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What's The Ideal Mac OS Version For Your 'Book? - Plus PowerBook Mystique Mailbag

by Charles W. Moore

Questions I get asked fairly frequently, and particularly since the release of OS 10.4 Tiger, are variations on the general theme of upgrading older Macs to more recent operating system versions. The operative queries lately tend to be about whether it makes sense to install Tiger on a marginally supported (or unsupported) older Mac, or what is the minimal machine that will support Tiger adequately. There is no all-purpose boilerplate answer. The appropriate operating system to use on any computer depends upon variables like the speed of your machine, how much RAM you have, what you use the computer for, and how much performance (speed) you're willing to trade off in order to have more advanced features.

There is also the matter of support. For example, PowerBooks prior to the G3 Series Pismo, which was introduced in March, 2000, are not supported by OS X 10.4. If you're really determined, you can probably get Tiger to install on some older PowerBooks using Ryan Rempel's XPostFacto installer hack, but is it worth the trouble? Given the lazy performance of Tiger on even some supported machines, I'm doubtful. For example, was quite satisfied with the performance of my 550 MHz G4 upgraded Pismo running OS 10.3, but am much less so running Tiger. It's not horrible, but it is sluggish by comparison. My 700 MHz G3 iBook now outperforms it, presumably by virtue of having twice as much video RAM and a video card that supports Quartz Extreme.

However, I have noticed a significant speed boost on the iBook after installing the OS 10.4.2 update, and have reader reports that it seems zippier on G3 Pismos too, so it looks like Apple has worked some optimization magic with the update that makes it a livelier performer on these older, slower machines. I'm holding off upgrading my own Pismo from OS 10.4.1 due to a printer driver issue that's manifested on the iBook in 10.4.2, but I'm hoping that when that's resolved I will realize some speed gaIns there as well. Sometimes the optimum OS version is a moving target.

OS 10.4 Tiger requires a programmable graphics processing unit (GPU) in order to take a full advantage of its Core Image graphics technology, and if no GPU (Radeon 9600 or nVidia GeForce FX Go 5200 or better) is present, some of the graphics support load will be shunted to the CPU, which has to slow everything down, and in my observation also makes the processor run hotter.

Core Image and Core Video are powered by floating-point calculations, which can produce extremely fine color accuracy on a pixel-by-pixel basis. When a programmable GPU is present, Core Image utilizes the graphics card for image processing operations, freeing up the CPU for other tasks, which can improve real-time responsiveness across a wide variety of operations.

Core Image-capable graphics cards include:
• ATI Mobility Radeon 9700
• ATI Radeon 9600 XT, 9800 XT, X800 XT
• nVidia GeForce FX Go 5200
• nVidia GeForce FX 5200 Ultra
• nVidia GeForce 6800 Ultra DDL, 6800 GT DDL

For the clearest explanation of how Core Image works that I've encountered, see John Siracusa's thorough review of OS 10.4 Tiger on Ars Technica:
http://arstechnica.com/reviews/os/macosx-10.4.ars/15

In my opinion, while I may eventually be convinced by optimized TIger versions to come, OS 10.3.9 is the latest system version I would be inclined to run on any G3 machine with less than a Radeon 7500 graphics accelerator and 16 megabytes of video RAM unless I really needed Tiger for software compatibility reasons or somesuch. Bottom line: don't be in any particular hurry to upgrade to Tiger on older Macs unless you really want to.

For slower G3s (300MHz or less) and the faster 603e machines (eg: PowerBook 3400s and 2400s), my pick for optimum operating system would be Classic OS 9.2.2. It seems that a lot of people with older, officially unsupported Macs are also interested in installing OS 9.2.2, and again, there is an installer hack available that helps them to do so (see appendix below). But is it a wise idea? Not always, in my estimation. Indeed, the newest officially supported system is often not the ideal one to use. For instance, OS 9.1 is supported by the PowerBook 5300, but you won't be happy with the performance on these 100 MHz or 117 MHz 603e computers.

The following is my perspective on what Mac OS X versions are supported by which PowerBook and iBook models back as far as the 68k 500 and 190 series, and suggestions as to which I think is the ideal OS for each model. I'm sure there will be those who disagree with me in some cases, but here are my OS picks model by model.

PowerBook 500 series - System 7.5 - OS 8.1

The PowerBook 520 and 540, originally came with System 7.5 installed, and will support up to OS 8.1.

For the best speed performance, go with System 7.5.3 or System 7.5.5 on these machines, but OS 8.1 will give you support for HFS+ disk formatting and is a decent performer as well with contemporary software. It would be my personal choice for running on a PowerBook 500.

PowerBook 190 - System 7.5.2 - OS 8.1

The 190 was more or less a PowerBook 500 in a PowerBook 5300 case in terms of performance. I would recommend the same systems as for the 500 series for the 190.

PowerBook Duo 2300 - System 7.5.2 - OS 9.1

Introduced along with the PowerBook 5300 and 190, the 2300 was the last of the Duos, and inherited much of the internal architecture of the original 68030 Duo models, which hobbled its performance as a PowerPC machine, making it even slower than the 5300.

Thee Duo 2300 came with System 7.5.2, which was the worst build of Systems 7.5. You should definitely upgrade to System 7.5.3 or 7.5.5 at minimum, and those systems will get you the best speed performance out of a 2300, but this computer will support up to OS 9.1. I would suggest going no higher than OS 8.6 with a 2300, and OS 8.1 will give you the best compromise between speed and features on this model.

PowerBook 5300 - - System 7.5.2 - OS 9.1

What I noted above for the Duo 2300 pretty much applies to the 5300 as well. System 7.5.5 was largely a bunch of PowerBook 5300 reliability patches added to System 7.5.3, and is recommended as the ideal System 7.5 version for these 'Books. Both System 7.5.3 and the 7.5.5 upgrade are free downloads from Apple's support site. I tried OS 8.5 on our 5300, and was not happy with the performance (note, however, that we only had 24 MB of RAM in that 5300). If you have more RAM in your 5300, you might want to try up to OS 8.6, but I've found that OS 8.1 seems to be the most successful Mac OS X version compromise for the 5300.

PowerBook 1400 - OS 7.5.5 - OS 9.1

The 1400 was sold in 117 MHz, 133 MHz, and 166 MHz models, and is also processor upgradeable to as fast as a 466 MHz G3, so one can't generalize about the ideal OS version for this machine, which are originally came equipped with OS 7.5.5 or OS 7.6. For the 117 MHz model, my observations about the PowerBook 5300 above apply. Go with OS 8.1 or OS 8.6 (I have both installed on our 117 MHz 1400 with 40 MB of RAM, but use OS 8.6 most of the time since my wife uses this machine mainly for email and word processing). The 133 MHz and 166 MHz models work well with OS 8.6, and if you have your RAM maxed out, you may find that OS 9.0 or O S 9.1 will work reasonably well, although I think OS 8.6 is the best choice, since the OS 9s want nearly 40 MB of RAM just to support the system, and the 1400 is limited to 64 MB total RAM.

If you have a G3 processor upgrade installed in your 1400,, you certainly have the processor speed to support OS 9.1, a but the RAM limitation still applies. If you only run a few applications at a time, then OS 9.1 will be satisfactory. If you need more RAM four running applications, stick with OS 8.6 or even OS 8.1.

Incidentally, Password Security is not supported on PowerBook 1400s with Mac OS 9.1. If you have Password Security installed on a PowerBook 1400, you should turn off password protection before installing Mac OS 9.1.

PowerBook 3400 - OS 7.6 - OS 9.1

The 3400 originally shipped with system 7.6, but these machines will comfortably support OS 8.6 and the OS 9s up to 9.1, or even OS 9.2.2 with the help of an installer hack, any of which will work well provided you have enough RAM installed. You can apparently install OS X on a 3400 using xPostFacto, but I would advise against it. The old 603e just doesn't have the muscle to run OS X decently. However, OS 9.2.2 should run fine, if you need it for application support. See the notes on OS 9 Helper below.

Note that if you are installing Mac OS 9.1 on a PowerBook 3400 running Mac OS 9.04, you must perform the installation without updating your hard disk drivers or your computer may stop responding during installation. To prevent the Installer from updating your hard disk drivers, click Options in the Install Software panel of the Mac OS 9.1 Installer and deselect the option to update your hard disk drivers.

PowerBook 2400 - OS 7.6 - OS 9.1

The little, IBM Japan-designed and built 2400 subnotebook had pretty much the same motherboard architecture as the PowerBook 3400, but had its processor mounted on a removable daughter card, and was thus processor upgradeable. G3 upgrades are available for these machines. Go with OS 8.6, OS 9.1, or OS 9.2.2 if necessary. If you have a G3 upgrade installed, you could try an XPostFacto Mac OS X install, but I wouldn't really recommend it.

PowerBook G3 3500/Kanga - OS 8.1 - OS 9.1

The original PowerBook G3 is the only G3 Macintosh never officially supported by any OS X version. OS 9.1 would be my system of choice for this model, or OS 9.2.2 with a hack install. XPostFacto should get OS X installed, but I personally would not be interested in running OS X anything slower than a 333 MHz Lombard with at least 512 MB of RAM.

PowerBook G3 Series WallStreet - OS 8.1 - OS 9.2.2 or OS X 10.2

WallStreet was available in 233 MHz (no cache); 233 MHz (512 K cache); 2 50 MHz; 266 MHz; 292 MHz; and 300 MHz versions, and can also be upgraded to 500 MHz G3 or G4 power. It is the oldest PowerBook officially supported by OS X (up to OS 10.2.8) and will run all Classic Mac OS versions from OS 8.1 to OS 9.2.2. My favorite system for my 233 MHz (512 K cache) WallStreet is OS 9.2.2, which is satisfyingly fast. and rock stable. I have gone more than three months in daily use without restarting.

As for OS X, my personal recommendation would be to stick with the OS 9s unless you have a 500 MHz upgrade installed on the WallStreet. The 292 MHz and 300 MHz and this will give you marginally tolerable performance in OS X if you;re very patient Some folks profess to be happy with running X on 233 MHz-266 MHz WallStreets, but I wouldn't be. It was slow enough on my 500 MHz G3 Pismo. You will also want to max out your RAM for running X on these machines.

The WallStreet his probably the most sensible PowerBook candidate for using XPostFacto to install an unsupported version of OS X, in this case OS 10.3, which I am pretty sure should run faster then the officially supported OS 10.2, and also supports a lot of software that Jaguar doesn't. Given its laziness even on my officially supported machines, I shudder to think how slow Tiger would be on a WallStreet with its even more mediocre video support. With XPostFacto you might be able to get Tiger to run on a WallStreet, and if you enjoy the challenge, go for it, but as a practical proposition for a production OS in my view performance will be to badly compromised. On the other hand, my daughter is running Tiger on a 450 MHz iMac, and professes to be satisfied, albeit not excited, with the performance, so to each his or her own.

PowerBook G3 Series Lombard OS 8.5 - OS 9.2.2 or OS X

I personally consider the Lombard the threshold machine for reasonable OS X performance. A 400 MHz unit, or a 433 MHz G4 upgraded Lombard will give you decent OS X performance, but the 8 MB of video RAM and mediocre graphics card in these machines hobbles Finder responsiveness. OS 9.1 or 9.2.2 will give you lots of speed on a Lombard. The Lombard is officially supported up to OS 10.3.9, And that would be the OS X version I would consider ideal for these computers. XPostFacto will probably be able to get Tiger to run on a Lombard, but I suspect that performance will be very sluggish.

PowerBook G3 Series Pismo - OS 9.0 - OS 9.2.2 or OS X

I found that Mac OS X 10.3 ran reasonably well on my 500 MHz Pismo (640 MB RAM) before I upgraded it to 550 MHx G4 power, after which it was quite lively. unfortunately, there has been a significant performance regression with the installation of OS 10.4.1 tiger. I attribute this to Tiger's video hardware demands running up against the Pismo's lackluster video support. Even Quartz Extreme graphics acceleration feature is not supported by the Pismo's RAGE Mobility 128 graphics card with its paltry 8 MB of video RAM.

Consequently, I would recommend OS 10.3.9 as the optimum operating system for the Pismo, here with a stock G3 processor, or a fast G3 or G4 upgrade. OS 10.3 is faster than either OS 10.2 or OS 10.4 on these machines. The OS 9s fly on any Pismo model.

PowerBooks G4 (Mercury and Onyx) - OS 9.1 - OS 9.2.2 or OS X

The first two generations of the Titanium PowerBook inherited the Pismo's RAGE 128 card and 8 MB of video RAM, so they won't support Quartz Extreme or Tiger's Core Image graphics either. That limitation noted, go with OS 10.3.9 or OS 9.2.2.

PowerBook G4 (Gigabit Ethernet) - OS 9.2.2 through OS X 10.4.2

The Second generation TiBooks, introduced in October, 2001, were upgraded to ATI Mobility Radeon graphics processors with AGP 4X support and 16MB VRAM, making them the oldest PowerBooks supported by Quartz Extreme, and in my opinion the minimum PowerBook required for satisfactory performance in OS 10.4 Tiger 9.1 - OS 9.2.2 or OS X

PowerBook G4 (DVI) - OS 9.2.2 through OS X 10.4.2

PowerBook G4 (1 GHz, 867 MHz) OS 9.2.2 through OS X 10.4.2

PowerBook G4 Aluminum (12-inch, 15-inch, 17-inch) Through OS X 10.4.2 (OS 9.2.2 Classic Mode only). The aluminum models are unable to dual-boot directly into OS 9, by all have decent video support, and should be able to run Tiger nicely. Note however that the September, 2003, 1 GHz 15" AlBook, the April, 2004. 1.33 GHz 12" AlBook, September, 2003 1.33 GHZ 17-inch AlBook are respectively the minimum models that fully support Core Image in Tiger.

iBook ( original 300 MHz and SE 366 MHz clamshell) - OS 8.6 - OS 9.2.2 through OS X 10.3.9

These early iBooks will support up to OS X 10.3.9 -- although performance on the first generation clamshell models is not going to be scintillating, especially on the 300 MHz model. If you're serious about running OS X on these machines, you will want to maximize your RAM. Any version of the Classic Mac OS from OS 8.6 to OS 9.2.2 will work great.

iBook (Paris 2000/FireWire) - OS 9 - OS 9.2.2 or OS X

These models are now the oldest, slowest Apple portables that support the current 10.4 version of OS X. They will be much more satisfactory performers in OS X than the original iBook, but still no Quartz Extreme support, and I personally recommend OS 10.3.9 as the optimum compromise system for these models.

iBook (original Dual USB/Late 2001 revision) - OS 9.1 through OS 10.4.2

The first generation Dual USB iBook should offer about the same all OS X performance as a 400 MHz Pismo. No Quartz Extreme support. OS 9.x will fly.

iBook G3/G4 14.1 LCD/16 MB VRAM/Opaque 16 MB VRAM/32 MB VRAM April, 2002, and later) - OS 9.2.2 through OS 10.4.2.

These computers have Radeon graphics cards and at least the minimum amount of video RAM to support Quartz Extreme. However, even the current 1.2 GHz and 1.33 GHz G4 models have only Radeon 9200 cards, and thus do not fully support Core Image graphics in Tiger. My own experience with my 700 MHz G3 iBook with 16 MB VRAM is that performance was pretty much and even saw off between OS 10.3.9 and OS 10.4.1, but that OS 10.4.2 moves Tiger out in front.

The Installer Hacks

OS9 Helper

OS9 Helper allows you to install 9.2.1 or 9.2.2 on certain "Old World ROM" Macs that Apple has decided to drop support for. OS 9.1 is the final version that Apple allows to install on anything previous to the Beige G3.

Apple touted 9.2.1 as a minor update to 9.1 that added "better Classic compatibility". However, the performance improvements that were added in 9.2.x are claimed to be noticeable once you install it, although I have never noted any dramatic improvement. Open Transport networking is also said to be more stable, but once again, I've been quite happy with stability in OS 9.1.

Other potential reasons for installing 9.2.x are:

1. Compatibility with ATI's latest drivers . ATI dropped support for OpenGL versions lower than 1.2.2. (9.1 has 1.2.1)

2. You can't run DVD Studio Pro 1.5 or 1.2.1 without 9.2.2.

3. You can't run Final Cut Pro 3 without 9.2.2.

4. Full compatibility with iPod .

5. MacSpeech's iListen dictation software is not supported by OS 9.1.

OS9 Helper is available as a free download with no support. There is a support forum available for a $10 fee.

You can download OS 9 Helper from:
http://eshop.macsales.com/OSXCenter/OS9Helper/framework.cfm?topic=32
or >http://www.os9forever.com/os9helper.html

XPostFacto 4.0b5 - OS X for Legacy Macs

While Apple has limited its support for Mac OS X to those machines that originally came with a G3 or G4 processor, XPostFacto is a utility which helps to install and boot Mac OS X, Mac OS X Server, and Darwin on certain unsupported systems. When Mac OS X installs successfully, its stability on unsupported systems appears to be excellent. However, there are cases in which Mac OS X is difficult to install, and there are a variety of problems you can run into. So read carefully. You should also remember to check the online version of this documentation from time to time, to see whether there have been any changes.

Version 4 of XPostFacto has support for Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger), but it needs some testing. You should be cautious in installing Mac OS X 10.4, as there may be issues with a new version that are not immediately apparent. It would be prudent to have a good backup in place before attempting to install Tiger.

New in this version:

• Fixed a bug which sometimes failed to update the XPostFacto kernel extensions when booting from a CD or DVD.

• Switched to using the 10.2 headers and GCC 3.3 to compile the kernel extensions. This means that XPostFacto 4 now requires Mac OS X 10.2 or later. This appears to fix a problem loading certain kernel extensions at boot time on the Wallstreet Powerbooks.

System requirements:
Power Macintosh 7300 - 9600, or equivalent clone, or
Original Powerbook G3 , Powerbook 2400 or 3400, or
Beige G3 or Wallstreet Powerbook
Mac OS 9 or higher
Mac OS X 10.x, or Darwin 6.x or 7.x, to be installed

XPostFacto is an open-source application which you may download and try for free.

For more information, visit:
http://eshop.macsales.com/OSXCenter/XPostFacto/Framework.cfm?page=XPostFacto.html

PowerBook Mystique Mailbag

A and Q

From Robert Tanis

Hi Charles,

Sure wish your book publishers had been more positive about a Powerbook (and iBook) book.

Probably can find some of the material using Google, but that is not always so convenient.

I use my 12" Powerbook (1.5 Ghz with SD) every day. Weekdays I have a four hour commute and much of it is on a commuter train. The 12" is the only PB that fits comfortably in that setting. Window glare can sometimes be a problem, but I just crank up the brightness and soldier on. It is a wonderful time to work on special projects using Word and Excel. BTW, I carry it around in a modified JR Hill leather bag to which I added a shoulder strap. True, not a lot of protection, but I never let it out of my sight and I carry it next to me at all times. Finally, love the lightness of the 12" PB.

Below are a few questions you might be able to help with.

When we use the "reduced processor speed" while running on battery is there any way to determine exactly what the reduced speed is in terms of Ghz? System Profiler (OS 10.4) does not give this information. Is there a utility that does? I expect it is different, depending on the particular Powerbook.

I have both 65 watt and 45 watt chargers for my Powerbooks. Does it matter that I use a 65 watt charger with the 12" PB (which originally came with a 45 watt charger)?

What are your thoughts about FileVault? Has it now matured sufficiently to be trusted? Does it use up a lot of HD space? Would Open Firmware Password be better? I tend to think so, but not sure if has disadvantages beyond never forgetting the password (not a problem for me). Why does Apple provide both options?

Thanks.

Robert Tanis

Charles