Hi there!

I've a few questions regarding an old Mac, called "Power Macintosh G3 (beige)
Code Name: Gossamer":

http://www.lowendmac.com/ppc/g3.shtml

The specifications are the following:

Mac OS 9.2.1
96 MB ram
4 GB harddrive
233 mHz
24xCD.

I've found that Mac for sale in a local newspaper near to where I live for an acceptable price, with a 17' monitor. However, I've a few question (a couple of them I've asked before in this forum, but can't find it any longer ).

1. Is there any USB available for that machine?
1.a If no USB ports are available, can I use a PCI card to "create" a few USB ports?
1.b If yes (has USB or can be created with a PCI card), can I use an adaptor as this one:

http://www.clasohlson.se/?AFP=store/...4471156A624920

to use an ordinary PS/2 keyboard and PS/2 mouse on the Mac? This is really important and nearly decisive for me to purchase this Mac, because my desktop is a big mess and all I need is a second keyboard and a second mouse on the way. I use one switch among 3 machines so I can share my keyboard, monitor and mouse with other computers.

2. I feel the HD is a bit too small. Can a second HD be used or replaced by an ordinary IDE harddrive?

3. Monitor. The monitor that this machine comes with is a " Apple Multiple Scan 720 Display 17". Can an ordinary VGA/CRT monitor be connected to a Mac? Or would I need a further adaptor for it...

4. How is the MacOS usually distributed? Pre-installed, bootable disc?

5. I have currently, one machine running FreeBSD which I use as server. All my big movies and music files are in that machine. I access that machine through Samba/XP and NFS/Linux. How is the connectivity between a Mac and Linux for this kind of sharing?

I think it's all for the moment. I might post more if I remember . I know it sounds kind newbie'ish, but the closest I ever came to a Mac was, shamefully, at the Uni and all i did was to watch Britney Spears "Baby one more time" video that came blunded into her first album...

Thanks in advance!

Good video

Cool

yeah. Secrets aside, I kinda liked her first album and video. How she turned from an "innocent girl" to what she is... is nobody guess... lol.

Megaman X, check this:

http://www.appleclub.com.hk/macosx/upgrade/compare.html

seems to me that you really need os x to get things working.

Thanks a lot pevelius!

Looking at that table list, MacOS 9 looks like crap... I wonder what all the fuzz was about (no offense to anyone). Unless there's some cool patches out there by third parts, I think the best shot is either running Linux on the old Mac or upgrade the OS to X, which still runs in that old G3, but I really doubt it should be smooth...

Any more opinions/experiences with older Macs are most welcome

Thanks again!

i once had to take a photoshop course on g3 & OS 9. they were crap indeed, at least for me. even windows was more stable back then, i remember how happy i was to return to my trusty NT4 workstation
but, looking at the list, it is also a marketing talk to get people upgrade. ms uses the same style, remember when they shot the paperclip
well, it was reborn as a dog on XP PROFESSIONAL SEARCH TOOL...why, i wonder...i mean ain´t professional ment for work? who needs a stupid talking tail-wanking dog to spit text made by&for 4-year-old...
sorry, i ranted before i even realized what i was doing. nothing to see here. apologies

I guess you are right pevelius about the Apple marketing thing. Well, I've been searching the net a lot (is info about Mac so difficult to find?. Anything with Linux is quite easy and there's always plenty of links) and it seems to be possible to use an ordinary PCI - USB card in a G3 (thus, ordinary keyboard and mouse). However, the drivers for it are very unstable and may simply stop working for no apparent reason (looks like a MS product...hmmmm)...

Well, back to do more searching...

Regards!

A Mac forums Thanks witeshark! I guess I will post this question over there and see how it goes

Regards!

I have an original iMac (233MHZ, 32 MB RAM) Is it worth it to put linux on it? Which do I use?

I use Macintoshes every day, professionally. I have owned and used this model.

I have pursued the course you are considering. It is not worth it.

I do not advise purchasing this computer.

For about $500 and change you can get a Mac Mini, which btw is no slouch, and be up-to-speed with everything that Apple is doing lately in this (rapidly-changing) system.

I have the exact same machine at home, except I upped the memory to 384 mb (it came with 128, and I added a 256mb stick) and put in a seagate 80gb hard drive. I also put in an orange micro firewire/usb card. It is currently running os X 10.2.8. It had ran linux for a while, now It is no longer a linux 'learning box' and I have a laptop for my day to day work. It is now a surfing machine for the kids that my wife babysits, and a fileserver for my music.

While it does it's job and was a lot of fun to mess around with, linux on an 'old world' g3 is a pain, and many of the modern distros do not work well without a lot of blood sweat and tears. Debian sarge and ubuntu hoary worked the best. OS X beyond 10.2.8 is not officially supported by apple, so you need xpostfacto (xpostfacto ) to get 10.3 or 10.4 to run on it. Even then, you need to partition any drive larger than 6gb and install os X on the first 6gb of the partition.

So, if it is dirt cheap and you don't mind thowing money at an old dinosaur, it is possible for the machine to do what you ask. I like sundialcvs's suggestion of a mac mini, especially since sellers are going to push the intel ones, so you could get a g4 mac mini that will run osx and ppc linux swimmingly.

@Isaacshelf: Yes you can run linux, but it needs more memory. Most any modern ppc linux should work. Do a little searching, though, to look for pitfalls and things to watch out for.