Re: Befudled- iMac, OS 10.2.8, Firefox

On Jul 31, 11:00 am, Jolly Roger <wbyyleb...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On 2007-07-31 12:52:41 -0500, "Paul G." <carb...@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. : )


Thank you. I'm sort of returning. I have a lot of interesting older
Macs- original Thin Macs, an SE/30, Color Classics with the Mystic and
VGA mods, a "wicked fast" IIfx, a PowerPC with a Pentium card, etc.
Also a Lisa, Apple ///, and most of the Apple II line. All of them
acquired long after their day, just for fun.


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.


I'm not really *doing* anything with this iMac, just trying to get to
know OS X. I found a copy of OS 10.2 cheap, but it does look like
10.3 would have been a better choice as I'm finding many apps require
it.

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. ; )


Yes, I have a Kensington USB trackball, and installed the software for
that so I get right-click support. Can't believe how long Apple stuck
with a one button mouse.

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.

According to lowendmac.com:
"Mac OS X If you have a hard drive over 8 GB in size, you must
partition it, and the partition containing OS X must be completely
within the first 8 GB of space or you will not be able to run OS X. "



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

Yes, the current trend in Mac OS X software is for developers to create
applications that do not need installers.

Hmmmnnnn... Well, I certainly found that confusing. Most of the
people I know who use Macs would never figure that out, or find this
newsgroup to ask.



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! : )


Thank you very much for the links and help.
-Paul

.

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