New to Mac's; Got two donated G4's

[revboyd]

I am a IT Manager for a non-profit organization in Milwaukee, WI. (you can Google my name) and we recently received two Mac G4 computers.

I have never worked on or used a Mac before, so this is a learning experience. Starting off, the o/s and application software has been removed from these machines. When I first turn the computer on, it asks for a password which I do not have. I do not have the Mac o/s so I intend to install Linux and Open Office on these machines as we do not have the funds to purchase it.

Any suggestions on what to do to:

1. Get past the password.
2. Install Ubuntu 7.10 Linux and Open Office for Mac.

Thank you in advance for any help you may offer.

 

[Eidorian]

The easiest way to get around the Open Firmware password is having physical access to the Mac. Change the configuration of RAM. (e.g. removing or adding)

After you change the state of the hardware on the next boot of the Mac reset the PRAM.

 

[revboyd]

Thank you

Thank you. I will try this when I go into the office in the morning.

Do you know of any problems running Ubuntu 7.10 on a G4?

Or Open Office?

Any installation issues I need to be concerned about?

 

[Eidorian]

PowerPC Linux in general is having less and less support since Apple has moved to Intel. I'd be wary of using of ATI video cards as well. The last time I tried Ubuntu in a Power Mac G4 I had to install using a Rage 128.

 

[revboyd]

Mac OS X 9

Thank You. Got past the power-on password after following your instructions. As you indicated, could not get Ubuntu to load, Debian would not mount the CD Rom drive (or at least the installation program would not). Did not get any further than that.

A friend of mine suggested trying Mac OS X (anything earlier than 10.1) and neoOffice. Any ideas where I can get a copy of Mac OS X 9? Installation insights?

Thanks for your help,

 

[Eidorian]

My suggestion is to get OS X 10.4 Tiger on CD-ROM or at least make sure the Power Macs have a IDE DVD-ROM. Any brand of DVD-ROM will work for reading discs if you're willing to install one. It's a good idea just to get Tiger on DVD.

It'd help a little more as well if you could read the specifications off of the back label.

 

[spinne1]

You don't want to run anything prior to OS X.3 (Panther). You CAN do it but you will find it too limiting. For running NeoOffice simply buy a used copy of OS X Tiger off ebay ($40-$60) making sure it is the retail box version. If you don't have a DVD drive, get one for almost nothing off ebay. Install OS X and then download and run NeoOffice and you'll be happy.

If you do not have the funds to buy ANY software, please redonate the computers to someone who can use them. Running a Mac (like running any computer) is not cheap. Software costs money.