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June 1st, 2010 • 21:06

The trouble with Apple Macs…

Usually my posts are all about solutions.  Sadly, this one is about an unresolved problem.

I work at an Edinburgh-based charity, AdvoCard.  In one of our offices we have 10 PowerPC Apple Mac G5s.  They all run OS X 10.3 at the moment.  This is a problem because I cannot purchase an upgrade.  10.6 (Snow Leopard) is all that Apple sells at the moment, which is not compatible with PowerPC Macs – same with all retail outlets.  It is, literally, a closed shop.

It’s a problem in day-to-day usage because, without an upgrade to OS X, I cannot update Firefox beyond version 2.  This causes issues accessing many websites, notably Google docs.  Internet Explorer and Safari are in the same boat (if not worse).  Another issue is that MS Office (on OS X 10.3) cannot install the converter to read docx formatted documents (from Office 2007 onward).  Pretty much any new software I want to install demands at least version 10.4 of OS x.

My only option (aside from spending a stupid amount of money on hardware which AdvoCard cannot afford), seems to be to install Ubuntu, or Debian, or Yellow Dog Linux.  Believe it or not (given my track record of Linux usage), I’m loathed to do this, due to the training and migration implications.  It’s certainly do-able but, frankly, I have bigger fish to fry than training everyone in AdvoCard how to use Gnome or KDE.  I’m not an IT manager, and we certainly don’t have the cash to employ one.

Answers on a postcard please…

http://thenoseinvestigates.wordpress.com/2009/12/07/radical-thinking-the-play-ethic-transition-towns-social-capital-and-community-development-trusts/

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    Jun 9th 2010 • 21:06
    by Apple Mac appreciation | Chris Mackie

    [...] I hit upon the idea of using an old Apple Mac Mini G4.  As I say, they are small, quiet, have low power consumption, and can be picked up cheaply on Ebay.  Debian GNU/Linux is an available distribution which is still supports the PowerPC processor (unlike Apple itself, which stopped supporting PowerPC on its last but one release of OS X (10.5 – Leopard) – see rant. [...]

  • Mar 11th 2011 • 21:03
    by Neil

    Hi There

    Just read about troubles with Mac G5′s – MacOs 10.5 works with Powermac G5′s.

    Everything should work fine with 10.5 (Leopard)

    10.6 is Snow Leopard

    Cheers
    Neil

    P.S. If you could help me sort out a Ralink 3090 card for my late 2005 G5 I’d be chuffed!

  • Mar 12th 2011 • 00:03
    by Chris

    Thanks for your reply, Neil. You’re right – everything would be fine with 10.5 (Leopard, not Snow Leopard – as I said). The only problem is that 10.5 is not on sale. Granted, I could probably pick up a copy on ebay but not 10 licences…

    BTW, what’s your problem with the Ralink 3090?

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