Help! total newb. Can i upgrade from 10.3

Its embarassing but i've had my powerbook g4 for a couple of years now and have never really thought about upgrading it. I know its sad but its worked great for me. But, its getting to the point to where i absolutely need to upgrade and i'm not sure where to start. Do i need to upgrade to tiger first then leopard or snow leopard or is this not a possibility?

Snow Leopard is Intel only, so Leopard is the last possible for your G4. Post your specs for advice on which OS will work acceptably on your hardware. I'm using 10.5.8 on my PB G4 12" and find it works fine, but I use the computer mostly for email, internet browsing, light programming, and other tasks with minimal processor demand.

As advised by Greg, post your specs, and don't be embarresed... it's still a good machine, as old as it is!
It sounds like it's just a matter of getting the Ram you need to make Leopard work for you, and then evaluating the cost of finding Leopard and Ram for a price that makes the upgrade worth your while.
You may be able to get the grey machine specific discs from Apple by calling them with your machine specs, which could make it as low as $20 compared to $180+ for the retail version.

Thanks a lot for the responses. 1.33ghz PowerPC G4 osx version 10.3.9 with 512MB

You meet the min requirements and then some..... but an upgrade to 1GB wouldn't hurt!
Anyway, this is straight from the horses mouth
By the way...... my $180+ for the retail version is based on Ebay prices, where as it will be a little cheaper from Apple ironically.
However, I still believe you may be able to get the discs specific to your Mac from Apple.

When you say i can get it cheaper from apple, you mean apple online? or do you actually mean calling them and asking for the specific disks?

Calling Apple... you will need to quote your machine specifics, serial number, etc
Why I say I'm not sure as to whether they will supply, is that you may be required to upgrade to tiger from Panther before leopard, but because I believe that the machine specific tiger discs may not be available, they may let it slide.
If they say they are available (which I'm pretty certain they are not), just say "cool", can I order both (for an initial outlay of approx $40 instead of $20). Then you will have both

oh wow thanks dude. You've been a tremendous help. I plan on calling them in the morning!! I'll post later how it went if you're curious

Thanks sartorius81, and it's a pleasure.... but remember, GregBrannon is just as deserving of gratitude!
Stick around in Mac Forums. You will find that this is a really cool helpful forum, and that there is a lot to learn here.... I've never come across any other forum like this, PC or Mac!
Good luck tomorrow, and let us know how it goes

Yea, how'd it go?

So i just called them and will soon have the joy of upgrading to the 10.5.6 leopard. I was amazed at how simple it was to call apple, especially after all the great advice i received from you all. Thanks again.
I'll be sure to keep visiting this forum because i'll be among people with good taste in computers.
(i paid 80 for the software and i also received some kind education discount)

Of course, once installed, you can download the 10.5.8 Combo Updater and go to the outer limits of Leopard.

Nice work!
80 in what currency?
Curious as I didn't think they still had Tiger..... was the Tiger and Leopard or just Leopard?