My first Mac!

steve1978 · Oct 31, 2011

Hi,

Well i have been a user of windows for... hmm ever(?) and i have decided to start leaning Objective C with the intent on becoming an app developer for Iphone.

To do this i need to have a mac. I picked up a Powerbook G4 for free today, it has 128 on board ram and a further 128 ram stick. it has a 900mhz cpu and currently has 10.4.11 OSX on it.

I am wondering...
what is the latest OS that will go on this?
how much RAM can it take?
What is the best OS for a system of this specification??

Thanks very much for any help.

Germany_chris · Oct 31, 2011

steve1978 said:
Hi,

Well i have been a user of windows for... hmm ever(?) and i have decided to start leaning Objective C with the intent on becoming an app developer for Iphone.

To do this i need to have a mac. I picked up a Powerbook G4 for free today, it has 128 on board ram and a further 128 ram stick. it has a 900mhz cpu and currently has 10.4.11 OSX on it.

I am wondering...
what is the latest OS that will go on this?
how much RAM can it take?
What is the best OS for a system of this specification??

Thanks very much for any help.

1.25GB RAM
10.5.8 Leopard is the most recent OS
Best OS would be IMHO 10.4 Tiger

steve1978 · Oct 31, 2011

Thanks very much my man.

Ijust want it to be able to run the latest Xcode so i can develop some apps. maybe a bit of dreamweaver / flash would also be good.

Zeke_D · Oct 31, 2011

I disagree that tiger would be the best. When I upgraded my G4 iBook from Tiger to Leopard, I noticed a speed increase, as well as better samba network support. I purchased Creative Suite 3 and it worked just fine with Tiger and Leopard. Definitely bump the ram, I am maxed out at 1.25GB.

Germany_chris · Oct 31, 2011

steve1978 said:
Thanks very much my man.

Ijust want it to be able to run the latest Xcode so i can develop some apps. maybe a bit of dreamweaver / flash would also be good.

The latest Xcode is only available for 10.7 and I really don't know where to get older Xcode builds..

In all of this planning make sure to keep in mind that this computer is at least 6 years old and not supported...PPC is great but a C2D will run circles around it.

I have 8GB in my little Mac and PS AI or Dw will go through all of it quite quickly..

Just play around with it, if you like it buy a newish mac if not there is still Linux and Windows..

steve1978 · Oct 31, 2011

Thanks Zeke, Can i ask what RAM you bought? i am trying to do this on a budget as for about £100 i could get a Macbook. The employer sells them cheaply! If i could spend say £20 on this and get a gig of ram then i would be happy, if i am looking at spending say £80 then i would be better off just getting the newer one.

i want to develop apps and to do that on anything other than a mac is a bit of a ball ache. i could always hackintosh it but thats another subject.

Germany_chris · Oct 31, 2011

Zeke_D said:
I disagree that tiger would be the best. When I upgraded my G4 iBook from Tiger to Leopard, I noticed a speed increase, as well as better samba network support. I purchased Creative Suite 3 and it worked just fine with Tiger and Leopard. Definitely bump the ram, I am maxed out at 1.25GB.

I have a 1.33Ghz 1.25Gb 12" G4..and it's a bit slower with 10.5 than 10.4 but not enough to make me go back..but if were going to rely on it for daily use I would..

steve1978 · Oct 31, 2011

in relation to xcode, when you download it would it not take a look at your OS and then give you the version that is relevant?

Germany_chris · Oct 31, 2011

steve1978 said:
in relation to xcode, when you download it would it not take a look at your OS and then give you the version that is relevant?

The only place to get it that I have found is the App Store which is only available on 10.6.8 and up..then if you try to download it on Snow Leopard it'll tell you it's only available for Lion.

I'm sure others will chime in but that has been my experience..l'm just starting and online class for Xcode so I'm no expert..

steve1978 · Oct 31, 2011

What online class are you using? i am using lynda.com

What is your current experience? mine is zero but due to recent unemployment i decided to give it a go. just learning programing basics to gegin with.

If you across any good info sites or anything you find really helpful can you let me know.

ta

Germany_chris · Oct 31, 2011

steve1978 said:
What online class are you using? i am using lynda.com

What is your current experience? mine is zero but due to recent unemployment i decided to give it a go. just learning programing basics to gegin with.

If you across any good info sites or anything you find really helpful can you let me know.

ta

Mine is through my employer..I'm a hardware geek not really software this is more like my boss thinks I have potential soooo

I'll let you know what I discover in the uncharted waters of learning to code :Blushing:

Zeke_D · Oct 31, 2011

I just bought some el cheap ram from new egg. I ran the iBook for 4 semesters, and used blackboard and louie (popular online learning suites) I also ran DW, PS and office 2004. I also used Virtual PC PPC edition and ran windows XP virtually. You are already at one of the best info sites already!