New PowerBook/Old Mac OS X?

Posted:
in macOS edited January 2014
Hi All-



Hypothetical situation, but one I've been wondering about for some time...



Let's say I buy a new PowerBook (Rev. C) from EBay and it doesn't come with any software. Is it possible to install Panther from the software in the original box (10.3) on the PowerBook? For that matter, would it be possible to install Jaguar (10.2) on the new PowerBook? What if you had an application that you needed daily that only ran on 10.2.8 or below?



Just wondering...



Thanks.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 12
    Yes. Not advisable, but yes.
  • Reply 2 of 12
    placeboplacebo Posts: 5,767member
    Just out of curiosity, which app would that be?
  • Reply 3 of 12
    Well, it was a hypothetical situation, so I don't have a particular app in mind, but I would assume that the possibility for that situation exists in reality as well.



    Assuming that you could install Jaguar or 10.3 Panther w/out updates onto a new PowerBook, would the same hold true for a new iMac G5? Wouldn't it require the latest version of Mac OS X in order to install correctly? Are there specific lines of code in the updates that provide for new products or do those lines of code simply optimize the OS for particular products?
  • Reply 4 of 12
    trtamtrtam Posts: 111member
    Are there any apps that ONLY run on pre-Panther operating systems? I can't think of any. I just thought that Mac OS X apps run on all versions of it. Hmmm...
  • Reply 5 of 12
    here is one for you....



    Back in July I bought a refurbished Powerbook 1.25ghz from Apple and when i arrived I was surprised to see that Jaguar was installed. Now this machine was introduced before panther was released so I wasn't too upset, and I just did a fresh install of panther(which i would have done anyway) but I would have thought that the machine would ship with the most current OS available.



    my 2 cents



    zen
  • Reply 6 of 12
    nanonano Posts: 179member
    I have read in another thread that in os x beta or 10.0 or something had an audio player that dosn't work with any newer oses. So there is an example.
  • Reply 7 of 12
    another example:

    finalscratch doesn't work ok on 10.3, it does on 10.2

    www.finalscratch.com

    They say it does work under 10.3 but it doesn't...
  • Reply 8 of 12
    adamraoadamrao Posts: 175member
    I knew some app existed that would meet my hypothetical situation.



    I'm still interested in knowing whether you can install 10.3 (no updates) onto a new iMac G5. It just doesn't make sense to me how that would work. Isn't the OS' recognition of the iMac G5 coded into ONLY the latest update? Any ideas or explanation? Just wondering...



    Maybe I'm too curious...
  • Reply 9 of 12
    I guess if u have 10.3.1 (=10.3)installdiscs u get that and IF there are 10.3.5 or whatever installdiscs, u get that...easy.

    But I doubt they would make new discs for each update, because of overstock of discs.

    My guess: u get the 10.3.1 discs, then update with 'software update' to the newest OS, or download a OS somewhere in between .1 and .5 (at www.apple.com)
  • Reply 10 of 12
    rraburrabu Posts: 264member
    You can only install a version of the OS that came with the computer originally or newer. Generally speaking, you can't install older versions. This was true even of the old Mac OS. I got a G3 with Mac OS 8 on it. Mac OS 7 could not be installed on the computer as it was not updated to recognize and use that hardware configuration.



    Of course, I suppose there are exceptions to this. I just don't know of any offhand.
  • Reply 11 of 12
    That makes sense to me.



    Anyone know what version of Mac OS X comes on the install discs with an iMac G5? Anyone have one of those things yet?
  • Reply 12 of 12
    I can speak from personal experience that newer PBs will not recognize older OSs. Which is a shame, since I left my software restore CDs for my 15" at home; every time I need to do a clean install (not often, thankfully) with my vanilla 10.3 discs I need to boot the 'book as a FWHD, install OSX from a lab G4, and then run updates until the OS is new enough to recognize the PB hardware (10.3.4 I believe). Which is fun, to be sure. But a pain.
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