iMac G4 1.25 GHz Gefore FX 5200

[bastifantasti]

Well then. I honestly wouldn't recommend doing something like this with anything older than a Powermac G5, but you make do with what you have. And since you have Leopard installed, Leopard Webkit is a must in my opinion.

leopard-webkit / Wiki / Home

sourceforge.net

I say that because it generally runs circles around TFF, and the only reason no one makes it a main browser is because it's quite unstable. It hasn't been updated since 2018 or so, but it's still modern enough to do most things. Just generally be prepared for it to crash.

Browsing the web on a PowerPC Mac tends to mean using different web browsers for different things, since some are better than others and you're going to have to figure out which ones work on the sites you use. But for the most part, it's still doable, just slow.

So just to clarify - is TenFourFox now obsolete? There are currently no actively maintained browsers for PPC macs?

 

[Amethyst1]

Well, currently I have Tiger installed because i found leopard to be too resource intensive visually e.g making the dock appear from hidden was horrendously slow.

This is also due to the FX5200 not supporting Core Image which Leopard's UI heavily depends on. So these effects are handled by the CPU instead, and the default 3D Dock is particularly bad. Simply put: Leopard without CI isn't fun - best to turn off all visual effects - or stick to Tiger.

 

[repairedCheese]

So just to clarify - is TenFourFox now obsolete? There are currently no actively maintained browsers for PPC macs?

Those are actually two different questions. TenFourFox is slowly becoming obsolete because it's been stuck based on Firefox 45, despite being actively worked on. If you want to run something newer, you are going to have to run Linux, where you have more options for newer web browsers.

Mind you, if you want a current version of Firefox on PowerPC Mac, I do believe you need a Powermac G5 running 64-bit Void Linux, but I can usually get most things to work on TenFourFox using the FF52 ESR user agent, so that's maybe a little bit of overkill. But you do have quite a few options if you're willing to try Linux. Though, a warning, my understanding is that Linux doesn't play as nice with Geforce cards, I can't speak to that experience.

The PowerPC Mac internet experience is one of people maintaining forks of firefox based on older versions because Mozilla decided to break compatibility over and over again, unfortunately.

 

[bastifantasti]

I love the wealth of knowledge you all have, makes me feel like i'm living the dream

 

[bastifantasti]

So I’m currently downloading the snow leopard ppc os that leaked earlier this year - I remember installing it on my intel at the time and thinking it was so much faster than leopard - I’m hoping to see the same benefits this afternoon if I manage to get it installed

 

[Amethyst1]

You do know that it's an early beta and lots of things need work/aren't working yet?

 

[bastifantasti]

You do know that it's an early beta and lots of things need work/aren't working yet?

Yes but my life is empty right now 😅 it just finished restoring to the partition, will upload a photo

 

[bastifantasti]

Oh no, it’s worse than leopard 🙃🤓😭

graphics performance is flakey, many random glitches for me within the first few minutes - also desktop wallpapers are being displayed at a lower blocky resolution (perhaps not clear in the photo)

 

[Amethyst1]

Have a look at this thread - there might be workarounds for some of the issues. No graphics acceleration is brutal though.

Snow Leopard on unsupported PPC machines

[ ©© Ltshears, Wikimedia Commons] A CLOUDED LEOPARD: Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard on PowerPC WikiPost last updated: 11 April 2022 OVERVIEW We’re exploring how to run early builds of Snow Leopard on (later) G4 and G5 PowerPC Macs. This WikiPost outlines testing methods to get a Developer...

forums.macrumors.com

 

[bastifantasti]

I think Snow Leopard on PPC is a little bit too out there for my needs right now. Back on Tiger with Office 2004 - working as wonderfully as I remembered, just a shame about TenFourFox being so slow (although massively improved since I followed everyone's advice on this forum).

I'd also forgotten how nice the curved menu bar is at the top left and right of the screen, I miss classic Mac OS X and the UI!

 

[Amethyst1]

I'd also forgotten how nice the curved menu bar is at the top left and right of the screen, I miss classic Mac OS X and the UI

Oh yeah

Displaperture

Round display corners.

manytricks.com

 

[bastifantasti]

My SSD arrived this afternoon when I left the house for literally 3 minutes, when I returned there was a card saying a second delivery attempt will be made on Thursday afternoon - the same afternoon I Have to drive to the Genius Bar to drop off my destroyed MacBook Pro 😂😂😓😥

 

[Amethyst1]

My SSD arrived this afternoon when I left the house for literally 3 minutes, when I returned there was a card saying a second delivery attempt will be made on Thursday afternoon

Argh - I hate it when that happens.

 

[Toyface19]

If it's not been said already, TenFourFox is not obsolete, and a version came out just at the end of July 2020, make sure you have downloaded the correct version for whatever processor is inside of your G4 iMac, and also make sure that you have FoxPEP installed. Another fantastic option is to block ads using the hosts file method from this website which will stop any connections to a huge myriad of ad servers, so less need for add-ons taking up resources blocking ads, as the data never gets to your machine to be rendered, a big help on my two G4 laptops.

There is also the AquaAccelerator on this forum, too, which works wonders on a Tiger machine. I wouldn't bother with Leopard on your machine if you're wanting performance. With no graphics acceleration, it's a woeful experience as others have rightly said. You can also check out the Macintosh Garden for older versions of software you might find useful, too.

 

[bastifantasti]

I will check out AquaAccelerator later - but I have no issues in Tiger with graphis performance - everything is snappy and wonderful and a G4 PPC haven - it's just when I upgraded to Leopard to test its performance out that I experienced a generally slow system.

In terms of TenFourFox I currently only have uMatrix installed. I will check out FoxPEP tonight too - do they have overlapping functions e.g. should I only install one of them? In general uMatrix has made webbrowsing possible for me, which is great.

Yes I have fully settled on Tiger now, and it is my favourite version of Mac OS X - think i mentioned earlier, I think they had everything perfect with that OS. Now macOS Catalina is just one giant notification centre (totally disgusting) with the dreadful App Launchpad thing, which for some reason, whenever I install a macOS system update puts itself back into my dock - yuk.

Today I had some long overdue work that needed doing, so I decided to dig out my old Photoshop CS2 CDs (6 IN TOTAL!!!) to use Illustrator - was surprised at how I managed to complete everything I needed to do. And also realised - Mac OS X used to be full of floating toolbars, particularly Adobe software and Microsoft office software - I loved that style of menu. Now it's all gone, I think it's a real shame - although, I am sure, many people prefer the toolbars to be integrated into the main app window as they are today...sigh...the photo pretty much summarises Mac OS X how I used to remember it (although the dock I normally have hidden, was simply present for the family photo )

 

[z970]

@Toyface19 As of Release 2.0, foxPEP also comes with its own custom ad-blocker in the event the user does not have a special hosts file (which does not in fact allow ISPs to inject bad things into adspaces, contrary to popular belief - what a stupid notion...).

@bastifantasti foxPEP and uMatrix do not have any overlapping functions that would cause malfunction, and are both common compliments to TenFourFox.

I can speak to the effectiveness of AquaTrimcelerator - on my MDD, running it plus disabling Spotlight has made page scrolling much more fluid than it was with just foxPEP (there is only so much you can do on the browser side), and has improved Finder and application operation (like CS2) considerably. Definitely take a look.

 

[bastifantasti]

My next task for the evening - iTunes. Since about 2009 I used Spotify for all of my music needs - but I do have my historic iTunes library backed up on MS OneDrive. I tried to download it yesterday, but in TenFourFox the file fails downloading at about 1gb out of 40gb total file size, so I need to figure out how to download it whilst my MacBook Pro is in intensive care...any ideas?

 

[z970]

@bastifantasti See what happens when you copy the URL of the download link (if you have a one-button mouse, you can simply Ctrl + click), open up Terminal, type curl, space, and paste in the URL.

I don't commonly use curl, so this may be the wrong usage however.

Alternatively, you may also try with Links2 (https://macintoshgarden.org/apps/links2-text-mode-graphics-mode-web-browser) if X11 is installed. When it opens up, press G, relay the download URL into its address field, and see if it completes.

 

[davisdelo]

...any ideas?

If you can connect to OneDrive via WebDAV then you could just mount as a drive and not have to copy anything at all. I'm not sure if OneDrive offers that though, I don't use it.

 

[bastifantasti]

curl does not work, invalid security certificates and tells me I can disable this with -k, which still fails. Download the software from macintosh garden that you linked me too, about to test

 

[bastifantasti]

If you can connect to OneDrive via WebDAV then you could just mount as a drive and not have to copy anything at all. I'm not sure if OneDrive offers that though, I don't use it.

You will have to forgive me, I am trying to google WebDAV Tiger - is it an app to download, or an inbuilt feature of the OS to utilise?

 

[bastifantasti]

You will have to forgive me, I am trying to google WebDAV Tiger - is it an app to download, or an inbuilt feature of the OS to utilise?

Ignore my post - onedrive is 100% impossible in Tiger according to historic posts on this forum

 

[bastifantasti]

What're peoples thoughts to me removing the fan from the iMac G4 17"? The air blowing out of it is always stone cold...or can it be replaced with a more quite one? I'm looking forward to the silent SSD and disgruntled by the jet engine that will be left inside...

 

[z970]

Ignore my post - onedrive is 100% impossible in Tiger according to historic posts on this forum

Did you try Links2?

As to the fan, it will be a difficult task. You will need to remove the HDD / ODD assembly, the split half-hemisphere power supply, and I believe the fan cage / enclosure itself just to get to it. And the air might be cold now, but what about on a hot day, perhaps when the A/C has failed (as it periodically does...) ? Maybe it will find itself on full load for an extended period of time during said hot day - in which case it will likely shut down from overheating if that cloud of heat isn't being escorted right out as soon as it's generated.

Feel around the sides of the base, and the metal under it for a more accurate reading for its temperatures. If it's even slightly warm, I've seen instances where even unassuming temperatures like that can turn very hot, real fast without any airflow.

For many reasons, I wouldn't recommend it. But if you wish, you could try relubricating the fan's bearings with some silicone to have it run a little smoother instead.

 

[Toyface19]

@Toyface19 As of Release 2.0, foxPEP also comes with its own custom ad-blocker in the event the user does not have a special hosts file (which does not in fact allow ISPs to inject bad things into adspaces, contrary to popular belief - what a stupid notion...).

I did not know that FoxPEP had such a feature built in, but I never went off and found another, so I guess with the hosts files and FoxPEP I'm all covered on my iBook running 10.4, it really does make TFF a lot better. Not sure I follow you on your comment about the ISP injections? Not heard anything like that myself?

Today I had some long overdue work that needed doing, so I decided to dig out my old Photoshop CS2 CDs (6 IN TOTAL!!!) to use Illustrator - was surprised at how I managed to complete everything I needed to do. And also realised - Mac OS X used to be full of floating toolbars, particularly Adobe software and Microsoft office software - I loved that style of menu. Now it's all gone, I think it's a real shame - although, I am sure, many people prefer the toolbars to be integrated into the main app window as they are today...sigh...the photo pretty much summarises Mac OS X how I used to remember it (although the dock I normally have hidden, was simply present for the family photo )

I use my PowerBook G4 to get a little bit of work done with both Pages and also Adobe CS4, which is the last version available for PowerPC Macs, and allows me to make an IDML file of my work I can open at work on Windows running CC2019 and my own Mac Pro running CC2020. You can find CS4 on the Macintosh Garden I think - I do NOT know whether or not you HAVE to be running Leopard to install it though, but I find CS4 to be fairly useful. You can also find Microsoft Office 2008 as well as the myriad of updates available, for a fairly modern Office experience. A lot of people enjoy one of the last versions of LibreOffice made available for PowerPC, too, which is again available on "the Garden".

Cheers,