Upgrading to OS X

Hello,

I am a newbie to macs and recently acquired a Mac G4 1ghz, desktop. For some reason, not sure if this is what the computer came with or not, but it has max OS 9.2 on it. I can't do much with that OS and have the discs for leopard and would like to up grade, however, i cannot figure out how to get the computer to boot from the DVD rom as opposed to the hard drive.

I read online that when you turn on the computer you should hold C as it boots up. I did that, the first time, it brought me to a menu where i could click either to boot from the hard drive, or the DVD, however it was pretty slow and i couldn't really click on anything, so i rebooted. I continued to try, but cannot figure out how i got to that menu. I have PC keyboard hooked up to the mac, so i tried doing the same thing and holding the alt key (i believe thats the apple key equivalent on a mac keyboard) and push C.

The other thing i cannot figure out, is the DVD rom seems to open every time i turn on the computer. is that that normal?

I am a pretty PC savy person, but brand new to macs. Really looking forward to the learning the machine, but need to get it up and running first. Any help would be MUCH appreciated.

thanks,

Garrett

You probably used the option key to get to the Startup manager to select the OS. Some other good shortcuts to know. No OS X??
The link you have is accurate. Do you have a retail version of Leopard? (Black DVD and not the gray?)
Also, which Mac so you have? Select the Apple icon, top left, About this Mac.
In OS9 it should have Apple System Profiler as well.

The Mac is a Power PC G4 1 Ghz. with a gig of ram. from what i have read, it should be able to handle leapord no problem.

Still nothing seems to happen when i repetitively hit C on start up. is there something else i should be doing. The fact that the DVD ROM opens every time i start it... is that normal?

very confused still.

Not sure if this is what you are doing but just in case, you don't tap the C key over and over, you hold it down solid right after the startup sound and keep it down till it starts to boot from the DVD.

Like Soulwar asked, what Leopard DVD is this? Black? Gray?

Also no, power on should not cause the DVD drive tray to open.