Re: Befudled- iMac, OS 10.2.8, Firefox

On 2007-07-31 12:52:41 -0500, "Paul G." <carbide@xxxxxxxxx> said:

I'm a PC user trying to learn about Mac OS X on the cheap, using a 266
mhz iMac with 192 megs of Ram.

First, let me welcome you to the Macintosh community. We are glad to have you! I'm sure you will come to enjoy your experience as the rest of us have. : )

Second, it sounds like you've got one of the first iMac G3 models from 1999 with the ATI Rage Pro Turbo chips. Whew! That's an old, dog-slow machine! I know you mentioned you are learning on the cheap, but just keep a couple things in mind: If you are looking for a cheap / easy way to speed things up, if you upgraded the RAM to 512 MB or more, you would notice a measurable speed boost. Also, Mac OS X 10.3 incorporated some speed improvements on older hardware such as yours as well - along with *tons* of bug fixes.

Also, in case you're not aware, you can use most any multi-button USB mouse with Macs, and contextual menus (right-click support) are abundant in Mac OS X. ; )

I installed a 20 gig hard disk, partitioned it into two 3.8 gig and a
12 gig sections, copied the OS 9 over from the old disk to the first
partition, then installed OS 10.2 on the second 3.8 gig partition.

If anything, I would give Mac OS X the larger of the two, because you are bound to use Mac OS X more often. But, truthfully, if I were you, I'd save myself some headaches and just make it one single partition for everything.

I then downloaded Firefox and I'm trying to install it but
having problems.

I open the downloaded file, and it mounts on the desktop as a disk
image. I open that, and it runs Firefox. However, it does not seem to
actually install it as Firefox does not appear as a choice in
"Applications", and it never asks me where I want to install it.
(which would be the 12 gig partition, to save space on the boot
partition.)

Yes, the current trend in Mac OS X software is for developers to create applications that do not need installers. That is, rather than running an installation program, users simply drag the application icon into the Applications folder. One step, and you're done. So all you need to do to install Firefox is mount the disk image, then drag Firefox from the mounted image to the Applications folder. Once installed, you can discard the disk image and run Firefox directly from the applications folder in the future.

Storing applications on a separate partition is okay and should work in most cases (I've encountered only one or two badly-written applications that *require* they be installed in /Applications). But, again, I think your life will be much, much easier if you repartition that drive into a single partition to hold everything!

I am logged in as administrator, so I'm befuddled as to why Firefox is
not installing as I would expect. I'm reminded of the first time I
used a Mac, back in the early 90's. I couldn't figure out how to eject
a floppy, and felt like an idiot...

I hear you. A new operating system can throw you for loops!

Apple has a series of web pages devoted to introducing newcomers to Mac OS X. A lot of this may be elementary for you, but you may find some of it educational as well:

<http://www.apple.com/support/mac101/>

Also, there's another set of pages specifically for newcomers who are already used to the Windows way of doing things as well:

<http://www.apple.com/support/switch101/>

For anything else, definitely feel free to post here or in comp.sys.mac.system, and we'll be happy to help! : )

--
Apply rot13 to my e-mail address before using it.

JR

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