Foo - Ok, I just got an Apple laptop...

A used early IBook G3 in Indigo. Now WTH do I do with it?

According to this article (http://www.lowendmac.com/cwebb/06/0811.html), it's perfectly fine for MS Office and iTunes under OS X (I think the highest you can go is 10.3). Try to max out the RAM before running anything recent on it, though. It's a usable, if not fast, basic word processing / web browsing / music playing machine.

OS 9 might run faster on it, but it might be a bit tougher to find the software you need.

gentoo

LIYE ~ gentoo?


It has OS9, no AirPort (can I just get a USB wireless adapter or am I stuck getting shafted on an AirPort), needs a battery has CD-ROM only, 10 Gb HD and seems to move rather well.

This in my virginal trip into the world of Apple and have to learn how do rudimentary operations... like stop the stinking AOL/IM from loading on boot. Any suggestions on where to go to learn this primitive (looks alot like the desktop from the old ][c) and alien o/s?

I've got a Blueberry iBook that's been running OSX since the beta. It's not always the best experience in the world (I've got a 12" PowerBook now) but it has served me well. I maxed out the ram to like 288 megs of ram, and years ago I stuffed a 30GB 2.5" hard drive into it.

I'd upgrade to OSX as soon as you can, for as cheap as you can (ahem). Anything 10.3 and above should be decent. OS9 -was- good, but you might get frustrated with it mighty quick, it's very last generation.

OR, you could go Ubuntu as well :)

Edit: Oh yeah and the old colored iBooks are indestructable. If I was going on a flight or something I'd probably revive mine just so I had something a little more durable than my current PB.

This in my virginal trip into the world of Apple and have to learn how do rudimentary operations... like stop the stinking AOL/IM from loading on boot. Any suggestions on where to go to learn this primitive (looks alot like the desktop from the old ][c) and alien o/s?Open up:

- SystemFolder -> StartupItems

And see what's in there. If you do View by Name (list), you can open up both the StartupItems folder and teh StartupItems(disabled) right below it. Move the AOL/IM from StartupItems -> StartupItems(disabled).

I would suggest running OSX on it to get compatibility and SPEED with the latest software. Much more stable too... been around since 1987-88 or so... :)

ask these folks:

http://www.macaddict.com/forums/forum/16

all my powerbooks are extremely vintage, so i've got no clue.

Gentoo, Ubunto... WTF? Engrish man engrish!

Gentoo, Ubunto... WTF? Engrish man engrish!
They're linux nerds. They know nothing of english or engrish. All they care about is you use their "****ed up distro" because its "the best"

Open up:

- SystemFolder -> StartupItems

And see what's in there. If you do View by Name (list), you can open up both the StartupItems folder and teh StartupItems(disabled) right below it. Move the AOL/IM from StartupItems -> StartupItems(disabled).

I would suggest running OSX on it to get compatibility and SPEED with the latest software. Much more stable too... been around since 1987-88 or so... :)


Thanks Danno, worked like a charm!


Now this OSX upgrade... From System Profiler: 192mb memory (64 on DIMM0 & 128on DIMM1) is that enough to run OSX?

Stacey, depends on what you decide you want to do with the computer. If the goal is to decide whether you like a modern Mac, yeah, upgrading to OS X is priority #1 since that's what you would be dealing with on any newer Mac. On the other hand, if your goal is simply to use Office and the internet, OS 9 frankly is just fine. 192 MB of RAM should be enough for basic uses of that sort.

Oh, and if you're out to try out iTunes, iPhoto, or any other new Apple lifestyle applications, well, you gotta get OS X. Don't even think about any version under 10.2 (patched up to 10.2.8), and preferably get 10.3 (patched up to 10.3.9) or 10.4 (latest version, currently 10.4.7--or is it .8 now?--with some new cool toys). Personally, I'm still running 10.3 because I'm too lazy to upgrade regularly and get used to changes regularly. I'll wait for 10.5 for my next major OS upgrade.

In any case, there's plenty of OS X users around, so ask away. Some of us also still run an OS 9 computer (I do), so if you are sticking with OS 9, ask away anyway.

Now this OSX upgrade... From System Profiler: 192mb memory (64 on DIMM0 & 128on DIMM1) is that enough to run OSX?

Yeah that should be enough to run it without unreasonable hiccups. It'll be a really decent on-the-road computer.

Stacey, depends on what you decide you want to do with the computer. If the goal is to decide whether you like a modern Mac, yeah, upgrading to OS X is priority #1 since that's what you would be dealing with on any newer Mac. On the other hand, if your goal is simply to use Office and the internet, OS 9 frankly is just fine. 192 MB of RAM should be enough for basic uses of that sort.

Oh, and if you're out to try out iTunes, iPhoto, or any other new Apple lifestyle applications, well, you gotta get OS X. Don't even think about any version under 10.2 (patched up to 10.2.8), and preferably get 10.3 (patched up to 10.3.9) or 10.4 (latest version, currently 10.4.7--or is it .8 now?--with some new cool toys). Personally, I'm still running 10.3 because I'm too lazy to upgrade regularly and get used to changes regularly. I'll wait for 10.5 for my next major OS upgrade.

In any case, there's plenty of OS X users around, so ask away. Some of us also still run an OS 9 computer (I do), so if you are sticking with OS 9, ask away anyway.


Thanks jason, that's what I wanted to hear. I'd really like to keep this on the cheep if I can. I've only got $25.00 invested in the computer... complete with all the discs & docs, a yo-yo and mouse too :)

I do need to get a battery. they look reasonable at around $50 on the bay. What I think I want to use it for is just playing a few games on it when there nothing on the tube, or someone wants to watch something I have no interest in.

For the money they're fetching, I just might flip it if I get bored with it. But It does seem like a rugged unit... I wouldn't want to get hit in the head with it. :lol:

For your intended purpose, just stick with OS 9. Maybe get a cheapo copy of MS Office 98 if you get a chance just in case you ever feel like being productive with it. But otherwise, just get yourself a decent browser on it and get a few freeware games and that should do the job just fine.

Me productive :eek: the ultimate slacker?

Oh, one more question. Do I need an AirPort to go wireles or can I just use a USB wireless adapter?

+1 on staying in OS9 for all the silly shareware and freeware games. I'd recommend looking into Ambrosia Software, makers of stupidly addictive arcade games. 192MB should be plenty for anything you want to do in OS9.

The slickest way to go wireless is with an internal Airport card -- you should be able to find one on eBay. If you don't want to do that, a USB adapter might work, but make sure in advance that you can use it with OS9. I'm not sure that all USB wireless adapters will let you do that.

You should be able to go wireless without Airport, but you need to make sure you use a USB setup that has a Mac OS 9 driver. Failing that, it may be cheaper/easier finding a used Airport card. (Hmm... gbcb just said that, too.)

gbcb hit it right on the head. Ambrosia Software. I loved some of their games back in my pre-cycling days. Escape Velocity comes to mind. Especially with some of the fancy mods out there. I love flying around the galaxy in my Kestrel (or better yet, in one of the mods, an Atomic Kestrel, escorted by six captured Sentinels).

Dude, it's a NEUTRONIC Kestrel :D

I managed to subdue the entire galaxy in that thing. Every system paying me tribute just so I wouldn't hurt 'em. Ahh, those were the days!

I was also a big fan of Ambrosia's Barrack -- more arcadey than Escape Velocity, and a bit safer for a few minutes' distraction. Escape Velocity tended to make hours disappear.

Oh right... that's the one. Sorry... it's been a while. I tried flying around in Sentinels. I didn't have the reflexes for it, plus it was hard to not accidently hit friendly's when using its absurdly powerful beam weapon. But having them as escorts was DA BOMB!

And now I remember... I didn't capture the Sentinels. (Don't I wish!) I bought them one by one, each time riding in the Sentinel until I could disable and board another ship to take over as my own. Then buying a new Sentinel. Until I had my full complement of six Sentinel escorts. Then bought a new Neutronic Kestrel and fully upgraded it. A Neutronic Kestrel with six Sentinel escorts was virtually invincible. :D

See if you can identify your iBook here (http://www.lowendmac.com/pb2/index.shtml). This site is a great resource for figuring out what you can and cannot do with an older Mac.

I too lean towards sticking with OS9, but just keep in mind that you're not going to really get the best idea of what a Mac can do these days if you're pre-OSX. What's really great is that if you decide you really like Macs and want to do more (iTunes!), you can get something newer for under $500 that will run OSX. I've actually never owned anything but a Mac, U of Mi got me hooked way back when.

See if you can identify your iBook here (http://www.lowendmac.com/pb2/index.shtml). This site is a great resource for figuring out what you can and cannot do with an older Mac.

I too lean towards sticking with OS9, but just keep in mind that you're not going to really get the best idea of what a Mac can do these days if you're pre-OSX. What's really great is that if you decide you really like Macs and want to do more (iTunes!), you can get something newer for under $500 that will run OSX. I've actually never owned anything but a Mac, U of Mi got me hooked way back when.
Having used and been utterly frustrated by the latest 3 revisions of Mac OSX and I would cringe at seeing or using a pre osx version :p

Well, to run EDIT: tiger/ OS 10.4.7 you're going to need at minimum 256mb of RAM, a DVD drive for installation and 3GB of space on your hard drive. If you don't have a DVD drive, you can order the CDs from Apple. To get wireless, good luck. Apple doesn't have cheap Airport cards. IIRC, they are selling the through their service department only and they'll run close to $500, but you can find them on fleaBay for about $150 last time I checked. If you go USB, there's only one USB adapter that will work. I forget which one it is though. If nothing else, you can use it to play Number Muncher.

What are you talking about? I've run OS 9 (without OS X) on computers with 64 MB RAM. And as for wireless, even brand new Airport cards never ran anywhere close to $500.

What are you talking about? I've run OS 9 (without OS X) on computers with 64 MB RAM. And as for wireless, even brand new Airport cards never ran anywhere close to $500.

Oops. I meant Tiger. The Airport cards are expensive because they aren't produced anymore. They replaced them with the Airport Extreme cards which of course won't work in older G3's. CA law states that the manufacturer has to provide a replacement for a product covered under a warranty for 7 years or something like that (I'm not sure on the exact wording). I know it doesn't make sense why they are so expensive. I worked for a store that sold primarily Apple computers and we had an on site tech. We always had people bringing in old G3 iBooks and wanting wireless. We had a huge hooplah with Apple about the replacement Airport cards and the only ways to get them is through the service department ($$$$$) or eBay.

What are you talking about? I've run OS 9 (without OS X) on computers with 64 MB RAM. And as for wireless, even brand new Airport cards never ran anywhere close to $500.
for 500 you can almost get an iMac :p

Oops. I meant Tiger. The Airport cards are expensive because they aren't produced anymore. They replaced them with the Airport Extreme cards which of course won't work in older G3's. CA law states that the manufacturer has to provide a replacement for a product covered under a warranty for 7 years or something like that (I'm not sure on the exact wording). I know it doesn't make sense why they are so expensive. I worked for a store that sold primarily Apple computers and we had an on site tech. We always had people bringing in old G3 iBooks and wanting wireless. We had a huge hooplah with Apple about the replacement Airport cards and the only ways to get them is through the service department ($$$$$) or eBay.
See that right there in a nutshell
aside from the fact that Mac went against everything that 99.9% of the computer world has agreed to
is why Mac has a perhaps 2% overall world wide market penetration. Because you have to go through so many hoops and feel like so many piles of steaming **** to get something that i can do to my AMD K6 233mhz computer that I bought back in the 90's. Heck I can probably get wireless on a 486 easier and cheaper.

Thanks Danno, worked like a charm!

Now this OSX upgrade... From System Profiler: 192mb memory (64 on DIMM0 & 128on DIMM1) is that enough to run OSX?Yeah, you can run OSX 10.3 just fine with 192mb memory. Download XPostFacto 3.0 (http://eshop.macsales.com/OSXCenter/XPostFacto/Framework.cfm?page=XPostFacto.html) to install OSX on "unsupported" older Mac hardware. It also provides an easy way to dual-boot between OSX and OS9 in the rare cases where the OS9-Classic doesn't work from within OSX.

What I've been doing a lot lately is installing OSX-86 on non-Apple laptops. Requires a minimum AMD/Pentium with SSE2:

http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e346/DannoXYZ/ComputerTech/DellOSX.jpg

As for wireless, don't use USB adaptors, they're dog@ss slow! You don't need to go with Apple hardware like the Airport stuff. A lot of generic PC wireless cards will work just fine. A lot of the chipset drivers are built into OSX, so just plug it in, set your WEP/WPA settings, etc. and that's it. Check out these sites:

http://www.penmachine.com/techie/airport1400.html
G3 ibook to use generic PC wireless card (http://www.ehmac.ca/showthread.php?t=35241)
MacWindows - CrossPlatform Wireless Networking (http://www.macwindows.com/airportpc.html)
You can actually use the AeroCard drivers (http://www.macsense.com/product/networking/wireless.htm) with most Linksys wireless cards.

LIYE ~ gentoo?


It has OS9, no AirPort (can I just get a USB wireless adapter or am I stuck getting shafted on an AirPort), needs a battery has CD-ROM only, 10 Gb HD and seems to move rather well.

This in my virginal trip into the world of Apple and have to learn how do rudimentary operations... like stop the stinking AOL/IM from loading on boot. Any suggestions on where to go to learn this primitive (looks alot like the desktop from the old ][c) and alien o/s?

Gentoo (www.gentoo.org) and Ubuntu (http://www.ubuntu.com/). If you have another computer, this would be the perfect opportunity to get your feet wet wrt linux. The ubuntu installer's closer to what most people are used to with windows/osx, but if you can install gentoo it'll provide you with a nice install experience, and a lot of free software, probably everything you'd use on a mac will be available on gentoo/ubuntu for free. You could even install portage, which is essentially the gentoo program installer, in order to use linux programs compiled for your arch (ppc) running under osx...
As for osx, I messed with osx86, but there wasn't really anything notable about it, especially when compared to xgl (http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=xgl).

What was the price for the lap top?.

A used early IBook G3 in Indigo. Now WTH do I do with it?
Use it to watch this video.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6553260189868317794

What was the price for the lap top?.
I paid $25 + 10% buyers premium + 6% PA Sales Tax at an auction Friday night. Why?

Use it to watch this video.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6553260189868317794


Crash Different :roflmao:

Yeah, you can run OSX 10.3 just fine with 192mb memory. Download XPostFacto 3.0 (http://eshop.macsales.com/OSXCenter/XPostFacto/Framework.cfm?page=XPostFacto.html) to install OSX on "unsupported" older Mac hardware. It also provides an easy way to dual-boot between OSX and OS9 in the rare cases where the OS9-Classic doesn't work from within OSX.

What I've been doing a lot lately is installing OSX-86 on non-Apple laptops. Requires a minimum AMD/Pentium with SSE2:

As for wireless, don't use USB adaptors, they're dog@ss slow! You don't need to go with Apple hardware like the Airport stuff. A lot of generic PC wireless cards will work just fine. A lot of the chipset drivers are built into OSX, so just plug it in, set your WEP/WPA settings, etc. and that's it. Check out these sites:

http://www.penmachine.com/techie/airport1400.html
G3 ibook to use generic PC wireless card (http://www.ehmac.ca/showthread.php?t=35241)
MacWindows - CrossPlatform Wireless Networking (http://www.macwindows.com/airportpc.html)
You can actually use the AeroCard drivers (http://www.macsense.com/product/networking/wireless.htm) with most Linksys wireless cards.


Danno, you lost me at "download" :o

I'm starting to feel like I'm back in the 80's and learning about these computer things all over again. :lol:

I think I'm just going to pick up a battery, stick with OS9, and use a hard wired LAN connection for now. The MAC environment is so embarassingly alien to me. :(

See that right there in a nutshell
aside from the fact that Mac went against everything that 99.9% of the computer world has agreed to
is why Mac has a perhaps 2% overall world wide market penetration. Because you have to go through so many hoops and feel like so many piles of steaming **** to get something that i can do to my AMD K6 233mhz computer that I bought back in the 90's. Heck I can probably get wireless on a 486 easier and cheaper.

This post ==

http://www.medicaltronik.ca/images/produits/garbage_bag_2.jpg

Yeah, you can run OSX 10.3 just fine with 192mb memory. Download XPostFacto 3.0 (http://eshop.macsales.com/OSXCenter/XPostFacto/Framework.cfm?page=XPostFacto.html) to install OSX on "unsupported" older Mac hardware. It also provides an easy way to dual-boot between OSX and OS9 in the rare cases where the OS9-Classic doesn't work from within OSX.

What I've been doing a lot lately is installing OSX-86 on non-Apple laptops. Requires a minimum AMD/Pentium with SSE2:

http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e346/DannoXYZ/ComputerTech/DellOSX.jpg

As for wireless, don't use USB adaptors, they're dog@ss slow! You don't need to go with Apple hardware like the Airport stuff. A lot of generic PC wireless cards will work just fine. A lot of the chipset drivers are built into OSX, so just plug it in, set your WEP/WPA settings, etc. and that's it. Check out these sites:

http://www.penmachine.com/techie/airport1400.html
G3 ibook to use generic PC wireless card (http://www.ehmac.ca/showthread.php?t=35241)
MacWindows - CrossPlatform Wireless Networking (http://www.macwindows.com/airportpc.html)
You can actually use the AeroCard drivers (http://www.macsense.com/product/networking/wireless.htm) with most Linksys wireless cards.

I need to hit you up one of these days. :p I want to put triple boot and put OSX on my HP DuoCore laptop . I'm told it won't go quietly however.

This post ==

http://www.medicaltronik.ca/images/produits/garbage_bag_2.jpg
actually its not garbage. It's the same success story that Intel and Microsoft followed
For Intel every tiawanese kid and their brother could build hardware that interfaced with Intel's product offerings. Motherboard, sound card, and every imaginable device known to man sprung up out of nowhere. In a world where IBM and Radio Shack/Tandy and other corporations were trying to kill ther personal computer and companies like Mac and (i believe commodore) were locking the machines down so nobody else could do anything with them this was a gold mine for people, businesses and individuals.

Microsoft shipped developer tools that could be used by many people free with early versions of dos. People who had little to no programming experience were able to these free tools to create solutions that fit into tons of businesses.

Both overnight (in comparison to most technology revolutions) Microsoft and Intel becamse the Kings in their area because of what they did. They created something that could be capitalized on by millions.

Nobody could capitalize on anything Mac offered. If something you do or offer can guarantee capitalization by somebody else you have a winning model.

I need to hit you up one of these days. :p I want to put triple boot and put OSX on my HP DuoCore laptop . I'm told it won't go quietly however.Heh, heh... the only difficultly with loading OSX-86 onto non-Apple hardware is that it looks for certain hardware, like EFI and TPM. But you can modify the install-script to bypass those checks. EFI's handy because you can select boot-partitions at the hardware level and don't have to use any bootloader code/menus at all. The OS thinks it's the only one installed, which it really is, each one on a separate partition. PCs with traditional BIOS can do the same by having multiple primary partitions and just hiding the ones you're not using and making the boot one active (provided it's within the 1st 1024 cylinders on the HD). There main issue is OSX drivers for non-Apple hardware, but there's a HUGE hacker group working on those: OSx86 Project (http://www.osx86project.org/).

For the LINUX geeks, OSX is really the ultimate evolution of *NIX implementation. Doesn't require complicated boot-CDs and convoluted installation procedures. And the GUI integration with the UNIX kernel is the best out there. You can even run Windows & apps simultaneously through the Parallels Workstation (http://www.parallels.com/) virtual-machine. Or even run Windows apps by themselves through the WINE (http://www.winehq.com/) API. We're getting close to the grand-unified theory of computing with a universal machine that'll run anything and everything without dual-booting needed. Very, very exciting! :)

A used early IBook G3 in Indigo. Now WTH do I do with it?

You have my condolences.

For the LINUX geeks, OSX is really the ultimate evolution of *NIX implementation. Doesn't require complicated boot-CDs and convoluted installation procedures. And the GUI integration with the UNIX kernel is the best out there. You can even run Windows & apps simultaneously through the Parallels Workstation (http://www.parallels.com/) virtual-machine. Or even run Windows apps by themselves through the WINE (http://www.winehq.com/) API. We're getting close to the grand-unified theory of computing with a universal machine that'll run anything and everything without dual-booting needed. Very, very exciting! :)


disagree very strongly

OS X and its kernel especially is CLOSED source, on top of that the GUI choices with OS X are indeed quite limited, best GUI out there? cant agree with that at all

Linux geeks if they are like me for many reasons wouldnt touch a closed source kernel even if paid to do so, and especially an OS like OS X which requires so many API's and layers on top of which to work properly, no thanks, even many of the linux GUI's and the various API's they use have gone way past any point of making sense, at least they are free and open source though.

yes the universal binary format is indeed almost ready for mainstream, when that happens the base OS of anykind will indeed possibly become irrelevant, the implications of this are staggering

OS X, at least the PPC version uses the mach3 microkernel which I am not a fan of at all, if you like more power to you