Re: Mac OS X and an old beige G3
- From: Garner Miller <garner@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 23 Feb 2006 13:18:06 GMT
In article <u1140658210@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, lochness
<diannecurtis@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Is this compatible? I have an old G3 beige desktop with Mac OS 9 and
any new software requires OS 10.
It is. But it's slow, I'll tell you that up front.
OS 10.2 and older are compatible, but the beige G3 is *not* a supported
configuration for OS X after version 10.2. Which is a shame, since
10.3 fixed a lot of the quirks, and ran much faster.
There's an open-source tool that will let you install a newer OS on
your G3, however, called XPostFacto:
http://eshop.macsales.com/OSXCenter/XPostFacto/Framework.cfm
I'd recommend looking for a used copy of 10.3 for your machine. (Make
sure it's a regular retail copy, not one that was bundled with a
machine, or it's likely not to work.) You could also get a new copy of
10.4, but I have a feeling it won't run well on that Mac.
I should warn you now, this may be way more of a project than you're
interested in. But I'll lay it out for you, and you can decide if you
want to do it.
You're also going to need more memory than you probably have on your
G3: anything less than 256MB, and it's going to be so slow you'll want
to rip your hair out. Anything less than 128MB, and OS X won't even
run. One place you can get a 256MB Module to add on is here; it's $69:
http://www.ramjet.com/ItemDescr.asp?Item=G3B256
If you have a hard disk bigger than the standard 6 GB drive, you'll
need to partition it as well -- OS X must reside within the first 8 GB
of the disk for it to work. You can do this with the Disk Utility that
comes on the OS X install CD, but that will require erasing your hard
drive.
Then reinstal OS 9, boot from your hard disk again, and finally run the
above XPostFacto with the OS X CD sitting in the drive. XPostFacto
will start the installation, because the Apple installer won't allow
10.3 or 10.4 to install. OSX will probably fill about half of the 6 GB
drive, if that's what you still have in there.
So there you go. It's doable, but the question is whether it's worth
the ~$200 expense (OS + RAM) to upgrade an eight year old Mac versus
getting a new one. For comparison, you can get a Mac Mini for $500
new, an Apple keyboard and Logitech scroll mouse for $45, and an
adapter to let you use an old Mac monitor on a regular VGA port (which
the Mini has) is about $20 *.
You can also explore a used but more recent Mac, and see if that might
be a better use of funds, too. But that's up to you, of course.
I hope that helps.
* The adapters are rare, but here's one I found with a brief search:
http://www.gigaparts.com/parts/profile.php?sku=CB0420
--
Garner R. Miller
Clifton Park, NY =USA=
http://www.garnermiller.com/
.
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