SillyDog701

by **Purple Lizard** » Mon 23 Oct, 2006 8:48 am

Hi everyone, long time no speak.

Can Antony or any of you other Mac experts tell me the minimum system requirements for OS X Tiger. I've been offered an old iMac G3 with a 400MHz CPU and 512 MB of RAM, it has OS X 10.2 on it and I'm just wondering whether it will be able to run Tiger (or leopard when it comes out).

Many Thanks

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.1) Gecko/20061010 Firefox/2.0

by **DJGM** » Mon 23 Oct, 2006 9:03 am

Does the iMac in question have a DVD drive installed? Mac OS X Tiger is shipped primarily on DVD-ROM media.
I'm not sure if Apple are still running the Media Exchange Program, where you can swap your Tiger DVD, for
a copy of the OS on a set of CD-ROM disks. If not, the CD version may be available on eBay, but beware of
the copies available on grey coloured disks, as these are machine specific, and may not work on your Mac.

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.1) Gecko/20061010 Firefox/2.0

by **Purple Lizard** » Mon 23 Oct, 2006 9:07 am

No, its only got a CD ROM drive. As for the media exchange i think that it closed down sometime last year, although I'll have a look. Are the other system specs up to scratch?

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-GB; rv:1.8.1) Gecko/20061010 Firefox/2.0

by **DJGM** » Mon 23 Oct, 2006 9:14 am

You should be fine with the 400MHz CPU for running Tiger. My B+W Power Mac G3 has only a 300MHz CPU, and it
runs Mac OS X Tiger (recently upgraded) fairly well. Tiger requires 256MB RAM minimum, so the 512MB RAM on
your iMac should be fine. Although upgrading to about 1GB RAM should provide a healthy speed boost.

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-GB; rv:1.8.1) Gecko/20061010 Firefox/2.0

by **Purple Lizard** » Mon 23 Oct, 2006 9:20 am

Ok Thanks. Does the iMac require a particular type of RAM or will it work with normal SDRAM?

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-GB; rv:1.8.1) Gecko/20061010 Firefox/2.0

by **Antony** » Mon 23 Oct, 2006 9:24 am

Purple Lizard wrote:Can Antony or any of you other Mac experts tell me the minimum system requirements for OS X Tiger. I've been offered an old iMac G3 with a 400MHz CPU and 512 MB of RAM, it has OS X 10.2 on it and I'm just wondering whether it will be able to run Tiger (or leopard when it comes out).

the iMac is capable to run Mac OS X 10.4 "Tiger", except you will need to figure out a way to install it.

It is unlikely to be able to run Leopard (without unauthorised tweaking at least).

Despite a number of other people who can't live without the latest version, I can tell you that Mac OS X 10.3 "Panther" is not that bad, still being supported by Apple for security updates. In fact, you might find Panther runs faster (then Tiger) on your G3 400MHz, as Spotlight might take too much system resource at background.

The Power Mac G4 400MHz (512MB RAM) I used to have runs Panther (10.3) a whole lot faster than running Jaguar (10.2).

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; PPC Mac OS X Mach-O; en-US; rv:1.8.0.7) Gecko/20060909 Firefox/1.5.0.7

by **Purple Lizard** » Mon 23 Oct, 2006 9:27 am

Ok thanks I'll look into Panther. The only reason In was asking about Tiger was due to having the latest security updates.

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-GB; rv:1.8.1) Gecko/20061010 Firefox/2.0

by **DJGM** » Mon 23 Oct, 2006 9:44 am

On my B+W G3 running Tiger, the Spotlight feature doesn't noticeably hog resources from what I've seen.

And about Apple still supporting Panther for security updates, that is correct, although it's likely to stop
soon after Leopard (10.5) is released early next year. Jaguar (10.2) no longer recieves any updates.

And as Antony said, G3 Macs may no longer be officially supported for OS upgrades from 10.5 onwards.
Having said that, a small program called XPostFacto may be able to get G3 Macs running Leopard if
hardware support for these older systems is officially discontiuned next year.

I believe XPostFacto is the "unauthorised tweaking" that Antony referred to. Technically, it's not really
"unauthorised". Apple have not yet had any issues against XPostFacto. It's more like "unsupported".

XPostFacto is a program I used for installing Mac OS X 10.3 on the beige Power Macintosh G3 that I
rescued from being scrapped two years ago. Officially, the highest version of Mac OS X officially
supported by Apple on the old beige G3 system is 10.2.8. In my own experience, 10.3.x ran
quite well on that old machine, and the beige G3 tower I subsequently acquired.

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Win98; en-GB; rv:1.8.1) Gecko/20061010 Firefox/2.0

by **Antony** » Mon 23 Oct, 2006 9:52 am

Purple Lizard,

You will be fine with Panther on your iMac G3 400.

There are still a huge number of people NOT running the latest Operating Systems. Just be careful when surfing and leaving the computer on 24/7.

Mac OS X 10.3 "Panther" has built-in firewall, which is very strong in my opinion.

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; PPC Mac OS X Mach-O; en-US; rv:1.8.0.7) Gecko/20060909 Firefox/1.5.0.7

by **Purple Lizard** » Mon 23 Oct, 2006 9:57 am

Thanks guys.

I just bought the iMac and I'm now looking for a copy of Panther to use on it when I get there. Can I just upgrade from 10.2 a la Windows or do I have to boot up from the CD?

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-GB; rv:1.8.1) Gecko/20061010 Firefox/2.0

by **Antony** » Mon 23 Oct, 2006 10:00 am

Purple Lizard wrote:Can I just upgrade from 10.2 a la Windows or do I have to boot up from the CD?

Either way. Boot it up into 10.2 and insert Panther CD then follow the instruction should be easier.

Enjoy your iMac :-)

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; PPC Mac OS X Mach-O; en-US; rv:1.8.0.7) Gecko/20060909 Firefox/1.5.0.7

by **Purple Lizard** » Mon 23 Oct, 2006 10:01 am

Ok guys thanks for all the help. Much Appreciated

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-GB; rv:1.8.1) Gecko/20061010 Firefox/2.0

by **DJGM** » Mon 23 Oct, 2006 10:32 am

FYI ... quick links to internet browser downloads for Mac OS X:

Seamonkey App-Suite ... Mozilla Firefox ... Mozilla Camino. . .

There are quite a few others. No need to include Safari in the list, as that'll come with Mac OS X by default.
Camino is similar to Firefox, in that it's a standalone browser, but also dissimilar because it's Mac OS X only.

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.0.7) Gecko/20060910 SeaMonkey/1.0.5

by **Purple Lizard** » Mon 23 Oct, 2006 10:33 am

So are there any major differences between Camino and Firefox for Mac?

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-GB; rv:1.8.1) Gecko/20061010 Firefox/2.0

by **DJGM** » Mon 23 Oct, 2006 10:38 am

Firefox for Mac has the same level of customisability as Firefox on Windows and Linux, using XUL for it's UI.
Meanwhile, Camino is made by Mozilla for Mac only, and doesn't support any Firefox themes and add-ons.

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.0.7) Gecko/20060910 SeaMonkey/1.0.5

SillyDog701

Mac OS X requirements.

Mac OS X requirements.

Re: Mac OS X requirements.

Who is online