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The PowerBook G3 "Lombard" running OS X Public Beta Challenge

AlbertEinstein

AlbertEinstein

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jan 3, 2013
132
0
Mission:
I have decided to use my PowerBook G3 Lombard running OS X Public Beta as my main computer this entire week, starting today. It's connected using an original Dial-Up modem from 1999.

Hardware:
With the amazing power of 512 MB memory, 400 MHz and two batteries for the amazing amount of 10 hours idle use.

Why:
With the latest discussions about the PowerPC and it's overall sluggishness compared to the Intel machines i wanted to use my old trusty Lombard that ran the early beta of OS X to see if that really was the case, as i recall it being pretty fast. I'm also a little nutty.

Software:
AppleWorks 6.0.4
Mesa3
TIFFany 3
PixelNchance
Fetch
OmniWeb 4

This weeks work:
-Create a outline for the coming financial quarter.
-Hold a presentation for the sales division.
-Fix up the "marketing material" (pictures)
-Write the last chapter of that novel that i didn't finish.
-Diagrams, diagrams, diagrams...

Wish me the best of luck.:apple:
 
AlbertEinstein said:
Mission:
I have decided to use my PowerBook G3 Lombard running OS X Public Beta as my main computer this entire week, starting today. It's connected using an original Dial-Up modem from 1999.

Hardware:
With the amazing power of 512 MB memory, 400 MHz and two batteries for the amazing amount of 10 hours idle use.

Why:
With the latest discussions about the PowerPC and it's overall sluggishness compared to the Intel machines i wanted to use my old trusty Lombard that ran the early beta of OS X to see if that really was the case, as i recall it being pretty fast. I'm also a little nutty.

Software:
AppleWorks 6.0.4
Mesa3
TIFFany 3
PixelNchance
Fetch
OmniWeb 4

This weeks work:
-Create a outline for the coming financial quarter.
-Hold a presentation for the sales division.
-Fix up the "marketing material" (pictures)
-Write the last chapter of that novel that i didn't finish.
-Diagrams, diagrams, diagrams...

Wish me the best of luck.:apple:
Click to expand...
If you want your Lombard to be speedy, don't install Public Beta. Panther (Mac OS X 10.3) runs way faster, as there are no speed enhancements whatsoever in Public Beta. Plus, your software selection will be a little less out of date. Unless you really want Public Beta, don't try it. Not only that, but your hardware clock has to be set to before 2001, if I'm not mistaken. Unless your laptop has a dead PRAM battery, that is.
 
I salute you

and your inherent courage, but....I have to agree for G4thewin here, Panther would be a much better performer. I have rarely expeirenced pain such as trying out the Mac OS X public beta on my 400 mhz Titanium G4 back in the day. It was horrible. Mac OS X really stood out in the early 2000's, as each version of OS X ran better than the last, until Leopard that is. Maybe performance is not at all the point of your challenge. Its your challenge, of course.

Classilla running in Classic is probably a better (and safer) bet than Omniweb 4, I haven't used Omniweb 4 in a long time, but its very old, and I am pretty sure wasn't webkit based. Kaiser really has done a lot to make Classilla secure since 2009 and as reasonably web standard compliant as he possibly can.

I demand updates and youtube videos of your PowerPC adventure. Please.
 
If you want your Lombard to be speedy, don't install Public Beta.
Click to expand...
I have to agree for G4thewin here, Panther would be a much better performer.
Click to expand...

Just to make it clear: This computer never got any updates beyond the Public Beta. The PRAM died a long time ago and it was soon replaced with a Pismo (running OS X 10.0.4).

Classilla running in Classic is probably a better (and safer) bet than Omniweb 4, I haven't used Omniweb 4 in a long time, but its very old, and I am pretty sure wasn't webkit based.
Click to expand...

True, but this install does not contain Mac OS 9. My browsing needs are miniscule, only visiting MacRumors, Ars & corporate errands (which happen to be optimized for old browsers).

Oh boy! Now you can hook up all your old scsi devices!
Click to expand...

Sorry, they are reserved for the PowerMac.

Yikes, I remember 10.0 through 10.2.8 being slow...10.3 was great, and using XPostFacto, 10.4 wasn't that bad either.

I remember *feeling* like a beta tester when running 10.0...
Click to expand...

The Public Beta is actually quite OK. It runs smoothly and seems to boot faster than my Cube G4 (running OS X 10.4, not slimmed with XPost).

I demand updates and youtube videos of your PowerPC adventure. Please.
Click to expand...

Update coming soon...:apple:
 
Day 1:
Yesterday was mostly settling in with the system. It actually feels really good. This was the top of the line Lombard when it was shipped, and that is defeniently reflected upon the overall snappy-ness.

OmniWeb 4 works great for viewing MacRumors. Sure, there are certain rendering problems, but otherwise it works fairly well.

A problem that i encountered was that the version of Quicktime that the Public Beta was sent out with was a old version of Quicktime 4. It's not very optimized and crashes quite frequently. This is also proving to be a problem with AppleWorks, which requires Quicktime 4.1.2, and no version of 4.1.2 works on the Public Beta as it was an update for OS 9. If anyone has any ideas, don't hesitate to pm.

Another problem is that i can't connect harddrives nor USB sticks. Not a big problem per se, but still a minor annoyance. Mice work fine.

Will keep you all updated as this goes on.

XPostFacto is not a slimmer, it is a means of installing versions of OS X on unsupported machines.
Click to expand...

Sorry, i was thinking of something else. My bad.:apple:
 
Yes, you are a little nutty!! I wish you luck with the week..

Videos/pics & benchmarks of things (page loading, boot times, etc) would really be appreciated! If you need any other software maybe we can help :D
 
Day 2

Clocked it. It starts up in about 15 seconds and shuts down in about 3. Neato.

For you who are interested in the system, here it is:
image.jpg

With the power of 400 MHz and 512 MB of RAM and two batteries it is a beast of a machine.
image_kopia.jpg

Sadly, it has some flaws. The top i cracked and the PRAM is completely dead. Some of the ports appear to have rusted as well.

But enough about the PowerBook and on towards the OS!

image_kopia_2.jpg

Say hello to Finder! Or "Desktop" as he is called in the Public Beta.

image_kopia_3.jpg

And the Apple in the middle. Abusing it is to no avail, it is only a decoration.

image_kopia_4.jpg

The dock looks good on stills, but with magnification turned on it becomes a huge resource-hog. (Take note of Internet Explorer!)

image_kopia_5.jpg

Working with "Sketch" and Image Importer. Pretty neat software.

image_kopia_6.jpg

Quicktime eats processing power like mad! Unusable, but the VR's and trailers Apple provide run okay-ish.

That's all for today, actually got some work done as well. But that's all I'm allowed to say.:apple:
 
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