OT: Mac users: Someone gave me some PowerMac G3s, got a few ?s

[DanDombrowski]

Hey guys,

As one of my million side projects, I refurbish older computers for people at my local church. I ususally take 2 or 3 systems, put all of the memory/hard drives into the best one, reformat the OS (and make sure their income tax data is gone so the poor saps don't get cleaned out when they put the system in the trash), install some free anti-vir/ anti-malware and then give it away or donate it to our Church garage sale or something. So recently, someone donated to me 2 PowerMac G3s, and I don't really know what to do with them.

The first one is a Blue and White PowerMac G3, revision 1, and has OS 9.2.2 on it.. I've done a bunch of reading online, and it seems like OS X 10.2.8 is the highest I can reliably run on the system according to this (http://resale.headgap.com/osxnotesbw.html). I upgraded the memory with some I had lying around from 192 to 448, so its got plenty of memory to run OS X.

The second one is a red/pink Imac that I don't really know the specs on because I didn't have time to do anything but power it up, and didn't have a USB mouse at the location to test with. It has OS 8.6 on it. I still have another 128 and 2 64 mb sticks of PC100 ram, so I'm assuming I can probably get the memory in this system to a decent level before I start messing around with it.

My biggest reason for accepting these is to format the system so that their personal information is gone, but once I do that, I don't have any install discs to reinstall Mac OS 9 or OS X back on them. Does anyone on here happen to have any OS 9 or OS X discs that they might be able to make a copy of for a nominal fee? Copying the restore discs for OS 9 and installing them on a machine that came with OS 9 is still legit, isnt it? Or is there some other route I should take to remain legit?

Also, I see a lot of people selling OS X 10.2 restore discs on ebay for say, an ibook, and stating that they will work on other models. Is this legitimate? Or is there no legit way of purchasing OS 10.2 anymore (Apple only carries 10.4)?

Any other tips for working on these G3 systems I should know about? Thanks for the help guys. Someone I work with has offered to spend about $30 on the iMac system to play around with, so I have about a $30 budget to spend on the disks to be able to get the other one in a condition to donate it or sell it at our garage sale.

[Derek A.]

There are a few linux distributions that will run on these machines. I have one in the basement that I played around with for a few hours.

You can also download an older OS version right off the apple site

http://download.info.apple.com/Apple_Support_Area/Apple_Software_Updates/English-North_American/Macintosh/System/Older_System/System_7.5_Version_7.5.3/

[DigitalRelay]

I've got a copy of OS X 10.2 (Jaguar) CD 1 and 2 here that I can send you, which should run fine on either machine. 448MB of Ram should be okay, but OS X is a ram hog. I'd try to get at least 256 into the iMac, but 512 may be a lot better.

The suggestion about Linux is a good one too. It really depends on what the machines will be used for. If they are to be donated or used as light internet, email, word processors, I'd be inclined to go with Linux. Most Linux distros will be more efficient and less ram hungry than OS X.

BTW, if you have not used Linux before, it's not difficult to try it. There are many Live CD's you can download, burn and run on the machine to try out the OS without having to install. The major downside of Linux for me has been lack of wireless support out of the box. But installing on the B&W or the iMac with an ethernet connection should be a breeze. I'd suggest Ubuntu as a Linux distro, if they have a PPC version (as opposed to the more popular Intel versions). It's one of the more popular distros out there. http://ubuntu.com

PM me if you'd like me to send the OS X 10.2 discs - no charge.

[DigitalRelay]

Second link down is Ubuntu for PPC.

http://espelhos.edugraf.ufsc.br/ubuntu-releases/edgy/

[colo525i]

Gotta "third" the suggestion of linux on those macs. Depending on what model the iMac is, it won't be easy to get to the ram. www.lowendmac.com can help you with specs on each of the models. Ubuntu is fairly well supported as a PPC distro, you should get working sound and ethernet without having to do any configuration. The advantage with linux other than it being free, is that it is the only operating system that will run on these computers that is still being developed for, so problems with code can actually be fixed.

[Morgenster]

This little Imac (350Mhz) is running OS X .3 without issues other than being a bit slow. And I only have 128MB RAM. Don't worry about things not working too much.

[DanDombrowski]

Thanks everyone for the suggestions!

I've used some liveCDs and complete installations of Linux before, I think the last one I used was called Knoppix. While I admit that it worked great on the hardware it was running and had a lot of stuff included, I'm trying to stick with OSs that I can point the user to a store or help desk and say "Stop calling me!"

I know that a lot of the 'people bugging me with questions' is brought on by me offering to help, its a fine line to walk. On one hand, I hate to see people struggling with PII machines on Win 98 that can't afford to buy something new, or toss their old computer out in the trash with everything someone needs to open up a new credit card in their name, but as soon as you help someone like this, they latch on, and then I'm tech support. So, as a habit, I try to put on Operating systems/applications where if the user has trouble, they can call their kids/brother/sister/friend from work and get tech support rather than calling me, and I don't think I can do that with Linux, yet.

That, and people get real mad all of the sudden when their "New" computer can't run Itunes and Kazaa, cus thats all they wanted it for anyway....ugh. I think I enjoy the punishment I get myself into.

[DanDombrowski]

Hmm, thats good news. I haven't found out how much ram the imac has in it yet, but I'm guessing at least 128 (I think that was the minimum) and I have a few 128 mb and 64 mb sticks around, so I'm sure I can get it to have at least 256, depending on the # of sockets.

Digitial Relay offered to mail me some OS X .2 discs, so I think thats what I'm going to go with on both systems. With all the reading I've done, I'm really starting to like the OS X reformat procedure - OS includes everything for every system! I don't have to hunt for upteen obscure old video/lan/modem drivers from the 4,000 different bargain basement PC manufacturers of 5-6 years ago.

Hopefully within a few weeks some happy campers will be enjoyin their new Macs!

[Morgenster]

The two dim slots take PC100 222S in my model. If you can boot the OS that's on it and run 'system Profiler' it should give you all the info you need.

[bimmerd00d]

www.ubuntu.com

runs awesome on that hardware

[E34-520iSE]

I'd have an Imac 350mhz running OS 10.3 any day, rather than the Wincrap Xp/Celeron D I'm having to use at the minute.

[LunatiC]

Instalation discs that came with a Mac do not work on other models. If you can find a disc for an iMac G3, then it should work on other iMac G3s but won't work on an iBook or a PowerBook, for example.

10.2.8 might be the highest version of Mac OS that you can run reliably on the machine, but it may be really slow to use. I personally believe that OS9.2.2 is the best OS to run on that machine, but of course the decision is up to you.

I had an iMac G3 400MHz with a 10GB HDD that I chucked an extra 256MB of RAM on (brought it up to 320MB) and I installed OS X 10.3.9. It was a little slow on boot up, and many of the animations aren't available since the machine only has an 8MB graphics card, but the machine ran pretty well. It was a shame that no one on eBay was interested, so it didn't sell and it's sitting in storage for the time being.

I think the iMac has only 2 RAM slots, so with the memory modules that you have available you can only have up to 192MB RAM, which is quite low for OS X (I've only had experience with Panther and above, so Jaguar might run fine on it). I only had a DVD copy of Panther when I was cleaning and fixing up my iMac, so I illegally got a copy of Panther in CD format (yes I'm man enough to admit it).

Not sure about legality and everything, but people will instantaneously assume an illegal install if the discs you give with the machine are all copied CD-Rs. Then again, if you are interested in selling the machine, I'm not sure how well it would sell with Linux installed -- many people buy Macs for OS X, regardless of how old the hardware is.

Hope all that helps you, and good luck!