New to PowerPC-world. I need help. Massive problems.

[viktorg4]

Ok so hi everybody. This is my first ever post here.

To make a long story short, my cousin moved out and was about to throw away his Powerbook G4 but I took it instead. I have a really good Windows stationary computer so i wanted a laptop for school.

1.67Ghz
1GB RAM
15'' 2005


The main things i want to use the computer for is:
Write in Google Drive
Web-browse for information
Facebook
Spotify Web (requires flash)

So I found OSX Leopard a bit slow, web-browsing didnt work to well with TenFourFox either. So I installed Lubuntu with a El Capitan theme on it. The thing is, web-browsing is horribly slow, slower than before, I can't use facebook, I can barely write on Google Drive and I can't install flash on this LinuxPowerPC. Also, the screen brightness lowers itself and when I ''close the computer'' it doesnt wake up when i open it up again.

So what should I do? The OS itself runs very good and fast, wifi works well and such. Do you guys have any tips to speed this thing up?

Im not going to do any hardcore-stuff on it, just browse for information and write in Google Drive, nothing really heavy. I think a 2005 PPC should manage this right? Do a RAM upgrade to 2GB make any difference? Is there any faster browsers? Do you guys recommend another OS so it gets more stable and faster?

Give me tips on what you would have done, the computer is in great shape. It can be all solutions. Thank you very much and have a great weekend!

 

[eyoungren]

The main things i want to use the computer for is:
Write in Google Drive

Not possible to use Google Drive on PowerPC Macs. Intel Mac only. You can use a browser though.

Web-browse for information

Pretty much doable using stock Safari or TenFourFox.

Facebook

Web browser. Sometimes FB wants Flash. You can't always get all of it's features. FB is Javascript heavy and heavy Javascript is pretty much what kills web browsing on PowerPC Macs.

Spotify Web (requires flash)

Here's an older version of Spotify that works on PowerPC.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1932210/Spotify.app.zip

No idea if it still works and if it does guaranteed you will not get all of the Spotify options.

So I found OSX Leopard a bit slow, web-browsing didnt work to well with TenFourFox either. So I installed Lubuntu with a El Capitan theme on it. The thing is, web-browsing is horribly slow, slower than before, I can't use facebook, I can barely write on Google Drive and I can't install flash on this LinuxPowerPC. Also, the screen brightness lowers itself and when I ''close the computer'' it doesnt wake up when i open it up again.

So what should I do? The OS itself runs very good and fast, wifi works well and such. Do you guys have any tips to speed this thing up?

There are some Leopard optimization threads here in this forum. Can't help you with Lubuntu. You can optimize TenFourFox. See my post either pinned at the top of this forum or the link in my signature. Any config.js files you may try from there can be used on Firefox on Intel Macs or PCs or under other operating systems.

Im not going to do any hardcore-stuff on it, just browse for information and write in Google Drive, nothing really heavy. I think a 2005 PPC should manage this right? Do a RAM upgrade to 2GB make any difference? Is there any faster browsers? Do you guys recommend another OS so it gets more stable and faster?

RAM upgrades always help. Leopard Webkit is a more secure version of the underlying frameworks of Safari. Demeter is as fast as you can get but it last saw updates some time in 2006 or so.

If you want the most compatible you can get that would be TenFourFox. Which as I mentioned, can be optimized. I cannot recommend any other OS than OS X Leopard.

Give me tips on what you would have done, the computer is in great shape. It can be all solutions. Thank you very much and have a great weekend!

Optimize Leopard. Optimize TenFourFox, seek alternate solutions to do what you expect the machine to be able to do. Realize that this is NOT an Intel Mac and as such cannot by it's nature do some things Intel Macs can do, or does them slower.

I believe you are aware enough to know the difference between PowerPC and Intel, but you have to understand that because of more powerful modern systems the internet eschews good web design. There are a lot of websites out there that overuse Javascript. Most modern CPUs can just power through all that garbage, but PowerPC Macs have to process it. Which slows them down, which makes you frustrated.

Optimized TenFourFox can deal with a lot of that, but it's not a cure all. Sometimes you just have to use other systems.

Finally, a word on Flash. The last version for PowerPC is ancient. There have been several tricks over time to spoof version numbers and fool websites, but the reality is that it's a really old version that no longer works very well.

If you really NEED Flash, i don't suggest a PowerPC Mac.

 

[bunnspecial]

My suggestion:

Up the RAM to 2gb, and reinstall Leopard.

Out of curiosity, do you know if this is an early 2005 or late 2005 model? The late '05 models have some notable improvements(higher resolution screen, DDR2 RAM) but ultimately the early '05s aren't that different in operation.

All of that said, I don't find my late '05 particularly slow with Leopard stock. I haven't used either of my early '05s that much, but they are fairly peppy.

With Leopard installed, follow the threads here(sticky) on how to optimize it to make it run faster. Your two browser choices are TenFourFox and Leopard Webkit. TFF is slower but more secure and more customizable. Webkit is faster but less secure. Both render pages well, although TFF is newer(based on Firefox 45 ESR) and can render pages with good accuracy.

Flash is a no-go in either browser as even the newest PPC version is several years old. This may cramp you a bit on Facebook. TFF disables Flash completely, while Webkit will try but often fail to load Flash content(there are also serious security holes in older Flash versions). There is a Spotify work-around floating around here, although I don't know it since I don't use Spotify.

I don't do Facebook either, but I can do Google drive(web app), web browsing, and email without any trouble on my last-gen Powerbooks. In addition to that, Youtube is perfectly useable at least at lower resolutions provided that you give it a little bit of time to buffer.

I know Linux seems like a good option, but in a lot of ways it's hard to beat OS X on Apple hardware.

 

[bobesch]

A PowerBook is a nice companion on the go or stationary as long as you don't expect things like video beyond 360p, flash or some online-services. For that stuff I usually take my smartphone, which I carry with me anyway...
As the others said before Leopard is the best choice of OS, 2GB RAM* is not too bad, and for any good browsing experience "WebKit for Leopard" and "TenFourFox" are essential. WebKit is much faster and with "ClickToPlugin" you may change YouTube-video standard to 360p HTML5 and download the video for playback with CorePlayer (which is the fastest video-player for PPC)
For better/faster experience "TenFourFoxBox" may be superior to WebKit, since some webpages (e.g. GoogleMaps) run with the most recent options.
If you look for a cloud-storage solution for the long run, then I'd recommend webDAV (box, GMX, T-Online etc. ) or use the browser-based options, which may be really awkward, especially, when it comes to Google-Drive, which is a hassle IMO. Outlook is a much better and faster solution for this purpose and even MS Office online is reasonable fast.
Instead of writing in GoogleDrive you may use free LibreOffice and upload files. Fastest Office solution is MS Office 04, but it doesn't support docx/xlsx/pptx files (there's a free converter).
Instead of Spotify on the PB you may run Spotify on your Smartphone and connect it with to the PB's line in. There's a tiny App called "Line In" to send the line-in audio to the internal speakers of the PB, but to be honest: the sound even of my iPhone 4s is equal to the Powerbook.
If you can live with those limitations and carry a smartphone as a substitute for certain tasks, the PowerBook is fellow companion.
*)ps: about RAM. Make sure, there's no faulty second RAM slot. If your PB sports 2x500MB the slots are ok. If there's only a single 1GB brick first swap it to the other RAM slot to make sure it is also in a working condition.

 

[viktorg4]

My suggestion:

Up the RAM to 2gb, and reinstall Leopard.

Out of curiosity, do you know if this is an early 2005 or late 2005 model? The late '05 models have some notable improvements(higher resolution screen, DDR2 RAM) but ultimately the early '05s aren't that different in operation.

All of that said, I don't find my late '05 particularly slow with Leopard stock. I haven't used either of my early '05s that much, but they are fairly peppy.

With Leopard installed, follow the threads here(sticky) on how to optimize it to make it run faster. Your two browser choices are TenFourFox and Leopard Webkit. TFF is slower but more secure and more customizable. Webkit is faster but less secure. Both render pages well, although TFF is newer(based on Firefox 45 ESR) and can render pages with good accuracy.

Flash is a no-go in either browser as even the newest PPC version is several years old. This may cramp you a bit on Facebook. TFF disables Flash completely, while Webkit will try but often fail to load Flash content(there are also serious security holes in older Flash versions). There is a Spotify work-around floating around here, although I don't know it since I don't use Spotify.

I don't do Facebook either, but I can do Google drive(web app), web browsing, and email without any trouble on my last-gen Powerbooks. In addition to that, Youtube is perfectly useable at least at lower resolutions provided that you give it a little bit of time to buffer.

I know Linux seems like a good option, but in a lot of ways it's hard to beat OS X on Apple hardware.

It has DDR2 RAM i dont have the osx leopard disc left, so im stuck at Linux I guess... If i would not be able to create a bootable disc myself

 

[bobesch]

It has DDR2 RAM i dont have the osx leopard disc left, so im stuck at Linux I guess... If i would not be able to create a bootable disc myself

about Leopard: http://macintoshgarden.org/apps/mac-osx-mac-os-10-ppc
DDR2: so you've got the jackpot! The latest and the greatest PowerbookG4 with a higher-res display compared to the other 15"PBs. I've put an mSATA into mine. Great and sturdy companion on the go. Even when it comes to web-browsing. But there are those limits you'll have to accept.
With Tiger you may also have the fun of Classic/OS9 and the bunch of (abandoned/"free") software at macintosh garden.

 

[viktorg4]

about Leopard: http://macintoshgarden.org/apps/mac-osx-mac-os-10-ppc
DDR2: so you've got the jackpot! The latest and the greatest PowerbookG4 with a higher-res display compared to the other 15"PBs. I've put an mSATA into mine. Great and sturdy companion on the go. Even when it comes to web-browsing. But there are those limits you'll have to accept.
With Tiger you may also have the fun of Classic/OS9 and the bunch of (abandoned/"free") software at macintosh garden.

I only have the 4.7gb discs at home, and leopard requires 6gb right? However, I see that Tiger only requires 2.5gb. How would Web browsing on Tiger work out? **** or ok?

 

[bunnspecial]

Web browsing with Tiger and Ten Four Fox is pleasant

 

[viktorg4]

Web browsing with Tiger and Ten Four Fox is pleasant

Great. Is it even possible to make a bootable disc from a dmg file?

 

[bunnspecial]

Yes, it is. You MAY have to convert the image to an ISO if you don't have access to another Mac. Otherwise, use whatever disk burning utility you have available to burn the image to the disk.

 

[viktorg4]

Yes, it is. You MAY have to convert the image to an ISO if you don't have access to another Mac. Otherwise, use whatever disk burning utility you have available to burn the image to the disk.

Is it that easy? Just convert to ISO and then burn as always? And then boot with "C"?

 

[bobesch]

I only have the 4.7gb discs at home, and leopard requires 6gb right? However, I see that Tiger only requires 2.5gb. How would Web browsing on Tiger work out? **** or ok?

Better than nothing... Tiger's faster than Leopard, but somehow limited in it's functions and available software. But you will have the benefit of installing the os9-classic environment.
If you happen to get hands on a Leopard-Installation disk you could install Leopard on a second partition.
Make sure to prepare your disk before installation of Tiger and keep an extra partition for leopard.
Tiger will need about 10GB or more - with Classic 15GB or more. For Leopard leave at least 30GB or better more.
Ah - one last thing: on my Tiger-machines there's only WEP-encryption. I'm not sure, if it's a matter of the Airport-card or a matter of Tiger. For those Tiger-machines I use an Edimax mini-USB WIFI-stick which is cheap and reliable but limits data-transfer to the speed of the usb-port.

 

[DeltaMac]

The DVD burner in your Late 2005 PBook would be a dual-layer drive (and would burn the DL disk that you would need for the Leopard installer.

 

[bunnspecial]

Rather than burning, you can also restore the image to a flash drive and boot from that.

Booting a DLSD from USB isn't straight forward, but can be done through Open Firmware.

https://sites.google.com/site/shawn...le-powerpcs-from-a-usb-drive-in-open-firmware

 

[bobesch]

The DVD burner in your Late 2005 PBook would be a dual-layer drive (and would burn the DL disk that you would need for the Leopard installer.

Ah, here's a little problem alike 'Baron Munchausen pulling himself and the horse out of a mire by his own hair...'

 

[0248294]

The Spotify app linked by Erik still works to this day, but it is on borrowed time and has had a few down times before. The app is from 2011, so it is nearing 6 years of age. The radio function is broken, and a lot of new Spotify features are missing. However, it searches and plays music and playlists fine to this day. Rather impressive for an app version so far out of date, I guess some developer at Spotify still finds backwards compatibility really important. And, Spotify Web pretty much only plays music too, but it's unbearably slow on PPC. So the app is just the best way to go. There is an edited version of the binary that runs on G3 units too, and I found it to run acceptably on even an original Bondi Blue iMac G3, with its measly 233MHz G3 CPU. Any G4 will fly with the app. But again, it could break at any time, if Spotify changes its protocols severely enough.

 

[viktorg4]

Rather than burning, you can also restore the image to a flash drive and boot from that.

Booting a DLSD from USB isn't straight forward, but can be done through Open Firmware.

https://sites.google.com/site/shawn...le-powerpcs-from-a-usb-drive-in-open-firmware

Ah, here's a little problem alike 'Baron Munchausen pulling himself and the horse out of a mire by his own hair...'

Ok thanks, so basically drag & drop(?) the image to a USB-drive and then do as the tutorial says? Will try if that is that easy! Leopard here i come!

 

[DeltaMac]

"drag & drop" the image to a USB drive would simply copy the image to the drive. It needs to be a bootable image, and a simple copy won't give you that.
Use the "Restore" function in Disk Utility. The disk image is the source, and your USB drive is the destination for the restore. Restore will not only copy the files, but leave you with the function that you need for a system installer (make it bootable)

 

[viktorg4]

"drag & drop" the image to a USB drive would simply copy the image to the drive. It needs to be a bootable image, and a simple copy won't give you that.
Use the "Restore" function in Disk Utility. The disk image is the source, and your USB drive is the destination for the restore. Restore will not only copy the files, but leave you with the function that you need for a system installer (make it bootable)

The problem is, Im running Linux and i dont got any more macs. However, i found a software that can do this for me aswell (in windows) so ill try that. Thanks for the reply!

 

[DeltaMac]

The MacDrive utility for Windows will do what you want (I think). Anything else on Windows, well, good luck with that.

 

[PowerMac_G5]

Ok so hi everybody. This is my first ever post here.

To make a long story short, my cousin moved out and was about to throw away his Powerbook G4 but I took it instead. I have a really good Windows stationary computer so i wanted a laptop for school.

1.67Ghz
1GB RAM
15'' 2005


The main things i want to use the computer for is:
Write in Google Drive
Web-browse for information
Facebook
Spotify Web (requires flash)

So I found OSX Leopard a bit slow, web-browsing didnt work to well with TenFourFox either. So I installed Lubuntu with a El Capitan theme on it. The thing is, web-browsing is horribly slow, slower than before, I can't use facebook, I can barely write on Google Drive and I can't install flash on this LinuxPowerPC. Also, the screen brightness lowers itself and when I ''close the computer'' it doesnt wake up when i open it up again.

So what should I do? The OS itself runs very good and fast, wifi works well and such. Do you guys have any tips to speed this thing up?

Im not going to do any hardcore-stuff on it, just browse for information and write in Google Drive, nothing really heavy. I think a 2005 PPC should manage this right? Do a RAM upgrade to 2GB make any difference? Is there any faster browsers? Do you guys recommend another OS so it gets more stable and faster?

Give me tips on what you would have done, the computer is in great shape. It can be all solutions. Thank you very much and have a great weekend!

Oh boy! Where do I start?

Install OS X Tiger 10.4.11, Leopard is slow and linux with a theme just bogs it down. Whe it installs, download TenFourFox and put an adblock extension. If their is a option, disable hardware accelaration. Go to oldapps or whatever its called and install the legacy version, chances are the app is still running.

Good Luck

 

[viktorg4]

"drag & drop" the image to a USB drive would simply copy the image to the drive. It needs to be a bootable image, and a simple copy won't give you that.
Use the "Restore" function in Disk Utility. The disk image is the source, and your USB drive is the destination for the restore. Restore will not only copy the files, but leave you with the function that you need for a system installer (make it bootable)

I booted it up, but it cant find my harddrive? I cant install it!
[doublepost=1481420315][/doublepost]

Oh boy! Where do I start?

Install OS X Tiger 10.4.11, Leopard is slow and linux with a theme just bogs it down. Whe it installs, download TenFourFox and put an adblock extension. If their is a option, disable hardware accelaration. Go to oldapps or whatever its called and install the legacy version, chances are the app is still running.

Good Luck

Yes, i just booted Tiger. But when Im gonna install it, i cant find a harddrive... what should I do? I have the original 80gb harddrive in it? (With Linux on tho) When I click on systeminformation, the toshiba harddrive is there in the list, together with the DVD-reader. But it doesnt show when i want to select where to install.
[doublepost=1481422422][/doublepost]

I booted it up, but it cant find my harddrive? I cant install it!
[doublepost=1481420315][/doublepost]
Yes, i just booted Tiger. But when Im gonna install it, i cant find a harddrive... what should I do? I have the original 80gb harddrive in it? (With Linux on tho) When I click on systeminformation, the toshiba harddrive is there in the list, together with the DVD-reader. But it doesnt show when i want to select where to install.

EDIT: SOLVED! I went in and removed the whole harddrive and then it worked! magic!

 

[eyoungren]

Install OS X Tiger 10.4.11, Leopard is slow…

There are a few optimization threads on this forum that deal with that. There's also the potential that it was a bad install. @Dronecatcher's first experience with Leopard was negative because of this. A reinstall solved his issues.

A lot of complaints about Leopard being slow can be down to a few things. Less capable hardware, leaving all the eye candy turned on, and not understanding that the underlying filesystem is more complex than what Tiger offers. This means it takes Spotlight longer to run after the initial install - which slows the system down and brings this kind of complaint.

Yet, here I am, year after year challenging yet another accusation about Leopard being slow when it's perfectly fast and usable on all the systems I use it on and have used it on.

But more than that, it also has a far more robust network system and print server system. Tiger is primitive in this regard. Not to mention that Tiger is far less compatible with modern apps than Leopard.

It may be your belief that Leopard is slow and to you it may be fact. But it can't be because I don't share your experience.

…download TenFourFox and put an adblock extension.

I hope when you say adblock extension you're being general with the term.

I would suggest BluHell Firewall. Using any extension with the words "AdBlock" in the name, such as AdBlock Plus, or AdBlock Edge is opening yourself up to a world of serious frustration.

All the "AdBlock" products have a serious memory leak that has yet to be fixed. That memory leak causes T4Fx to increasingly hog memory and slow down the browser. Then people complain that T4Fx itself is slow when it's really the extension that is causing the problems.

I strongly advise against use of anything that has 'AdBlock' in the name.

 

[Dronecatcher]

You have a flagship PPC laptop - it runs Leopard fantastically and can do all the things you stated you need to do - with a few workarounds.
There's no getting away from the fact you have an 11 year computer though, so it pays to be realistic - nearly everything on the web will push your Powerbook's CPU to it's maximum, your main enemy in that regard is excess heat and fan noise.
Using PPC web browsers you can turn down the data noise from modern websites ie block ads, stop javascript, even turn off images if they're not required. You can also let the browser present itself as a mobile device and load a pocket version of the website which requires less resources (useful for social media sites).

 

[MysticCow]

The main things i want to use the computer for is:
Write in Google Drive
Web-browse for information
Facebook
Spotify Web (requires flash)

Google Drive: Yeah, the client is Intel-Only, but you can run a TenFourFoxBox for that and/or Dropbox when you need to grab/send something. I use this exact scenario for Dropbox.

Web Browsing: The awesome TenFourFox or the equally good Leopard Webkit

Facebook: Using TFFB would be the best bet again, as would be logging into their mobile site. Mobile seems to work a lot easier on PPC than the "real" site.

Spotify: Believe it or not, I don't use it!