Brought an iMac G4 back from the dead - now what?

Okay, several years ago our G4 died and we upgraded. Admittedly we were deficient on upgrading the system as we should have and it finally died. I forgot we even had the thing until I stumbled across it and after reinstalling the operating system it's up and running again just fine. I'd love for my kids to have a nice internet computer. The problem of course is it's stuck in the past, since all the updates were wiped. Below is a list of what it's currently running so you can get an idea. I can't seem to update anything since it's running Internet Explorer 5.2 and many sites don't seem compatible with this version, so browsing is terrible. When I try to upgrade the browser to Chrome or Firefox I'm in a chicken and egg problem because I don't have a new enough OS. Where should I start and what should I do?

Currently:
OS X 10.2
IE 5.2
Itunes 3.0
Quicktime 6.0.1

Thanks!
Bryan

If you use Software update, you can easily update it to 10.2.8 at least. It has a very old Safari after that update which will maybe do better than IE, but without a newer version of OSX, you are stuck.

Can you give the basic specs please of the iMac? If it has a G4 867 Mhz CPU in it, you can max out the RAM and install 10.5 Leopard. If not you would be stuck with Tiger 10.4. 10.5 will be hard to find used without paying a small fortune though. 10.4 Tiger would be easier on say Ebay for less $$$.

More info on the iMac please.

The crazy thing is I can't figure out where 'software update' is on this computer. It's like it isn't there. It's not under the Apple menu like it is on my newer iMac. Software update was the first thing I looked for, then when I couldn't find it I had to resort to downloading software using the browser which put me in the problem I have now.

It's 800 MHz.

In 10.2 Software update was in System Preferences. They moved it to the Apple menu in 10.3 Panther! I started with 10.2 also and after a year with 10.3, I used 10.2 on an older Mac and it freaked me out also! Could not find Software Update!

Well I be ****ed. Ran it and it's updating to 10.2.8 as well as installing Safari 1.0.

So after those updates, with my system configurations, what OS will work for me to upgrade to? It sounds like 10.4 Tiger is my best bet?

darthbryan said:

So after those updates, with my system configurations, what OS will work for me to upgrade to? It sounds like 10.4 Tiger is my best bet?

Click to expand...

Yes...10.4 Tiger is your best bet. But an install disk is going to cost you around $75 off e-Bay.

- Nick

Okay, great. Thanks guys!

Thanks to all for the replies. I think I'll hit ebay for the system updgrades but I have a bit of a technical question . . .

what is the ceiling for this computer? It seems like I'll hit a dead end shortly for updating, and things will start passing me by. Does anyone run a G4 similar to this, with any advice?

darthbryan said:

what is the ceiling for this computer? It seems like I'll hit a dead end shortly for updating, and things will start passing me by. Does anyone run a G4 similar to this, with any advice?

Click to expand...

Of course you will be hitting various "ceilings" (it's a 10-11 year-old computer)! You can't/won't be able to:

- Run the latest Mac OS. 10.7 is the most current, 10.4 is 3 versions old.
- Run the latest software.
- There will be a lot of webpages that will load very slowly (or not at all). AND COMPLETELY forget about You-Tube or any internet based video.

Max ram for this computer is 1gig...which is probably ok if running OS 10.4.

This is a 10-11 year-old computer...so expectations should be "adjusted" accordingly. "Light" internet browsing & e-mail is primarily all you can do with this computer...unless you also have access to 10 year-old software for doing other tasks.

HTH,

- Nick