Question about making the leap from O/S 9 to Panther

gandalf the semi-coherentgandalf the semi-coherent
Posted:
in macOS edited January 2014
Forgive me if this question is more appropriate for the Genius Bar, but I've had a really bad day, and I thought this might be the best forum in which to ask.



It looks like I may be forced to upgrade my iMac DV 400 to Panther, since I learned upon receiving my new 20gig iPod (after my old 1st Gen was stolen on a trip to Hawaii) that it requires O/S X 10.1 or later. The iPod was already a push financially for me right now, so I'm not too thrilled with shelling out another $129. (I can't return the new iPod, as it was engraved.)



So... I have a few questions, and please forgive me if they've been asked before.



1. I hear Panther runs better on a G3 than previous versions of O/S X. Is this true? And with a half a gig of RAM and a new, faster 80 gig hard drive I installed myself last year, will the entire environment still run slowly? I'm going at a pretty good clip right now, despite the fact my iMac is practically a 5 year old computer.



2. I can't afford to upgrade Word at this time. Will it run under Panther in a Classic window? If so, how well does this work? Is this true for any older software?



3. When it comes time to sell my old iMac system on eBay, do you think I have a better chance of getting a higher price if it comes pre-installed with Panther as opposed to O/S 9.2.2? (Not that I expect a fortune for it, but I'm just curious.)



Thanks for any help that you O/S X gurus can give.



Like I said, it's been an awful day. I'm going to take a bath now.



GTSC

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 11
    talksense101talksense101 Posts: 1,738member
    Panther is better. It will add to the resale value of your computer. People might buy it to get their hands on OS-X.



    Panther will work OK on a G3 and the classic environment support is fine.



    It will be a big shift from what you are used to.
  • Reply 2 of 11
    toweltowel Posts: 1,479member
    1. Jaguar runs just spiffily on my parents' old 400MHz iMacDV. Panther is even snappier, so I'm sure you'll happy with the performance.



    2. Yes (definitely), well enough, and yes (mostly). You might also give other OSX word processors a shot. Some are free, others still cheaper than Word. TextEdit is not your father's SimpleText. Many folks find it to be all they need for light word processing. There are other suggestions in this thread.
  • Reply 3 of 11
    gandalf the semi-coherentgandalf the semi-coherent Posts: 187member
    Thanks, guys, for the advice.



    I have to ask, then...



    1. Is there anything I should do before upgrading?



    2. Is the upgrade process as simple as popping in the O/S X CD-ROM and following the directions?



    3. Should I partition my drive? Should I reformat it? Should I back it up before upgrading?



    4. Are there any potential pitfalls I should watch out for?



    Thanks so much! I really appreciate it.



    GTSC
  • Reply 4 of 11
    staphbabystaphbaby Posts: 353member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Gandalf the Semi-Coherent

    [B]Thanks, guys, for the advice.



    I have to ask, then...



    1. Is there anything I should do before upgrading?



    If you haven't already, update your OS 9 to 9.2.2. Run DiskWarrior (if you have it). Make sure you have 2?3 gig free.



    Quote:

    2. Is the upgrade process as simple as popping in the O/S X CD-ROM and following the directions?



    Yes ? you pretty much just have to click next. If you feel like saving some disk space, customising the installation to not have 600+ MB of language localisations and printer drivers is probably not a bad idea.



    Quote:

    3. Should I partition my drive? Should I reformat it? Should I back it up before upgrading?



    Only if you intend to dual boot should you partition it? perhaps not even then.



    As for backing up, that would be the prudent thing to do before doing anything major to your computer. The chances of anything going wrong are fairly low, however.
  • Reply 5 of 11
    hypoluxahypoluxa Posts: 694member
    Yes Panther runs quite well on my B&W G3 powermac. It is only 300mhz but I maxed out the ram to 1gb so THAT really helps! Ram really helps older macs run OSX better, that and a faster HD. I installed 10.3 on my housemates 500mhz iMac but she had just 128mb of ram on it, and got the evil spinning beach-ball icon a shit load. If she were to have say 512 of ram Im sure it would have run way better, so I ended up just removing it since it was hindering her productivity.
  • Reply 6 of 11
    hypoluxahypoluxa Posts: 694member
    After you install search for ".lproj" files and delete the ones that aren't english. you'll free up some HD space.



    Quote:

    Originally posted by Gandalf the Semi-Coherent

    Thanks, guys, for the advice.



    I have to ask, then...



    1. Is there anything I should do before upgrading?



    2. Is the upgrade process as simple as popping in the O/S X CD-ROM and following the directions?



    3. Should I partition my drive? Should I reformat it? Should I back it up before upgrading?



    4. Are there any potential pitfalls I should watch out for?



    Thanks so much! I really appreciate it.



    GTSC



  • Reply 7 of 11
    gandalf the semi-coherentgandalf the semi-coherent Posts: 187member
    Well, I bit the bullet and picked up Panther today. I also received some good advice from the Genius Bar at the Apple Store near my place. I'll let you know how the upgrade goes.



    He did say that iTunes in Panther should pick up my music and playlists from the OS 9 version with no problem. Is this true, or is there any glitches I should watch out for?



    Thanks!



    GTSC
  • Reply 8 of 11
    vox barbaravox barbara Posts: 2,021member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Gandalf the Semi-Coherent

    Well, I bit the bullet and picked up Panther today. I also received some good advice from the Genius Bar at the Apple Store near my place. I'll let you know how the upgrade goes.



    He did say that iTunes in Panther should pick up my music and playlists from the OS 9 version with no problem. Is this true, or is there any glitches I should watch out for?



    Thanks!



    GTSC



    just curious
  • Reply 9 of 11
    placeboplacebo Posts: 5,767member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Gandalf the Semi-Coherent

    Thanks, guys, for the advice.



    I have to ask, then...



    1. Is there anything I should do before upgrading?



    2. Is the upgrade process as simple as popping in the O/S X CD-ROM and following the directions?



    3. Should I partition my drive? Should I reformat it? Should I back it up before upgrading?



    4. Are there any potential pitfalls I should watch out for?



    Thanks so much! I really appreciate it.



    GTSC



    One thing I'd recommend for a die-hard OS9 user is to click that little rounded-rectangle button in the upper-right hand corner of a window. This will make it more like OS9.
  • Reply 10 of 11
    gandalf the semi-coherentgandalf the semi-coherent Posts: 187member
    Well, I'm writing this post using Safari. The OS upgrade went without a hitch and I was amazed how easily that Mail was able to import all my mailboxes from Outlook Express with ease.



    I have to say... although I'm still getting to know the interface, I love it. I have two OS 9 programs that I must still use right now, and the launch of Classic is so easy and there are no hitches.



    My only complaints are that iTunes in OS X did not pick up my playlists as well as it did my song files. I had to recreate all the playlists from scratch, which took a few hours. Also, perhaps because Address Book is based around a different standard, it was not able to import any information from my address book in Outlook Express. Still, if the mailboxes can be imported with ease, I'm surprised Address Book can't import from a text file that Outlook Express exports. Maybe I missed something because I'm a newbie.



    I do have one final question, though. Will Safari import Favorites from Internet Explorer? It doesn't seem to be able to recognize the Favorites.html file.



    Thanks!



    GTSC
  • Reply 11 of 11
    jabohnjabohn Posts: 582member
    Try Safari Enhancer to import your IE bookmarks into Safari:



    http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/17776



    Safari probably didn't import them automatically like it usually does because it looks for the favorites file where IE for OS X stores them. I'm guessing you never used the OS X version of IE so you didn't have the bookmark file there for Safari to import.



    I had no problems importing my addresses from Entourage (before that, Outlook Express) into Address Book. There should be a script... look in Library/Scripts/Address Book/Helper Scripts, double-click on the Import Helper script and run the script.
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