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Unless you need 100% carbon app support, I recommend 8.6 over 9. The only real downfall to 8.6 is that its carbon app support isn't as complete. 8.6 is more reliable, and will be even faster. I run it on a G4 400MHz, and it's faster than you can ever imagine. A literal screamer. Even on a 5400rpm HDD.
 
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Unless you need 100% carbon app support, I recommend 8.6 over 9. The only real downfall to 8.6 is that its carbon app support isn't as complete. 8.6 is more reliable, and will be even faster. I run it on a G4 400MHz, and it's faster than you can ever imagine. A literal screamer. Even on a 5400rpm HDD.
But 8.6 won't run on newer G4 machines (or most G4 machines actually).
 
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But 8.6 won't run on newer G4 machines (or most G4 machines actually).
A fair point indeed. You're literally forced to use 9 on any Power Mac G4 past the Sawtooth I beleive. I'm guilty of only thinking in my Sawtooth 400MHz bubble. Having said that, you certainly don't need a newer G4 for 9. It will scream on any G4. But if you get a Sawtooth or Yikes... run 8.6.
 
A fair point indeed. You're literally forced to use 9 on any Power Mac G4 past the Sawtooth I beleive. I'm guilty of only thinking in my Sawtooth 400MHz bubble. Having said that, you certainly don't need a newer G4 for 9. It will scream on any G4. But if you get a Sawtooth or Yikes... run 8.6.
Yeah, that's very true
 
I used the iMic ROM to install on my A1013, and it runs beautifully. This is one of those not supported computers that just happens to run OS 9 really well, and IIRC it was one of the first that was "cracked."

Since it has an Airport Extreme card, WiFi doesn't work. If you want WiFi, track down an Orinoco Gold Cardbus card(they're hard to find but out there) and you can use it with the same limitations as normal in OS 9(WEP only).

Here's the thread from ThinkClassic both with the ROM and how to make it work

 
Can you elaborate?


You'll find @LightBulbFun's modified ROM (that should allow booting without OF mumbojumbo) in this post:
 
I love 8.6 so much, and it's sad that most have forgotten what is the most reliable OS Apple ever made before X. I used it as my Mac OS from 1999 to 2003.

And an interesting observation to me is that the last 3 Apple OS's with a .6 have been when they got it the most efficient and stable. Those 3 being 7.6, 8.6 and 10.6. So .6 whether by coincidence or intent was their get stuff right version with each OS number.
 
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Iirc @LightBulbFun couldn't get it to boot on a 500mhz ibook. No idea about the DA but hopefully he'll chime in :)

seeing as I got Mac OS 8.6 booting on a MDD im sure a DA would be no problem :)

but sadly I do not have a DA or QS for that matter in the collection to experiment/test with sadly, if anyone in the UK has one for sale for a reasonable price (with shipping) do let me know LOL
 
seeing as I got Mac OS 8.6 booting on a MDD im sure a DA would be no problem :)

but sadly I do not have a DA or QS for that matter in the collection to experiment/test with sadly, if anyone in the UK has one for sale for a reasonable price (with shipping) do let me know LOL
That MDD must melt your eyes with how fast it would run 8.6. Is it a dual MDD?
 
That MDD must melt your eyes with how fast it would run 8.6. Is it a dual MDD?

Dual 1.42 no less, although I did not have the CPU multiprocessor extension installed so one CPU was not doing anything

your OF commands like good, (I would recommend doing boot cd:,\\:tbxi instead of mac-boot. also keep in mind the OF changes are volatile ie they will reset once you reboot/reset the machine)

but you do need a Sawtooth 8.6 install, as thats the latest 8.6 image and contains the most up to date uninorth drivers. the install CD image i found on the internet is called sawtooth_8.6_restore&Install.zip

fun fact this also works on MDDs :), one thing I have noticed, is the GPU you have installed in the machine can prevent the Mac OS ROM from loading properly. and I had to use the ATA33 keylargo bus (I cant remember if the ATA66 Keylargo bus worked) (I Know the ATA100 bus hanging off the U2 controller does not work in 8.6)
for an MDD, substitute PowerBook2,1 for PowerMac3,1 (I suspect 8.6 could also be made to work on GigE DA and QS G4s but i sadly dont own any of those)

IMG_0281.jpg
 
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Right, i have noted that OS 8 is much faster than 9. One interesting although lesser known point: did you know that OS 8 even runs on a 68040 (although slow)?

Also, since people are talking about OS 8 as well, I changed the title of this thread to "The OS 8/9 on newer PowerPC Macs thread". Thanks!
 
Right, i have noted that OS 8 is much faster than 9. One interesting although lesser known point: did you know that OS 8 even runs on a 68040 (although slow)?

Also, since people are talking about OS 8 as well, I changed the title of this thread to "The OS 8/9 on newer PowerPC Macs thread". Thanks!
Which OS 8 version? 8.0 and 8.1 do both run on the 68040, but IIRC support was dropped with 8.5. :)
 
Unless you need 100% carbon app support, I recommend 8.6 over 9. The only real downfall to 8.6 is that its carbon app support isn't as complete. 8.6 is more reliable, and will be even faster. I run it on a G4 400MHz, and it's faster than you can ever imagine. A literal screamer. Even on a 5400rpm HDD.

This is very interesting. How much is out there for OS 8.6 in terms of applications compared to OS 9 ? My PPC macs that I have only support 9 and OS X. Right now, I am typing this on a G4 1GHZ Titanium which only supports 9.2.2 and OS X Leopard. I guess I could get Sheepshaver and run OS 8.6 in emulation. Is there really any big difference with 8.6 ?
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We need 9.6 and 11.6 then LOL

Or we need is OS 9.2.3 or 9.3 lol
 
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