Early 2006 iMac 17" ... will this be good for my 5 & 7 year olds for music?

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I am looking to get one of these each for my 5 and 7 year old daughters to use for their kid music and some learning games. I have an early 2009 and love it and would like to get them each an iMac. Will this be great for them?
 

pigoo3

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- Will these computers be getting on the internet?
- Do you expect to purchase any software to be used on these computers?
- Do you have any expectations to be able to run newer OS versions on these computers?
- Do you have any specific software you want to run on theses computers?

* Nick
 
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- yeah they have some learning websites they would like to be on.
- probably wont be looking for software short of word processor really.
- no, snow leopard is fine for them.
- just a word processor, music jukebox (probably iTunes) and a web browser.

Probably Netflix and Pled too. This should be good right?
 
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Oh they do want to play Minecraft.
 

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Thanks for the info. I'm thinking that the biggest issue is that the newest OS these computers can run is 10.6.8. Apple no longer supports 10.6 (support ended Feb, 2014). Which means no security updates.

This may or may not be a big deal for a 5 or 7 year old…since they aren't going to be entering personal info, credit card info, finance info, etc (I'm assuming).

- Of course 5-7 years old will click on just about anything possible when they visit websites…so who knows what sort of ways the computer is going to get "jacked-up" with adware. malware, ransomware, etc.
- Internet performance could be problematic depending on the website. Video & graphics (which many websites have a lot of) will definitely challenge this computer.
- With an older OS…only older versions of Safari with be supported. So you may need to use other browsers to get better internet compatibility. Such as Chrome or FireFox.

These computers are definitely an attractive price. But older hardware does have it's limitations. Young children aren't usually known for their patience. So if the computers are slow…the kids may not like them.

You could try getting just one computer. Set it up the way you want…and let the kids use it. If it works out. Get a 2nd one.:)

- Nick
 
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Ok looks like I can go up to Lion with the late 2006. Lion isn't supported either is it? That doesn't really matter to me, just that they can do the things listed in my posts. So is this computer worth the extra $70?
 

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I have a late 2006 20" C2d like that one. It runs lion fine but I would put 3GB Ram in for Lion. With Snow Leopard I got by with 2GB fine.

It will take 2x2GB Dimms but only use 3GB of it.

The one I bought used to mess around with was about the same price but had a 500GB drive! I was lucky! :D
 
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With Lion would I be able to use modern browsers and iTunes?
 
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With Lion would I be able to use modern browsers and iTunes?

Safari will be behind, but the current version of iTunes is compatible, as is Chrome and some other browsers.
 

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With Lion would I be able to use modern browsers and iTunes?

The computer I'm on at this time is running Lion. So I'm sure I have the latest versions that are compatible with Lion. But there probably are newer versions of Apple apps out there.

Lion is OS 10.7…and Yosemite is the newest OS version, and is 10.10. So Lion is starting to get "long in the tooth". Lion will be the next OS version Apple will discontinue support for (Snow Leopard OS 10.6 has been unsupported since February, 2014).

- Nick
 

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