Just got an Imac G3 - Now what to do with it?

[Iggy]

Use it as a door stopper or resell it for higher price that you bought it.

Fairly cold answer.

Why don't you burn a copy of PPC Ubuntu and  install that OS on it? I use it on my Powermac and except for the lack of decent Flash support its a pretty solid OS. I also find it somewhat more responsive than OSX (which probably wouldn't run on a G3 anyway).

[Iggy]

I thought Morphos 2.5 will work I know they added eMac's to it..:roflmao:

Chris  :furious:

This is an iMac and a G3. MorphOS coulds support it, but its unlikely. Ununtu PPC still seems the best answer.

[Iggy]

@amigadave, I haven't had a chance to really do much with mine yet. Did you get yours completed for Amiwest? Also, to answer your question, mine has the slot loading drive.

Regards,
AmigaEd

Isn't that an awful lot of work to go through to upgrade a 333 Mhz PPC to a 400 Mhz PPC, guys?
Better video, but lower max. memory.
Except for the fact that the G3 can't run MorphOS (just as the Efika can't run MacOS), I don't really see the point of this one.

[Iggy]

The point is that this is an Amiga forum and an Efika running MorphOS2.6 can run many Amiga applications and games, as well as MorphOS native software.  Efika motherboards can still be purchased new for $99, and although limited to only 128mb RAM, are still usable and probably more enjoyable to Amiga users than any version of MacOS being run on a 333 to 400MHz G3 iMac.

I don't recommend the purchase of an Efika mobo when used 1.25GHz G4 eMac's, and G4 PowerMac towers of almost any speed above 400MHz can be found for the same or less money and will provide much better performance and in the case of the G4 PowerMac towers, better expandability too, but for anyone that already has an Efika, or anyone that can get one for very little money, putting it into a G3 iMac case can be an interesting project.

I did not finish my conversion before the AmiWest show and was actually seen during the show completely tearing my G3 iMac apart in an attempt to get it to turn the CRT on, without the Mac mobo being installed (unsuccessfully).  I did find out that the design of the slot loading 400MHz G3 iMac is completely different than my model and much easier to take apart, and might be a better candidate for such a project.  I am still going to complete my Efika>iMac conversion and will provide pictures of it as soon as it is completed.

P.S. Starting with version 2.5, MorphOS has included some improvements to memory management in low memory situations when a video card with at least 128mb of VRAM is detected.  This helps the Efika's performance and helps avoid running out of memory in some situations.

I shouldn't have immediately spun the whole idea as negative. If you've got some of the parts and the inclination, it's no stranger than some of the hacking I've done. And if you get it done, it will look good. I've still got one PC with all blueberry colored parts, accessories, and a color matched Epson printer.

[Iggy]

Ha! This post just made me think of an awesome idea! Back in the day I just loved my old Panasonic dot matrix printer. I put reams and reams of paper through it over the course of several years. So this got me thinking that, maybe I could make a printer that emulates a dot matrix printer!

I bet you could , but you'd have to add some kind of sound generator to make that annoying racket those things made. Scary, but I think there's still a few DMPs on the market for companies that rely on multi-part forms.

Don't laugh about the whole apperence issue. When the color coordinated Macs were available my girlfriend (now my wife) wanted a blueberry colored printer (Epson), and blueberry accent colored PC, with blueberry keyboard and a matching blueberry colored mouse.

That color scheme thing worked real well to sell certain markets.

[Iggy]

Actually, for all the hype PPC Apples running OSX are pretty slow. And Flash and other multimedia suffers (until you're well above 1 Ghz or better yet you've got a G5).
I used to blame that on the processor, but I've been running MorphOS on a 933 Ghz 7455 and it runs most audio and video formats much faster (needs better flash apps though since currently the best way to view them is to download them and play them back via a media player).
A G3 running at 800 Mhz running standard Mac OS, the P3 probably would outperform it, but blame the OS (not Flash or the processor).

Anyone notice than even with massive Intel powered Mac's their game play still stinks? Quick hint guys -its not the hardware, its the operating system and attendant software