Maybe first timer. Please help

[shtoja]

I'm poor old PC user that by any mean wants to start using apple macintosh.

I have nice offer to buy G3 notebook @ 366Mhz, 256Mb, 6,4GB HDD
Can you tell me is this enough strong computer to run MAC OS X so i can normally use it to work with photoshop, macromedia flash and similar programs and for everyday activity [watching movies, listening music, browsing internet]

Thank You

 

[jsw]

I have a 400MHz G3/320MB/6GB "Lombard" PowerBook, and it's running OS X Panther (10.3) just fine. However, the PB you describe ("Wallstreet" model?) might be at the edge of what you can easily install Panther onto, but Jaguar (OS X 10.2) should run on the system you describe if Panther won't.

Music listening (iTunes) will work great. Browsing will work well. Movies? Maybe. Not like watching a TV. Photoshop won't like 256MB (it'll want more), but Photoshop Elements 2.0 runs on my Lombard. Flash will work fine in a browser - do you mean using Flash to create content? If so, it might work, but not fantastically.

I think that notebook will do what you want, but please understand that it's near the lowest limits of what you can use to run OS X.

 

[mms]

A 366mhz G3 notebook would probably be either the iBook SE or the iBook Firewire. Though both are on the list of officially supported OS X machines, they are on the low end and would thus have only acceptable performance, especially with only 256MB RAM. If anything, you would definitely need to increase the RAM to do much with it. It would be fine for simple tasks such as word processing, browsing the Internet, and listening to music, but heavy Photoshop and Flash work might be a bit of a stretch. Also, if it is the SE without Firewire, chances are it will not be supported under the 10.4 (the next version of OS X, set to come out the first half of 2005). The 800x600 screen and 4MB video card would limit its uses as well. So I would say that if you're getting a really good deal on it, it may serve well to get you into the Mac world, but even better would be if you could find a good deal on the later Snow iBooks (starting from 500mhz G3).

 

[mms]

I have a 400MHz G3/320MB/6GB "Lombard" PowerBook, and it's running OS X Panther (10.3) just fine. However, the PB you describe ("Wallstreet" model?) might be at the edge of what you can easily install Panther onto, but Jaguar (OS X 10.2) should run on the system you describe if Panther won't.

There was no 366mhz G3 PowerBook (Lombard was 333/400, last WallStreets were 233/266/300) so it would be one of the colored iBooks. I also ran OS X on a 333mhz G3/192MB Lombard and it was acceptable for what I used it for: iTunes, Word, Safari, and Adium. Panther should run (since all of the iBooks have had USB) and from what I have heard, it runs better than Jaguar even on older systems.

 

[shtoja]

Thanks guys

Deal is good but only because I live in Serbia&montenegro [ex yugoslavia] so because of many things that would take too long to explain, I can't buy computers from other countries [shipping & paying problems mainly] therefor I'm limited to my country where apple products offer is very very limited

anyway thanks for advices