Switch from died Powerbook 17" DSLR to Original Macbook Air

[Kaiserbuch1701]

Hey Guys, your where so helpful last time and no i hope you can help me to figure out, what i could / should do... Im beware off, that this maybee the wrong Forum?!

At first, a big sorry for my terrible written english; my native Language is German.

recently my beloved Powerbook G4 DSLR died because of an faulty GPU. Damm it.
I had it upgraded it with an IDE-mSata SSD. It works still pretty well, but then. The GPU died.
No lightnig Apple Logo. Black Screen.

So, to replace my "dealy Driver" i got hands on an Original MacBook Air.
Just have 2 Gigs of ram and was upgraded by the original owner with an PATA-ZIF-SSD 32Gb Kinspec.

To switch to the MacbookAir, i could transfer my Leopard installation.
I think, all my old PPC Apps and Games could run?

What about switching to Snow Leopard? Is Rosetta good enough?

If a do a complete Switch to Lion? I know, i have to replace the Apps or Install them new, as Universal Binary. But Lion seems to be a bit choppy on the first gen Air, right? The overall perfomance on Snow Leopard should be the best?

I´ll only use the Macbook for a little bit browsing, Officework and youtube.

THX all for your Help!!!

 

[amagichnich]

Another German 🙂
I prefer Leopard over Snow Leopard due to some changes Apple made within some apps, but generally SL is your choice.
Ibr commend a dual boot SL and Lion to have PPC compatibility and a bit more security with Lion.
But with a 32gig SSD you won't have enough space for two OSs so I'd decide what I need more - security or compatibility

 

[bunnspecial]

You can actually transfer the install directly and it would work fine.

I run SL on my MBA 1,1 and it's as good as can be expected. I find the 1.6ghz to be a pretty poor performer overall, and the Kingspec SSDs don't help things as much as you'd think. The one in my MBA is faster than the iPod HDD that I removed, but slower than any mSATA drive I've used. I recommend SL over Leopard in virtually all cases where it's possible. I would not install Lion.

I have to be brutally honest and say that I think you will be disappointed in the performance of the MBA 1,1. The 2,1 is a different story and still fairly usable, but my 1,1 sits mostly as a curiosity. Aside from being able to run newer programs, I find that a DLSD PowerBook outperforms it in most respects(Youtube and web browsing excepted).

 

[swamprock]

I'm hoping to find an original MBA for myself, but not as a daily driver. Unfortunately, people are still selling them for $400+ around here, and on eBay unless they're defective. Even being defective, that doesn't stop some people from overpricing them, so I'll await the eventual price drop before I get one.

You could just pull your Powerbook drive, hook it up via USB, and clone your Leopard install over...

 

[Kaiserbuch1701]

Hey there, thx for your all responses.

I´ll doing an clean install of Snow Leopard. Maybee, the Air will do then enough for me.
Luckely i have an Box Set with Snow Leopard. So, i can install an Word / Excel 2011.
A Browser and VLC an all is done. I decided to use an MicroUSB Driver for my personal data, so the mentioned 32GB SSD schould enough. Today i tried Lion and it is really choppy :-( . I wish, my beloved Powerbook where still alive :-( .

Besides, is it worth to buy an larger PATA ZIF SSD @bunnspecial ?
This drive here is from the preowner. Or should i take a look for nen "normal" Drive?

Greetings @amagichnich from Rostock to Stuttgart. "Guten N´Abend! Danke für die Idee. Der Speicher ist leider wirklich viel zu klein. Leider. Dann bevorzuge ich die Kompatibilität." 🙂

@swamprock Yeah, i thought about that. I allready have an Backup on my TimeCapsule. I´ll try an clean Install first an than copy some Programms over. Unfortunately Powerbooks are very expensive on Ebay Germany, i mean good one. Some are so overprized. I Think i got an good deal for my Air with 140€. !?? I saw Powerbooks with just 15" an 1.5Ghz on Ebay selling between 100 and 130 € :-( .

So, thx @All. I can inform how the System perform; or not ;-) !

Ah, while i writing this under LION on the AIR, the fan spins up. Damm, o know the Air got hot, but just typing and nealry 60°C ? So, the Air dont become my new Bestfriend?

 

[bobesch]

Oh, sorry to hear about another/your 17" PowerBook to fail ...
Fully agree, that prices for a PowerBook replacement are really high compared to alternative intel 2006 to early2008 intel MacBookPro, which share the same style ...
I'd also go for a fresh install of SL, since you don't need any remnants related to PPC.
Staying with SL/Rosetta will give you the option of backwards-compatibility - but while an "Air"-device is looking for Cloud support, Dropbox is going to halt support for SL, so webDAV/FileSharing/ScreenSharing is left for that purpose.
For your limited purpose of using (web, office, youtube) you may install Office'08/'11 and Firefox, connect via webDAV (Menu: Gehe zu / Mit Server verbinden ) to GMX (https://webdav.mc.gmx.com) or Telekom Mediencenter (https://webdav.mediencenter.t-online.de) for Cloud-options and use your Micro-USB to store personal data.
With only 32GB I wouldn't go for any dual-boot option but try to keep as much space as possible for personal data ...
My choice of Apps: Office'08, DEVONthink(Scan/OCR/PaperlessOffice), Firefox, MacJournal/SohoOrganizer(iOS-Sync), CarbonCopyCloner(Backup), VLC, BassJump (for BJ subwoofer hardware), MenuBar-Tools: Moom/Caffein/ScreenSharingMenulett; MS RemoteDesktop (to connect to Win-PC), TeamViewer
plus the included ones: mail, iTunes, iPhoto
Cheers from the Baltic-Sea!

 

[bunnspecial]

Besides, is it worth to buy an larger PATA ZIF SSD @bunnspecial ?
This drive here is from the preowner. Or should i take a look for nen "normal" Drive?

Honestly, there are no great options.

The Kingspec drives are better than a stock drive(iPod drive) but I'm not sure there's anything more than a(cheap) CF card in in a case.

I didn't have any luck with mSATA to ZIF adapters.

IMO, the best solution-if you can find one-is a factory SSD but those are rare and $$$$

 

[amagichnich]

Greetings @amagichnich from Rostock to Stuttgart. "Guten N´Abend! Danke für die Idee. Der Speicher ist leider wirklich viel zu klein. Leider. Dann bevorzuge ich die Kompatibilität."

Indeed, even 120gig is not enough for a proper dualboot for me 😀
Guten Abend 😉 I've been living in Cottbus for a couple of years now - it's strange to be greeted as a 'Stuttgarter' 😀
I know it's tempting to speak one's native language, but please speak english here at the forum, native language only in pm so that everyone here can understand us 😉

Ah, while i writing this under LION on the AIR, the fan spins up. Damm, o know the Air got hot, but just typing and nealry 60°C ? So, the Air dont become my new Bestfriend?

Very disappointing to hear, I fancied a 1.Gen Air for a while now because I thought it'd be a bit more quiet than me noisy BlackBook 🙁 then I'll have to wait for a cheap Early '08 MBP...

 

[Kaiserbuch1701]

Thanks all for your helpfull answers. I tried both now. Lion and snow leopard..

Snow leopard runs pretty good and is very fast on this Air. I will miss the iCloud features and google Synch from lion. But the more responsive system is more convincing. .

All my Programm runs fine. Most of my ppc apps to. There just few. As mentioned above. All my personal data ist on a pen drive. The small ssd has now 16GB free space over.

I open up the air to replace the thermal paste. Now on idle I got temps on 45^C. Light webbrowsing brings it up to 65*C. So under load it’s Not the silenced system. My beloved PowerBook was more silence.

But i can live with that.

Next step will be a new battery.
I leave the small ssd for the time.
Maybee i find a good Deal for larger drive on eBay.

So, again thx at all.