OSX 10.5 Leopard on a G4

[bluest2]

I am thinking of upgrading to Leopard from OSX 10.3.9

I have a 1GHz G4 IMac, with 768MB of RAM and a 60Gb hard drive. This is above the minimum system requirements for Leopard, but not by much. I know some features wont work such as Boot Camp but i don't think it affects anything I would use.

Can anyone advise if it will run OK? Perhaps you have installed Leopard on a G4. I only want to go ahead if it works well, as it all pretty smoothly with the current OS.

[PJLarge]

I've got it running on a 1.5 G4 Powerbook and my brother has it running on a 1.25 GHz (I think) iBook both with at least 1gb RAM. It runs fine in terms of performance but my Powerbook is behaving a little strangely, it sometimes wakes up in the middle of the night and starts running its fans and getting hotter and hotter and hotter which is a bit of a concern. My Intel Macbook Pro seems far better behaved, but all systems have some oddities like iPhoto not wanting to import photos any more and some strange application hangs / terminations. I'd probably hold off for a couple more months till .2 or .3 are released then go for it. I'm undecided whether to format / reinstall my G4 or take it back to 10.4 for now.

[bluest2]

PJLarge said:

I've got it running on a 1.5 G4 Powerbook and my brother has it running on a 1.25 GHz (I think) iBook both with at least 1gb RAM. It runs fine in terms of performance but my Powerbook is behaving a little strangely, it sometimes wakes up in the middle of the night and starts running its fans and getting hotter and hotter and hotter which is a bit of a concern. My Intel Macbook Pro seems far better behaved, but all systems have some oddities like iPhoto not wanting to import photos any more and some strange application hangs / terminations. I'd probably hold off for a couple more months till .2 or .3 are released then go for it. I'm undecided whether to format / reinstall my G4 or take it back to 10.4 for now.

Thanks for the response. As I've got less RAM and MHz than both your examples I'll likely leave it for now

It's pretty much what I expected to here. I'll have to upgrade sooner or later as more and more stuff gets released that wont run on 10.3. It might be better to wait another year or so and buy a more modern Intel system.

[CommanderJameson]

10.5.1 on Mrs Jameson's 993MHz G4 iBook (640MB RAM) seems to work just fine.

Edited by CommanderJameson on Thursday 6th December 12:55

[PJLarge]

Some of my problems might lie in the fact that I did an archive and install rather than a format/re but I didn't fancy waiting whilst I copied off ~120 mb of photos / music. I wish I had now as it looks like I'm going to have to do it again anyway

[AndyWoodall]

I'd so those specs would be ok, possibly the RAM being the only lacking area.

[PJR]

Im running it on a very similar spec powerbook. 1ghz G4 with 768mb of ram. It runs just fine, but yes, a bit more ram would help it along some for sure. However, its getting on a bit now and im not sure its worth shelling out on. Particularly as it only has 1 ram slot (this powerbook has a built in 256mb soldered in + the ram slot), so i'd have to chuck out a perfectly good 512mb chip for a 1gb chip.
This is less of a problem on your iMac however which I believe has 2 ram slots.

Theres quite a few reports of bugs in Leopard, but personally, i've experienced next to none. With the only issues being more to do with one or two minor individual 3rd party apps needing to be updated, rather than any problem with the OS itself.

While im here, some parts of the OS/UI use quartz effects, which for many, require quite a beefy spec Mac. So there may be some 'eye candy' type effects which wont work on your iMac. But no show stoppers.

All the best P,

[bluest2]

I'm in a bit of a dilemma now. I wish Apple did say a 30 day trial or something, which then reverted back to the old OS afterwards.

With regard to the eye candy, if I'm honest, that's probably one of the reason I fancied a change. I like the idea of the cover flow in the finder for example, and being able to use dashboard widgets.

[PJR]

Coverflow should still work (It does on my old powerbook). Im talking about really minor things which wont work for the most part. Like some of the special effects in iChat. Also, you wont get the semi translucent menu bar. Its small silly things like that..

P,

[beanbag]

PJLarge said:

I've got it running on a 1.5 G4 Powerbook and my brother has it running on a 1.25 GHz (I think) iBook both with at least 1gb RAM. It runs fine in terms of performance but my Powerbook is behaving a little strangely, it sometimes wakes up in the middle of the night and starts running its fans and getting hotter and hotter and hotter which is a bit of a concern. My Intel Macbook Pro seems far better behaved, but all systems have some oddities like iPhoto not wanting to import photos any more and some strange application hangs / terminations. I'd probably hold off for a couple more months till .2 or .3 are released then go for it. I'm undecided whether to format / reinstall my G4 or take it back to 10.4 for now.

Get a PC! This never happens when I use my PC!!!

[PJLarge]

beanbag said:

Get a PC! This never happens when I use my PC!!!

Wow, fantastic idea! What's a PC?

[bluest2]

I've taken the plunge. All seems well so far. It was a bit slow for a while after the installation but it seems to have settled down ok. The only noticeable negativse so far is that it seems the hard disk is 'working' a lot harder, if that makes sense. The animation things like the dock, and windows minimizing doesn't seem quite so smooth either.

For info, I just did the upgrade as opposed to a clean install.

I've not really had chance to have a really good look round yet. Not sure if i like cover flow in the finder. I do prefer the newer versions of Mail and Safari. What are peoples favourite bits in Leopard?

[Leithen]

bluest2 said:

I've taken the plunge. All seems well so far. It was a bit slow for a while after the installation but it seems to have settled down ok. The only noticeable negativse so far is that it seems the hard disk is 'working' a lot harder, if that makes sense. The animation things like the dock, and windows minimizing doesn't seem quite so smooth either.

For info, I just did the upgrade as opposed to a clean install.

I've not really had chance to have a really good look round yet. Not sure if i like cover flow in the finder. I do prefer the newer versions of Mail and Safari. What are peoples favourite bits in Leopard?

You may find that you are still going through the initial indexing of your drive by spotlight - once that is done, you ought to notice an an improvement.

[jsr]

I've installed it on my 1.25GHz MacMini with only 512Mb RAM. I runs fine, though i only really use it for web surfing and some web development (my MacBook is my main computer)