Low End Mac Reader Specials

TypeStyler For Mac OS X is Now Shipping! Download The Free Fully Functional 60 Day Tryout at www.typestyler.com

Don't install Parallels to play poker online! Poker Mac will show you how to download and install a native Mac poker application such as Full Tilt Poker Mac.

Laptop Hardware Provided by TechRestore - Overnight Mac & iPod Repairs.

Compare products like desktop computers, apple laptops, apple macs, and LCD Monitors side by side! All the information and reviews to make the best purchasing decision for new mobile phones, sat nav systems, or MP3 players. The Ciao online shopping community makes searching products easy for you.

Classic Macs in the Intel Age

Mac OS X 10.2 'Jaguar' Can Unleash the Power of G3 iBooks

- 2008.06.17 - Tip Jar

Last time, I promised you a Snow Leopard article. I'm still working on that one, but in the meantime, I just had to write about another Mac in my collection: the Dual USB iBook.

The Clamshell's successor, the Dual USB was something completely different. It lost some weight, and the multiple colors were all gone. Left was only the white polycarbonate, which is still used in the MacBook and had already been used in the iMac.

The Dual USB iBook features PowerPC G3 processors from 500 MHz all the way up to 900 MHz; mine is a 600 MHz version.

dual USB iBook

Now let's talk about how I made this Classic Mac more useful in the Intel Age!

My iBook shipped with Mac OS X 10.1 "Puma", which I still have on the restore CDs. It was quite speedy, but Puma doesn't support many of the applications we use every day, so I figured I'd go modern and install Mac OS X 10.4 "Tiger".

I started by checking if the Mac was compatible. It sure was, with a 600 MHz G3, 30 GB hard drive, and 512 MB of RAM. But for some reason, it refused to install: "Please try installing again." I followed the installer's advice twice but found myself with the same error message.

So I started looking into alternatives. The recent "Linux on Macs" discussion here on Low End Mac got me thinking - maybe Linux could be a good choice for the iBook.

dual USB iBook All the distributions ("distros") of Linux made me crazy, but I did remember using Ubuntu on my Celeron PC two years ago. So I went onto ubuntu.com with my Hackintosh and downloaded the Ubuntu 7.04 PowerPC image. It took a good 45 minutes to download the image (slow server?), but once it was finished, I burned it to CD with Disk Utility.

When the image had been burned, I inserted the Ubuntu installer CD and booted the iBook from it. It took quite some time to boot off the CD, but eventually I was presented with a Live CD desktop containing an Install icon.

Believe it or not, Ubuntu also refused to install! I needed this machine for a trip and was running out of time.

As it turns out, the problem was a faulty RAM stick. I removed the RAM, but now the iBook had only 128 MB ! That's not enough for Ubuntu, Tiger, or Panther.

I dug out my Jaguar (Mac OS X 10.2) disks. The iBook booted very quickly from CD 1, and I chose to do a normal install on the 30 GB drive. (That drive, by the way, did not ship with the iBook. It came with a 20 GB drive, but I upgraded.) Would it work?

That question was answered, and the answer was "Yes".

After installing, the good old Jaguar intro movie popped up, and I had to fill in my personal information.

dual USB iBook Immediately after installing, I remembered I had a 512 MB stick in an old ThinkPad, so I shut down the iBook and installed the memory. Jaguar booted extremely fast and was very, very responsive.

You might think I'd have wanted to upgrade to Tiger, but no. Jaguar was so speedy on the iBook, even letting me view DivX and streaming video, that I simply decided to settle down with it.

And that very iBook still runs Jaguar. It never lets me down, and I'm always stunned at how this little G3 can be so snappy. Jaguar has since grown to be my favorite Mac OS X version for G3 computers (Leopard on newer G4s and G5s, and Tiger on very early G4s).

What do I use the iBook for? Well, since it has AirPort and the battery is in good shape, I use it on the go to surf the Web and watch movies. I also use it to edit and create movies in iMovie and for working with photos in iPhoto. Finally, it occasionally serves as a media center hooked up to my flat screen TV.

So what's my conclusion? It's that a G3 machine can be quite powerful and handle more than you think, which is the purpose of this column - making Classic Macs useful in the Intel Age.

And also that Jaguar is a great operating system for Macs with limited RAM.

Next time, we'll talk about Snow Leopard.

If you find Carl's articles helpful, please consider making a donation to his tip jar.

Recent Columns by Carl Nygren

Is Wirecard a Real Alternative to PayPal?, 08.07. PayPal has an established worldwide presence, but Wirecard is offered by a real bank and has lower fees. Any drawbacks?
Is Windows XP better than Mac OS X 10.4 'Tiger'?, 07.28. Vista is a bust, and Leopard won't run on G3 Macs. How do legacy G3 and G4 Macs with Tiger compare with a fairly modern 2 GHz PC running Windows XP?
Bringing a 233 MHz iMac into the Mac OS X age, 07.15. Upgraded with 128 MB additional RAM and a larger hard drive, the iMacs was ready for Mac OS X 10.2 'Jaguar' - and runs it very nicely.
Upgrading your eMac for better gaming and hi-res video performance, 07.11. This eMac started out with too little RAM and not enough hard drive space. With several upgrades, it plays games quite well and handles HD video content nicely.
More in the Classic Macs in the Intel Age index.

Links for the Day

Mac of the Day: iMac Core Duo, Jan. 2006 - The first Intel-based iMacs ran at 1.83-2.0 GHz, came with 17" and 20" displays.
Group of the Day: Mac Pro List is for those using a Mac Pro.
November 23 in LEM history: 99: Should I buy a USB card? - 01: Can a low-end Mac be an only Mac? - Palm Desktop without a PDA - CyberDog saves the day - 05: How Consumer Reports could compare Macs fairly - Speakers for your Mac - Living with the hi-res 15" PowerBook - Birth of the PowerBook - Daystar 1.9 GHz iMac G4 upgrade - 1.92 GHz PowerBook upgrade
Support Low End Mac

Recent Deals

Best Time Capsule and AirPort Deals, 11.23. Used 802.11g AirPort Extreme, $49; 500 GB Time Capsule, $150; new, $190; 1 TB dual-band, $280; 2 TB, $469; 802.11n AirPort Extreme, $170.
Best 12" PowerBook G4 Deals, 11.23. Used 867 MHz SuperDrive, $348; 1 GHz Combo, $379; SD, $519; 1.33 GHz, $529; 1.5 GHz Combo, $549; SuperDrive, $609.
Best Mac Pro Deals, 11.23. Used 2.66 GHz 4-core, $1,300; 3.0 4-core. $1,919; refurb 2.66 4-core Nehalem, $2,149; 2.93, $2,549; 2.93 8-core, $4,999; new 2.26 8-core, $2,290.
Best eMac Deals, 11.18. Used 1 GHz Combo, $100; SuperDrive, $269; 1.25 GHz Combo, $119; SD, $319; 1.42 GHz Combo, $289; SD, $498.
Best Mac OS X 10.6 and Mac Box Set Deals, 11.18. "Snow Leopard", single user, $25; 5 users, $45; Mac Box Set, single user, $139; 5 users, $180; Server, $414. Shipping included.
Best Xserve Deals, 11.18. Used 1 GHz dual G4, $649; 2.3 dual G5, $795; 3.0 4-core Xeon, $1,899; refurb 2.26 4-core, $2,499; new, $2,888; refurb 8-core, $2,999; new, $3,449; more.
Best 15" MacBook Pro Deals, 11.17. Used 1.83 GHz, $750; 2.16, $800; 2.33, $900; refurb 2.4, $1,299; 2.53, $1,449; 2.66, $1,699; 2.8, $1,899; new 2.53, $1,579; 2.66, $1,799; more.
Best Power Mac G4 and AGP Video Card Deals, 11.17. Used 400 MHz, $50; 933 MHz, $80; 500 dual, $60; 867 dual, $90; 1 GHz dual, $150; 1.25 GHz dual, $225; 1.42 GHz, $499.
Best Mac OS X 10.5 Deals, 11.17. "Leopard" upgrade, $80; single user license, $135; 5 users, $173; Mac Box Set, 5 users, $230; Server, 10 users, $340; unlimited, $850. Shipping included.
More deals in our archive.

About LEM | Support | Usage | Privacy | Contacts

Entire Low End Mac website copyright ©1997-2009 by Cobweb Publishing, Inc., unless otherwise noted. All rights reserved. Advice presented in good faith, but what works for one may not work for all. Please report errors to .
LINKS: We allow and encourage links to any public page as long as the linked page does not appear within a frame that prevents bookmarking it.
Access our RSS news feed at http://lowendmac.com/feed.xml.
Email may be published at our discretion; email addresses will not be published without permission, and we will encrypt them in hopes of avoiding spammers. If you prefer your message not be published, mark it "not for publication." Letters may be edited for length, context, and to match house style.
PRIVACY: We don't collect personal information unless you explicitly provide it. For more details, see our Terms of Use.
Low End Mac is an independent publication and has not been authorized, sponsored, or otherwise approved by Apple Inc. Apple, the Apple logo, Macintosh, iBook, iMac, eMac, iPod, iPhone, PowerBook, MacBook, MagSafe, Mac Pro, Apple TV, and AirPort are registered trademarks of Apple Inc. Additional company and product names may be trademarks or registered trademarks and are hereby acknowledged.