[olug] [Macintosh] Powermac G3, Ubuntu, and OS X

Fri May 19 02:47:30 UTC 2006

I have an old copy of 10.0 and then a 10.1 update CD that I had when  
I didn't even own a mac.  Now my 3 macs (MacBook Pro, 12" PowerBook  
G4 1 Ghz, iBook 1.3hz[?]) all have 10.4...but that version might be  
too old for you...I didn't care much for OSX before 10.3...

Nathan D. Rotschafer
Cell: (402) 216-9270
email: nrotschafer at geniussystems.net

On May 18, 2006, at 6:19 PM, Adam Lassek wrote:

> It depends on the model. I know certain G3 iMacs support target mode.
>
> On 5/18/06, Matt Anderson <manderso at cs.wisc.edu> wrote:
>> Does the G3 have a DVD player?  As of OS 10.4, I believe regular
>> consumer copies of OS X Client are only distributed on DVD (according
>> to Apple Enterprise Support).  If 10.3 fits your needs, you can get
>> that on CD.
>>
>> Slightly newer Macs (as of a fairly early G4 revision) have a
>> 'firewire target disk mode' which lets another computer use the Mac
>> as an external hard disk.  I know that the earliest G4 (Yikes!) does
>> not support this (as I have one).  The G4 Sawtooth model (immediately
>> following the Yikes! model) does support target disk mode (I have one
>> of those too).  I don't know if any G3s support that functionality or
>> not.  If yours does, you could put it into target disk mode, hook it
>> up to another Mac, and install the operating system.
>>
>> Assuming you don't have a DVD player or target disk mode, I'd say
>> your best options are to either (a) install a DVD player or (b) put a
>> hard disk into your G3 that had the OS installed on it while it was
>> in another Mac.  I think a Mac of your G3's vintage will support
>> 128GB or so of space on an IDE HDD (bigger is fine, but extra
>> capacity will go unrecognized without third party software) -- this
>> is assuming hard disk support is the same as on my 2 early G4s.  I
>> don't know what DVD players are compatible (maybe all IDE DVD
>> players) -- I haven't installed one.
>>
>> If you're going to run 10.4, I don't think you'll be satisfied with
>> the performance of the machine with only 128MB of RAM.  My personal
>> feeling is that 512MB is the minimum for acceptable performance (at
>> least for how I use a Mac -- slowdown due to extensive swapping is
>> very annoying).  I think my early G4s take PC100 RAM.
>>
>> If you pay fees to be an Apple developer, you can download software
>> from Apple, including the client (and server) operating systems.  The
>> lowest such fee I believe is $500, and I think the software is
>> configured to expire after a year.  I don't know what the
>> installation is like if you obtain the OS in this way.
>>
>> A nice resource with information about older Macs is Low End Mac:
>>
>>    http://www.lowendmac.com/ppc/
>>
>> Good luck...
>>
>> --
>>   Matt Anderson
>>
>>
>> On May 18, 2006, at 2:44 PM, Daniel Linder wrote:
>>
>>>
>>>
>>> On Thu, May 18, 2006 14:23, Phil Brutsche wrote:
>>>
>>>> You have a RTU (right to use) for any version of MacOS you like,
>>>
>>>> provided it will run on the machine.  Some G3 machines won't OS X
>>>
>>>> period, some G3 machines will only run OS X through 10.2 or so.
>>> You
>>>
>>>> might have to check a couple Mac-specific lists to find out which
>>> will
>>>
>>>> and which won't.
>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>>> Since you got the license with the machine, all you need to do is
>>> find
>>>
>>>> someone that will loan you media.  It's not downloadable from
>>> Apple.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Thanks -- I was thinking that was the case (RTU), but my last in- 
>>> depth
>>> exposure to Apples was many years ago.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> So, anyone have an older OS X cd that they would like to loan so  
>>> I can
>>> make an ISO image of it?
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Dan
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> - - - -
>>>
>>> "Wait for that wisest of all counselors, time." -- Pericles
>>>
>>> "I do not fear computers, I fear the lack of them." -- Isaac
>>> Asimov
>>>
>>> "Soon we will be able to harness the rotational energy from Orwell's
>>> grave to solve all world energy problems." -- /. user GigsVT
>>> (208848)
>>>
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