This might be it! This Might be the Switch!

When you look at the specs of my performa to the left, you will see why it can't be used very well for everyday use and definately can't be used as a machine to switch to Mac.

I might be getting this iMac G3!!!!! This might be it! What do you think??? (link below)

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=5111916695

How much do you think it's worth, $450, $500 AU, more less??? Will it be fairly fast? What Wintel specs would you compare it to???


I will be getting a Mac regardless, probably iMac G3 or possibly an iBook Clamshell.

Since I will be getting a Mac regardless, what software/downloads/hardware/extras/ do you think I should get?? Does Safari come with every version of OS X??? Should I get more RAM???

*EDIT* I just recieved news it comes with Panther!!!!

Any feedback would be appreciated.

One more thing, what's the right-click equivelent on a Mac???

Thanks

First, welcome to the real Mac world!
I once had a Performa 5200 like yours, and it is the worst Mac I'v ever had or worked with.
That iMac should do quite well for everyday tasks, allthough I can't tell with which Wintel machine it's comparable. And I think it is also better than a Clamshell iBook.
Panther comes with Safari, as well as Jaguar, don't know for earlier versions of OS X. And yes, you definitely should get more memory, that iMac can take up to 1GB of RAM. you should at least get 512MB. And another mouse! The round mouse is the worse mouse ever designed by Apple.

Right-click with Apple-mouse is Control-click ;-)
But if you buy a USB 2-button-wheel-mouse, you can right-click and scroll just as you do in windows, Mac OS X will recognise it automatically, no drivers needed.

****, a 600mhz g3. I thought my 450mhz was good

If you had 512ram i'd probably compare it to a 1.2ghz pc. somewhere around there. It will run wonderfully.

and what's so bad about the circular mice? I have one

I was a bit temped to get this strawberry which had a 60GIG 7200rpm hard drive, but the colour turned me off it.

It comes with 10.1.5, is this Mac OS version OK?

I would suggest you upgrade to 10.3.4, the latest one. I did so on a friend's old Powermac G4 450MHz (10.1.5 was installed prior) and it gave this machine quite a speed bump. I never tried it on a G3, but I heard it will give you some speed on that one too.
Anyway, no matter which OS X you want to use, get as much RAM as you can.
A 60GB/7200rpm HD would be nice too... ;-) but not strawberry...
Indigo, Graphite or White look great ;-)

@pedrothekevin:

technically, there's nothing wrong with the circular mouse, but it's not very ergonomic...
It's not very well adapted to the hand, and for that gets very tiresome if you work a long time with it.
The Apple Pro mouse has a very nice form, is optical, and looks cool ;-)

But if you're happy with the round one, good for you, enjoy it

Is 10.1.5 still a stable, better than XP operating system, What year did 10.1.5 come out??? I do have a 2 button USB mouse I could use too. I really hope 10.1.5 is better than XP, because I'm getting sick of Windows. Panther would be nice, but that's probably 4 or 5 months away till I can get that.

I'm sure i'll be happy and plesantly supprised

My mum is trying to convince me to get a PC. She knows NOTHING about Mac's, never used one in her life. She said "I love Windows". The only comparason she has is MS-DOS and a few custom OSes for the companies she's worked for.

I'm hoping to switch her as well

How bout that crons and stuff, is Mac Janintor a free download???

How much is it worth (AU), Have I overpaid so far??? ($450 AU)

Matt said:

Is 10.1.5 still a stable, better than XP operating system???

Click to expand...

Absolutely. All versions of OS X are UNIX-based and rock-solid.

Oh, and the iMac looks nice, but IMO seems a bit expensive, so you might want to consider shopping around before you commit to this one. It's obviously all up to you though. Good luck.

Keep in mind it's in AU currency, Padawan, or is it still expensive for AU currency???

I will soon upgrade to Panther if I get the machine.
I have a few Q's:
1.is the update from 10.3 to 10.3.4 free? I asked this question i another forum but can't find it.

2.Are the specs of the machine good enough to run Panther fairly well. I don't expect it to open things the minute I click them, but I guess it would run Panther fairly well.
3.Is Panther faster than 10.1.5 and

4.are there that many incentives to upgrade???

510.2 is Jaguar, 10.3 is Panther, 10.4 WILL be Tiger, whats 10.0 and 10.1???

Thankyou for your help everyone, every comment is appreicated Thanks Avalon for you welcome

Matt said:

Keep in mind it's in AU currency, Padawan, or is it still expensive for AU currency???

I will soon upgrade to Panther if I get the machine.
I have a few Q's:
1.is the update from 10.3 to 10.3.4 free? I asked this question i another forum but can't find it.

2.Are the specs of the machine good enough to run Panther fairly well. I don't expect it to open things the minute I click them, but I guess it would run Panther fairly well.
3.Is Panther faster than 10.1.5 and

4.are there that many incentives to upgrade???

5 10.2 is Jaguar, 10.3 is Panther, 10.4 WILL be Tiger, whats 10.0 and 10.1???

Click to expand...

Actually, after reading it over again, and doing the currency conversion, $450 AUD seems pretty fair. Just double-check with the seller to confirm that it does indeed have all of the features listed.

1. Yes, the Panther updates are free downloads.

2. Definitely. You shouldn't have any problems running Panther on that machine.

3. Yes, Panther generally runs faster than previous versions of OS X.

4. I guess it depends on the person. Panther isn't completely revolutionary compared to earlier versions of OS X, but it's much improved, and I'd definitely upgrade (and in fact I did upgrade my iBook from Jaguar to Panther when it was released).

5. OS X 10.0 is Cheetah and OS X 10.1 is Puma.

And the Jaguar mentioned by Padawan is 10.2 ;-)

10.0 Cheetah
10.1 Puma
10.2 Jaguar
10.3 Panther
10.4 Tiger

after that...maybe Lion?!?

EDIT: Every new Mac user is welcome, Matt ;-)

Hehehe running out of cats... maybe have to make 10.5 Garfield

I wonder how Apple will call the "next generation"

Mac OS 11, Mac OS XI??

Anyway, that won't be anytime soon I guess ;-)

Avalon said:

I wonder how Apple will call the "next generation"

Mac OS 11, Mac OS XI??

Anyway, that won't be anytime soon I guess ;-)

Click to expand...

When steve showed off the 10.0 beta at WWDC (i think) he said that it will last 10 years so i think we might see OS 11 around 2010 + and longhorn may come out around the same time

Thankyou all for your comments and welcomes

Microsoft is stretching their luck with Longhorn, Windows XP will be 5 years old by mid 2006. Microsoft is just getting further and further behind in tecnology. Between the time XP came out and when Longhorn comes out, Apple would have released 4, maybe 5 releases of Mac OS, thats if Microsoft meet their mid 2006 deadline

If Microsoft delays it any longer, I think people will start thinking of alternatives.

I heard that OS 10.0 was a disaster and they gave everyone who bought it a free upgrade to 10.1, or something to that tune, is this true????

I heard that too. I also heard that the first really "good" OS X was 10.2
I switched only about 8 months ago, so I started with 10.3, and occasionally worked with 10.2. I can't tell about any OS X before that.
But I played around also with older systems (7.5, 7.6, 8.6, 9.1 and 9.2) and OS X was DEFINITELY the step in the right direction. I can't really understand why some people would prefer OS 9 over OS X, except of course if they have software that doesn't run under OS X.

I just heard that you can't maximze windows in Macs, is this true???? I know I can in OS 7.5.1, or do you just have to resize the window in the windows larger size mode..

Well, maximize to full screen like Windows, no...
On Mac OS X, you have three window buttons in the top left corner, which are red(x), yellow(-) and green(+).
The red one closes the window, and in case you didn't save the changes in that window, you will be ask if you want to save.
The yellow one minimizes the window to the Dock (with a nice looking Genie-effect ).
The green one maximizes your window according to the document inside. Lets say for example you open a picture in Preview, and the picture perfectly fits the window (no scroll bars). If you zoom in now, the window size doesn't change, but you get scroll bars. when you click the green button now, the window size will adapt to the now bigger picture. Same goes in the other direction, if you zoom out, your picture gets smaller but the window stays the same. Click the green button, and your window will be resized to match the picture.
So it's not really a "maximize" more an "adapt window".