Best OS for G3 Laptop?

[javierpyfa]

I'm looking to buy either a G3 Pismo Powerbook (500mhz) or a G3 Clamshell iBook (466mhz). I'd like to know which operating system would best fit the slow processor.

I am definietly going to put a gig of ram into it.

I would be fine with either 10.2, 10.3, or 10.4. I don't need anything specific to either operating system, I just want it to run as efficiently as possible.

Also, what kind of apps could I run without being too slow? Audio Recording (Logic), Final Cut, Web desing stuff (Macromedia), Photoshop?

I really only want it for word processing and internet things, but it would be cool to be able to work with these programs as well. Just wondering if it's going to be too slow. Thanks

 

[MacHeadCase]

Hi javierpyfa. Welcome to Mac-Forums!

On an aging G3, I would install 10.3 Panther. It was very stable and it isn't too taxing on the hardware. Tiger has certain features that your video card won't be able to render.

I would make sure I put as much RAM as I can afford in the G3, though.

 

[macEfan]

I second that! when I had my old g3 ibook, I first had 10.2. When I installed 10.3 the computer performance improved! I would NOT run final cut pro unless it is version 2.0 or something. If you even wanted to consider running fcp, you should have 768mb+ ram...

 

[MDavid]

Panther, will do you just fine. i just sold my g3 not to long ago.

 

[ibookclamman300]

as far as i know you can't upgrade to a gig of ram on either machine.

 

[rollershoer4MAC]

yes you can, I own a g3 and just upgraded. although you cant put 1 gig in a clamshell, only 768mb

 

[ibookclamman300]

apple-history.com, now go to the pages on the specified machines and look at what the max ram is. See, you can't.

 

[AnthonyJK]

To say that, you are implying that rollershoer4MAC doesn't know what he/she is talking about, so I wouldn't say you can't. The apple site says that the macbook can only take 2 gigs when in fact it can take up to 3gigs (C2D).

 

[ibookclamman300]

ok look there was no good reason to give me negative feedback. I was just proving a point that it isn't recommended to upgrade it that far, it was unnecessary and childish, I don't know who did it but it was uncalled for and there was no reason for it.

 

[milessthomas]

panther

I would definatly install Panther. On my former powerbook G3 I had Panther installed before I sold it and it ran better than the 10.2 I had previously installed.

I also have a G3 b/w tower and its runs 10.3 and runs fine on the 400mhz processor, unfortunatly though I am locked out of updating it from 10.3.8 to 10.3.9 until I can get the system pw.

Best of luck with your powerbook, loved mine till the day I sold it, was a great machine.

 

[Alexis]

Why not go for 10.4 Tiger? Every release runs better than the last and it's got some great features.

Tiger runs fine even on a 233Mhz G3 iMac with 364Mb RAM.