Upgrading an iMac G3 to OS X Panther...

[Patrick327]

Hello,

I recently bought an old Blueberry iMac G3 400MHz on ebay. It came with a clean install of OS X 10.2 Jaguar. I'd use Jaguar, but it's just a little too old for some of the things I want to use the G3 for (my printer requires 10.3 Panther or later and so does some other software). So, I want to install 10.3 Panther. I've read some things about firmware updates being required for people ugrading from OS 9 to OS X, but nothing about them being required for people upgrading from an older version of OS X to a newer version.

So I just want to check with you guys to make sure I'm not going to fry this thing by forgetting to install something critical beforehand. Also, do you think this thing will run Panther alright? I plan on upgrading the RAM to at least 512MB, maybe 768MB. If I were to leave all the specs as they are, would it run Panther okay?

iMac 400MHz PowerPC G3
384 MB RAM
40GB HD
DVD-ROM Drive

Thanks for your help!

Pat

 

[ddeadserious]

It will run Panther just fine, but many modern apps aren't written for Panther and are therefore not compatible. I'd be willing to bet most of what works for 10.3 would work for 10.2 as well.

If it's already running OS X, don't worry about firmware things.

I'd go with Tiger, honestly. I had a 400mHz iMac with 512MB of RAM and a 5400RPM drive and it really ran Tiger just fine so long as you're not doing serious multitasking. I had always intended on getting a gig of ram for it, but never got around to it. If you look on Google, you'll find how to disable Spotlight and Dashboard to speed up Tiger on an older machine.

 

[SuperCompu2]

It will run Panther just fine, but many modern apps aren't written for Panther and are therefore not compatible. I'd be willing to bet most of what works for 10.3 would work for 10.2 as well.

This isn't entirely true. Lots of UB apps have 10.3.9 as the cutoff for compatibility. Probably the last productive OS X still afloat pre-tiger. I use Panther on the iBook at my house, and we haven't had any issues with compatibility on any app yet.

Go Panther. You'll enjoy a big speed boost over Jag and a lot better visuals compared to that pinstriped garbage they used too much in Jaguar.

 

[Patrick327]

Thanks a lot, you guys.

So it definitely has up-to-date firmware if it's currently running OS X Jaguar?

I don't need this iMac to run many modern apps, just Microsoft Office 2004, my printer software, and maybe some other things here and there. It's mainly for writing essays and sitting on my desk looking cool. Plus, Jaguar still uses Internet Explorer and some other really antiquated software.

And, yeah, I agree with you on the 10.2 pinstripes and stuff. After using Tiger and Leopard on my MacBook Pro, Jaguar looks pretty ugly.

Thanks again!

Pat

 

[bengal85]

I had the exact same imac and I was told that because of the processor that it would not be able to update OS but I found out that 10.2 did all that I wanted it to

 

[LordOfTheMacs]

If you want to make the most out of that machine, try 10.4 Tiger. However, Tiger likes ram, so 512 megs of ram is a minimum requirement. If it just a cool toy more than an investment, then 10.3 will do fine for basic itunes ,
surfing, word and e-mail.