Cleaning up a iBook for a soldier in Iraq.

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Let me begin with the fact that I have absolutely no knowledge about Macs.

My wife and I picked up a G3 iBook, model #A1005 for $50 from a local school district selling their old models. We figured it would be great for her brother in Iraq, as he has no laptop to communicate with his wife and child.

He too has no experience with Macs. He will be using it to surf the web, and use messenger services such as Yahoo, etc.

From what I can tell in the "Apple System Profiler" menu, this iBook has:
OS 9.2.2
640 MB of RAM
Processor Speed of 600 MHz
and it does have the AirPort Wi-Fi Card included.

My questions are these:

1. I have no discs for any sort of software. How do I resore and wipe this iBook?

2. Learning new stuff is not his best trait. Should we stay with the current OS 9.2.2 or upgrade to OS X? Again I know nothing of Macs. Frankly I am affriad that he will not use 9.2.2 because of his inability to learn new things. (look, he's lazy and not too appreciative, I'm affraid he'll just put it to the side and not use it unless we make it as user friendly as possible.)

3. I want to have everything set up and ready for him when he opens the package. (tuned for reliability and have yahoo already installed)

4. He also uses Yahoo Messenger for VOIP. Anything I can do to help him out there?

Again my wife and I appreciate everything you can help us out with. Who knows, maybe this will get me switched over from PC to Mac.
 
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Mac Mini Core i7 2012 | White 2009 MacBook 2 Ghz | 733 Mhz G4 Quicksilver
I think this is your machine

http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/ibook/stats/ibook_600.html

As its for a serving soldier I'll do my best:

It already has the maximum RAM

To clean it up I would get rid of everything apart from the system folder - leave that as is. you shouldn't need any old os 9 apps

Install Mac os X panther. You can get this off ebay - make sure you but the retail version, not any grey discs that only work on specific macs

afbc_2.JPG


http://search.ebay.com/search/searc...&ftrv=1&saprclo=&saprchi=&fsop=1&fsoo=1&fgtp=

you could install 10.4 Tiger if you wish but 10.3 Panther will do

After you have installed panther then come back and we can deal with messenger and VIOP - all of which are better supported in OS X

If he needs Office programs then there is a free version of office called NeoOffice that will open up work docs etc.
 
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Is there any sort of system restore I should, or could do before deleting everything but the System Folder?

Also, is there a way to use that Panther on more than 1 computer? I may try to do this with more than one laptop, and send it to another soldier.

Again I thank you very much for the info.
 
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Everything louishen has said is dead on target. I would only add that if your brother in law is a total noob then delete the old System 9 stuff. It is very outdated at this point and will probably only serve to confuse. Great gift idea, and thank him for his service!
 
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What Sherman Homan said is correct. If he is unlikely ever to use classic apps (which does seem unlikely) then when panther installs opt to format the drive and start really fresh if you want.

The only thing I would add is find out if there is anybody else in his unit or team that knows about macs, then he'll have someone to help him use the mac
 
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Thank you very much for the assistance. I went ahead and bought a family pack of Panther for 5 computers, I also went ahead and bought 4 more notebooks.

5 G3 iBooks @ 600 MHz, 640 mb of RAM, & 20 gb of memory....

upgraded to OS X 10.3 Panther....

for about $330.

Probably keep one for myself to see how I like Mac. And the other four are going to needy soldiers.

I like the forums, and you guys seem real nice. Hope to see you guys around.

Appreciate it.
 
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Let me begin with the fact that I have absolutely no knowledge about Macs.

My wife and I picked up a G3 iBook, model #A1005 for $50 from a local school district selling their old models. We figured it would be great for her brother in Iraq, as he has no laptop to communicate with his wife and child.

He too has no experience with Macs. He will be using it to surf the web, and use messenger services such as Yahoo, etc.

From what I can tell in the "Apple System Profiler" menu, this iBook has:
OS 9.2.2
640 MB of RAM
Processor Speed of 600 MHz
and it does have the AirPort Wi-Fi Card included.

My questions are these:

1. I have no discs for any sort of software. How do I resore and wipe this iBook?

2. Learning new stuff is not his best trait. Should we stay with the current OS 9.2.2 or upgrade to OS X? Again I know nothing of Macs. Frankly I am affriad that he will not use 9.2.2 because of his inability to learn new things. (look, he's lazy and not too appreciative, I'm affraid he'll just put it to the side and not use it unless we make it as user friendly as possible.)

3. I want to have everything set up and ready for him when he opens the package. (tuned for reliability and have yahoo already installed)

4. He also uses Yahoo Messenger for VOIP. Anything I can do to help him out there?

Again my wife and I appreciate everything you can help us out with. Who knows, maybe this will get me switched over from PC to Mac.

WOW,
that for $50?!?!? Good buying skills!

Do you know if they have any left?
You could buy them and resell them (or give them to more soldiers),
I know i would take one :D , (seriously)

Anyway,
Thats a nice gesture.
Tell everyone thanks and we hope they return safely.
 

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