Tomas wrote:
Classic MacOS sure suck alot... I guess it would be impossible to install MacOSX on this thing??
OS X will install 'with ease,' assuming enough disk space and RAM. It will, as noted, be dog slow even with same. You don't need Firewire to run it. (10.3 requires "a Mac built with USB" as a way of distinguishing "New World" from "Old World" hardware. iMacs are "New World." One thing to do before you potentially obliterate MacOS is install the
iMac Firmware Update from Apple.com.)
I can't speak for 10 on a weak machine (worst I've met is a G3 600 iBook with 10.1 - so pre_QuartzGL - and that felt reasonable enough), but I did just boot Gentoo on the Beige G3/300 here, which is similar enough but for the 384MB RAM.
Memory-unconstrained, KDE and Gnome were both usable but somewhat pokey, so take this as a warning with 66MHz less horsepower. Moving down to something 'minimalist' (WindowMaker) would make things fine, but you've already mentioned the newbie aspect... Maybe XFCE would be a good compromise, if you can get to the point of getting Yellow Dog installed. (In theory, Linux + XFree86 should outperform OS X + Display PDF.. unless you end up using antialiased fonts or anything else touching the XRender extension. Yay. ;-))
These things should take standard PC100 (and probably PC133) SODIMMs ("laptop RAM," a-la the AmigaOne ITX), but I don't know how well they cope with anything larger than 256MB.
IDE stuff plugs on with laptop IDE headers, same as the A1200. Theoretically, any other slimline laptop drive can be crammed in that hole? ... but if you crack the system, don't touch the back of the CRT!
As to installing Yellow Dog... as far as I know, it's supposed to be shiny_happy_easy, but the CD-R issue may be giving you guff?
Terrasoft Solutions seems to be unreachable right now (go figure), but they do offer support, and should theoretically be happy to try to convert you into a paying customer by making your install go smooth.
Have you tried rebooting with the install CD in the drive and holding down C (or Command-C, perhaps it is?) before it chimes? Secret Mac boot-me-from-CD-ROM keycode.
