Thanks, Will, for the lone response to my request for an overview of the three editions of OS X now available to us S900 freaks. I have always found your constructive advice most helpful in the past, and continue to do so.
>From what you are saying I gather (since F-key macros are not of huge interest to me, and I have no DVD drive) that the only real advantage for me in going beyond 10.2.8 might be a slight gain in speed, but at the cost of some of the stability I currently enjoy, plus the chance that some of my RAM might not be good enough to handle Panther or Tiger and would need replacing. Right? Efficient networking is a major issue for me too, as my two S900s are networked (via Ethernet hub): one (Mole) running under Jag (G3/Sonnet Crescendo 450), the other (Badger) under 9.1 (604e). I have a Dr Bott MoniSwitch monitor switch (wonderful invention!), so I can control both machines with one monitor and keyboard/mouse. However, I don't think I have the network set up properly. On the occasions when it doesn't freeze or crash during startup, Badger takes forever (like, 20 minutes, literally, with all kinds of Keychain prompts) to boot and connect with Mole, and, whenever I investigate the Network Browser, they seem to be networked via AppleTalk as well as Ethernet ... is that possible, or even desirable? I would like to upgrade Badger to a G4 and Jag, as I do quite a bit of graphics work, but I can't seem to find a 450 or 500 card anywhere, certainly not on eBay, and I don't want to go any higher than 500 because of the issues we are all by now aware of with the S900 and the higher speeds. Perhaps you have some insights into all this. And, yes, in case you were wondering, The Wind in the Willows was indeed my favourite book when I was a kid! I also own an old, now sadly cannibalized J700 called Ratty! Adrian O'Sullivan ========== Message-Id: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> From: Will Schoumaker <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Re: [SM] Jaguar,Panther,Tiger:Summary anyone? Date: Thu, 23 Jun 2005 23:10:35 -0700 First off glad to hear that you've got 10.2.8 running and stable! I don't really have time to write up a proper review . Since no one else has answered I'll try to provide some info from memory. Jaguar is great I ran it on my Umax longer then any other Mac OS 2 years plus! Everything works fine and networking is really easy to other machines. Windows & Macs OSX or OS9(maybe back to 8,6 or so) all network by turning on disk sharing on both machines .You then use the "Go" at the top of hte screen and "open server" and your networked! Apple talk can be used for networking . Panther the 10.3 version on CD was buggy. It took several upgrades before it worked well enough for me to think about switching over . It's been my main OS going on 1 year or so no longer have a working Jaguar on the machine. It works great not a major change from Jaguar. Lots of small changes that mostly take a while to notice. Lots of short cuts including F keys that are cool once you find them. F9 for example shows all your open apps and pages etc all at once.F10 shows all the pages in app your working in. F11 window shades all open apps to the top showing your desktop. F12 opens the cd drive even on the old UMax! Apple key plus tab key shows the icons of all open apps and clicking on the tab key lets you choice which app to have on top. Lot more but these are the ones I use and remember. Networking other machines in Panther isn't quite as easy. It's the same as Jaguar except that you need the name of the machine or disk your networking with. It's usually something really odd on a windows machine and not as easy for a Mac person to figure out. Apple talk works. My machine has never worked better and I don't feel the need to yet buy a newer machine. Tiger continues to refine the OSX experience . It continues much the same as jag & panther and adds new things. Some of which you can't help but notice. It is also reported to be really buggy even on new machines. I haven't noticed it to be all that buggy on my machine. It's more that Panther runs so well I'm waiting for them to work the bugs out. A new update (10.4.4 ?) is expected any day now. It is also expected to take care of most of the bugs people are complaining about. Tiger doesn't work with Apple talk so some older machines will no longer network directly with Tiger. I'm not sure what your uses are so just making general comments and things I think of. Every upgrade of OSX seems to tighten the RAM specs. So RAM that is slightly out of spec can run fine and then cause issues with an OS upgrade or an upgrade of G3 speed or when going to a G4 from a G3 cpu. Panther can likely be found fairly cheap now days and it does seem to run a little faster the Jag even on an old machine. Tiger is even snappier ! Tiger can only be bought on DVD not CD. You can however buy the DVD and send to Apple with $20.00 and they will replace with CD's.That is the only way to get Tiger on CD. DVD is often the cheapest way to get Panther as well but it is also widely available on CD.. You could likely shop around and find a G3 500 upgrade fairly cheap these days . It will make a big difference. A G4 500 would be even better for some apps. Video work is where you notice the G4 otherwise not so much. So in short all versions of OSX run well on our machines each one just a bit better after the kinks are worked out ;-) . Sometimes by us and sometimes by Apple. If you have any questions I'll try to answer them. Will S ========== From: "Adrian O'Sullivan" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Tue, 21 Jun 2005 14:23:31 -0700 "OK, so we S900 owners now have three species of X-cat to play with: Jaguar, Panther, and Tiger. Could somebody maybe briefly summarize the pros and cons of each one on an S900? Mine has max RAM, G3/400, UltraTek 66, Radeon 32MB. I'm currently running 10.2.8 without probs (stable but slow). How much further can I go with what I've got? Adrian O'Sullivan -- SuperMacs is sponsored by <http://lowendmac.com/> and... Small Dog Electronics http://www.smalldog.com | Refurbished Drives | Service & Replacement Parts [EMAIL PROTECTED] | & CDRWs on Sale! | Support Low End Mac <http://lowendmac.com/lists/support.html> SuperMacs list info: <http://lowendmac.com/supermacs/list.shtml> --> AOL users, remove "mailto:"; Send list messages to: <mailto:[email protected]> To unsubscribe, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For digest mode, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subscription questions: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Archive: <http://www.mail-archive.com/supermacs%40mail.maclaunch.com/> --------------------------------------------------------------- iPod Accessories for Less at 1-800-iPOD.COM Fast Delivery, Low Price, Good Deal www.1800ipod.com ---------------------------------------------------------------
