Subj : Re: Macs
To   : Nightfox
From : esc
Date : Mon Jan 08 2024 18:35:14

 Ni> Yeah, I liked the UI in OS 7 through 9 (and early OS X as well, through
 Ni> Tiger). The G4 that I bought had OS X 10.4.11 on it, and I upgraded it
 Ni> to 10.5.6. I rememebr those versions of OS X having an OS 9
 Ni> compatibility layer (which I think was an actual copy of OS 9), and I've
 Ni> debated whether I'd want to just do that (so I can use OS X stuff as
 Ni> well) or actually have it run OS 9 natively.  I'm not sure if it has the
 Ni> OS 9 compatibility layer currently though, and I think you'd have to
 Ni> have OS 9 installed and then upgrade to OS X?

OS X 10.4.11 is the last version with Classic mode. Essentially you install 10.4.11 and then install Classic mode inside it. There are stripped down ways to install, I would shar elinks but typing from iPad :) google should help you out here.

10.4.11 is, IMO, the best PPC OSX release. It is the most up to date with good performance and Classic mode. 10.5 is nice but slows things down quite a bit and also kills Classic mode.

I think if you look at the macrumors forums you'll find a 10.4.11 upgrade bundle which streamlines the OS quite a bit and should be the first thing you do after a fresh install.

On the other hand, if your goal is to use OS 9 (which I encourage!), go to the os9lives forums and snag an ISO. I think you can install directly from the ISO but can't remember the most recent instructions. You may need a little USB audio adapter unless they fixed the onboard audio issues, but other than that, you'll have a screaming fast OS 9 with all the bells and whistles, a supported GPU, networking, and game compatibility. It's amazing.

I don't personally like OSX on a G4 as much - I have a G5 for OSX. I find the G4 just lacks in performance.

MorphOS is another great OS to use on a Mac Mini G4. You can actually multi-boot. I have MorphOS, OS9, OS X 10.4, OS X 10.5, and Gentoo all running on mine. That said I only really use OS9 and everything else exists there due to all the effort it took me to get it installed :P

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