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Apple's Leopard Will Exclude 800MHz G4 Processors
goombah99 writes "According to AppleInsider, Apple is about to announce that Leopard will not support 800 MHz G4 PowerPC processors. Previously developers had been told that it would require at least an 800 MHz G4. But AppleInsider alleges only 867 MHz G4s and higher will now be supported because of speed issues, and testers have been told that the new OS 'cannot be installed' on lesser machines. This cutoff in minimum requirements means that all those original iMac flat screens and Titanium PowerBooks are now forked to the Tiger (10.4) Update Path."
The article is specifically about 800MHz and slower G4s being excluded:
Nowhere does the article claim that Leopard will be G5 & Intel only.
Actually, AppleInsider said that 800 MHz G4 processors may not be supported. 867 MHz or greater G4 processors would still be usable. From TFA:
OS 10.6, it is speculated, may not support PPC processors (so, we're talking 2009 here?)Apple is not dropping all G4's.. FTFA:
Instead, Leopard will now require Macs with "an Intel processor or a PowerPC G4 (867 MHz or faster) or G5 processor." Other system requirements include a DVD drive, built-in FireWire, at least 512MB of RAM (additional recommended), and at least 9GB of hard disk space.
So, instead of supporting 800 MHz and up, you now need 867 MHz and up.
The article does not in any way resemble the summary. Do the slashdot editors RTFA!
....
The text in the article reads
Leopard will now require Macs with "an Intel processor or a PowerPC G4 (867 MHz or faster) or G5 processor." Other system requirements include a DVD drive, built-in FireWire, at least 512MB of RAM (additional recommended), and at least 9GB of hard disk space.
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it's one thing for the summary to add something extra to a story... but damn it was just false. I read the article looking for where they said G5+ only and it's just not there... that's the first time that happened to me. Guess I don't read slashdot enough these days. well I'm glad my G4 powerbook will be upgradeable... I think...
Chaos is Divine *
There's a difference between stated requirements and what you can actually get to work. Users of the open-source XPostFacto have known this for years. Can't run OS 10.3 on that old beige G3 tower? Sure you can! Maybe even 10.4.
Nonetheless, even 10.4.x is supported on the 400mhz PowerBook G3 (the version with a bronze keyboard and FireWire). It is not the speediest thing ever, but for email, Word/PowerPoint, and most web browsing, it's just fine. My main reason to consider replacing it: after seven years of use, the backlighting is starting to fade. But those dual battery bays are hard to give up.
$nice = $webHosting + $domainNames + $sslCerts
I can confirm that an 800MHz G4 is all that is required to install Leopard (the developer preview). A staff member in my department did it with an 800MHz Windtunnel PowerMac - and more interestingly, he used target disk to install Leopard on his unsupported 667MHz TiBook (on which the installer refused to run because it didn't meet the minimum requirements). Here is his entire story. http://forum.oscr.arizona.edu/showthread.php?t=4557
You can sometimes get dramatic speed improvements by disabling the Dashboard entirely. See http://www.macworld.com/weblogs/macosxhints/2005/08/disabledashboard/index.php for how to do it.
I have a dual-proc G5 machine and I disable Dashboard, just because I don't use the thing and have never found it really useful.
"Ladies and gentlemen, my killbot features Lotus Notes and a machine gun. It is the finest available."
Not everyone does nothing but share music all day... for me, the following features of iTunes 7 are easily more worthwhile than better sharing (since there is currently only one iTunes-capable computer on my network anyway):
- "Grouping" tag
- The extensive array of sorting tags
- Video handling features
- Podcast managing features
- Album (and, I suppose, the useless Cover Flow) view
- Additional smart playlist criteria
- and the big one: GAPLESS PLAYBACK. Did I say GAPLESS PLAYBACK? I hated iTunes until it had GAPLESS PLAYBACK.
I think it's a little misleading to make the blanket statement that 4.7.0 is better than all subsequent versions just because it doesn't have one little limitation that likely affects very few users besides college kids in dorms.
Hint: alt-tab then you can run the mouse over the icons
Most of the stuff on
Yes, that's what they're getting at. Basically, if you've got a G4 and it doesn't have Firewire, you're not going to be running Leopard.
I'm in the same boat.
I have a DP800 Quicksilver with the same video RAM and HD specs you do.
I'm really wondering if my system will be left out - with the above upgrades, my system easily ran software requiring a faster machine (the COD2 United Offensive for example). Besides, a DP800 should outpace a SP867 machine. After all, it will be running more than one process.
On the other hand, my machine was purchased in Oct 2001. It's had a long, good life and needs to retire.
I tried every decent and legal way I could think of to resolve the issue w/the business before I rented the chicken suit
When it was originally posted, the summary said AppleInsider was anticipating that they'd drop all G4 support. That's why there are about 20 comments -- including this quote from the article -- correcting it. (And why it's tagged with "badsummary")
I'm glad the editors fixed the summary, but it would have been nice if they'd made some note to that effect, instead of confusing even more people.
Couldn't be. I've used transparent windows on a dual 500 and never had any problems. I prefer Terminal.app to the X11 shell.
I know I shouldn't respond to this anonymous troll, but...
With every $150 service pack released for OSX...
There have been eleven releases of OS X 10.4.x over the last couple years. Once you had 10.4 all those releases were free. These releases are roughly equivalent to a service pack, in Microsoft-speak. Service packs don't add features, do they? The major releases all add features. Granted many of them are new capabilities for developers to take advantage of, but there are usually enough immediate benefits for the end user to drive sales.
And by the way, if you're going to troll, at least get your facts straight. Major releases of 10.x are $129 for a single machine, and $199 for a family pack that covers five machines.
As i found out after attempting to install on a 400mhz g4, all you have to do is boot the older system into target disk mode and install from a faster mac, so as long as you have 2 macs you are fine.
Thats's Toonces, you insensitive clod!
"If you put the federal government in charge of the Sahara Desert, in 5 years there'd be a shortage of sand". -Milton F.
Do Apple users actually keep up to date with OS X revisions?
I'd guess about half of them do. Most of the other half stay up-to-date with the minor revisions (10.4.x) for free using Software Update.
Is "Leopard" more like a service pack or a whole new OS or somewhere in-between?
It's a "whole new OS" like Vista is a whole new OS relative to XP.
And what's the downside to not upgrading? Applications aren't tied to new OS X versions, are they?
Same as with Vista. You get various OS improvements, most are low level. Slowly apps will come out that require those features. Five years from now it'll be the minimum required version, etc...
-pmb
- iBooks: April 2003 until (discontinued) April 2004 (2 revisions)
- eMacs: April 2002 to April 2004 (2 revisions)
- iMac "Luxos": January 2002 to September 2003 (2 revisions)
- PowerBook G4s: October 2001 to November 2002 (2 revisions)
- Power Mac G4s: January 2001 to August 2002 (3 revisions)
4 years is a good run for a PC. And you are not forced to upgrade to the New OS. Software will be available for the old OS for years. That's three and a half years for some iBooks and eMacs, but I agree with your point (it will be a good run). However, although software will be available for years, OS X Tiger will stop receiving security updates when OS X 10.6 is released (if Apple continues its undefined OS lifecycle).TO START
PRESS ANY KEY
Where's the 'ANY' key? I see Esk, Kitarl, and Pig-Up...
.....Do PCs from 2007 have no problem running Vista?......
I have a Macbook pro that runs VISTA just fine. However compared to Win2K or XP it is dog slow. It is totally unreasonable to expect to be able to run VISTA on even the fastest Pentium available in 2001. For most Mac users, 10.4.x will probably work for a while, just as XP will be running on most Windows users current hardware until the hardware dies. Even the newest computers have to work hard to run Windows VISTA. With nothing else running VISTA uses about 30% CPU cycles. XP uses only 10%, everything else the same.
All theory is gray
They don't have enough RAM. If you do more than one thing at once Tiger will die with 512MB, while Panther has more room for error. If you have enough RAM to avoid swapping Tiger is snappier (once the Spotlight index is done and Dashboard is loaded).
Just do what I do - switch sharing off in iTunes and install Firefly Media Server and encourage others to do the same. It's an iTunes 4.7-style music server, which means people can download from it using things like OurTunes and, of course, it doesn't have the 5 connections/day limit.
:)
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