iBooks this year, and bought Apple care with them

The operating system 10.4 should continue to be upgraded for at least that long, but don't expect your system to be supported by any unreleased software.

I think it's fine that Apple drops support for older hardware as long as they continue to update the software that shipped with those systems, security patches and the like.

Edit: My powerbook shipped with 10.1 in Jan of 2002. The last OS update for it was posted in Jan 2004.

 

[Sweetfeld28]

I thought Apple was for sure going to do this with Leopard. My old Beige, even though having a Radeon 7000 graphics card, has been having issues trying to even run the visual effects in iTunes.

The G3's can run Tiger fine, it just most of the eye-candy, that bogs them down, in my opinion. Or the lack of AltiVec.

But, the G4's will be around for sure for another couple of years. They did switch the servers over until just last year, and the Mini's just switched to Intel this year.

Besides that my Dual G4 1.42 runs just fine with Tiger, and should do the same with Leopard.

 

[SpookTheHamster]

G4s are amazing machines.

I've still got a 1GHz G4 PB, and it easily holds its own today. I can't imagine any 3-4 year old PC lasting anywhere near as well.

 

[~Shard~]

10.3.9 runs just fine on my 1.25 GHz G4 iMac, but I'm looking forward to gettnig Leopard on there when the time comes since I bypassed Tiger.

 

[plinkoman]

10.4 is too slow for those older machines anyways. Spotlight and Dashboard suck resources. 10.3.9 is the best for G3s and G4s IMO.

yea, that's right; my less than a year old 1.67GHz G4 PowerBook that came with 10.4 pre-installed is somehow so incredibly slow by today's standards that it needs to run a 4 year old operating system to prevent getting bogged down.

yet somehow, with everyday tasks, any speed difference between my PowerBook and an intel mac are completely unnoticeable, and I can still beat intel machines on just about any non-universal software.

G4 is nowhere near as slow as general concensus seems to be; that and the 2 gigs of ram I have can completely pwn dashboard and spotlight and the 18 other things I have open at the same time.

 

[russed]

10.4 is too slow for those older machines anyways. Spotlight and Dashboard suck resources. 10.3.9 is the best for G3s and G4s IMO.

i would compleatly disagree with you there, 10.4 runs very well on my 1Ghz PB.

 

[Queso]

I'll agree with kainjow about G3s. Tiger was much slower on my last G3 (an iMac DV400) than Panther, but that could have been as much to do with it only having 8MB VRAM than anything else.

However, Tiger is quicker on my PB12"867 than Panther was.

Whatever. When Leopard comes out I'll probably leave the PB on TIger until I replace it with an MBP. I've already had the thing more than three years so I've had my money's worth out of it.

 

[Le Big Mac]

well we couldn't expect G3's to be able to run new OS's forever.
sure the G3 ibooks were available into 2003 and that's only 3 years old

Well, it will be 4 years by the time leopard comes out. And that's a small wedge of models. Yes, it's too bad that some will be stuck. But 4 years, which are still upgradeable to tiger, seems like reasonably long support.

 

[dextertangocci]

The operating system 10.4 should continue to be upgraded for at least that long, but don't expect your system to be supported by any unreleased software.

I think it's fine that Apple drops support for older hardware as long as they continue to update the software that shipped with those systems, security patches and the like.

Edit: My powerbook shipped with 10.1 in Jan of 2002. The last OS update for it was posted in Jan 2004.

But your PB can run Tiger, and will be able to run Leopard as well. That is like 4 years later. So I'm sure all the upcoming versions of OSX, until at least 2009 or 2010 will support most G4's