Sorbet Leopard - Your Power Mac Unleashed

[Project Alice]

But overall, it would be nice to have some upgrades for the last OS with 32 bit support.

Monterey is not 32 bit nor does it support 32 bit. Mojave was the last one to run 32 bit applications but it isn’t a 32 bit OS either.

I believe Lion 10.7 was the last one to actually be able to run on a 32 bit CPU, and even that needed coaxing.

 

[jktwice]

Monterey is not 32 bit nor does it support 32 bit. Mojave was the last one to run 32 bit applications but it isn’t a 32 bit OS either.

I believe Lion 10.7 was the last one to actually be able to run on a 32 bit CPU, and even that needed coaxing.

Lion officially couldn't run it but I remember reading threads detailing how to get the 32-bit MacBooks to run it.

Apple has had many fails but those late 2005 G5s/PBG4s and the early 2006 intel Macs take the cake for top-tier terrible, no-good, very bad Apple. The life support for these machines is pretty pitiful, albeit slightly more excusable for the 32-bit Intel ones which at least ran Snow Leopard officially. You got 4 years from the PMG5 Quad and like 5 years from the first MBP Intels that had loads of heat issues. Thankfully OS X Lion played nice with 32-bit EFI so you could still run that OS but nothing for the Power Macs and iMacs unfortunately that could absolutely run Snow Leopard.

 

[Project Alice]

Lion officially couldn't run it but I remember reading threads detailing how to get the 32-bit MacBooks to run it.

Correct, hence it needed coaxing. I never did it personally, but I remember seeing threads about getting it running. Similarly, 2007 Macs that did have a 64bit CPU, had some half-assed firmware implementation making 64bit OS support annoying unless it was Windows under CSM. There was a fix for that too, but the fact Apple didn't fix it themselves was asinine. I had Mountain Lion 10.8 on a 2007 MBP. Had a Core 2 Duo, but 32bit EFI which meant Apple decided it couldn't have Mountain Lion instead of either releasing a firmware update or fixing the boot loader on their OS.

Apple has had many fails but those late 2005 G5s/PBG4s and the early 2006 intel Macs take the cake for top-tier terrible, no-good, very bad Apple. The life support for these machines is pretty pitiful, albeit slightly more excusable for the 32-bit Intel ones which at least ran Snow Leopard officially. You got 4 years from the PMG5 Quad and like 5 years from the first MBP Intels that had loads of heat issues. Thankfully OS X Lion played nice with 32-bit EFI so you could still run that OS but nothing for the Power Macs and iMacs unfortunately that could absolutely run Snow Leopard.

I would disagree with them being top-tier terrible, as they were (and most still are) very good machines, especially the PowerBooks. Other than having only a single core, the later PowerBooks (or probably iBooks would be a better comparison) had much better GPU power than any of the 2006 Intel's that didn't have a dedicated GPU. Intel iGPUs have been pretty useless until very recently.

I 100% agree about the life support on them though. Snow Leopard and maybe even Lion, should've ran on G4s and G5s. If we applied their logic from the PPC to x86 switch to their current x86 to ARM switch, all the Intel Macs already including the Mac Pro 7,1 would be totally unsupported by macOS probably two or three releases ago. The 2005 PPCs got literally one OS upgrade. That always irritated me.

 

[mac57mac57]

The 2005 PPCs got literally one OS upgrade. That always irritated me.

Agreed!! I was SO disappointed/angry with Apple when my late model Power Mac G5 DP 2.3 GHz only got the one OS bump, from the Tiger it was delivered with to Leopard. I will NEVER understand how Apple so completely failed their customer base on this one.

 

[barracuda156]

Outside of that, I'm sort of drawing blanks at this point. Does anyone have any other ideas on what could be adjusted in another hypothetical revision?

Provide an optional installation of a package manager capable of building modern software. (Doesn’t have to be MacPorts, there are other options too.)
Ideally provide some fundamental software in pre-built form, like gcc and cmake. For someone with only G4 hardware that’s a big deal.

 

[Edgecrusherr]

Monterey is not 32 bit nor does it support 32 bit. Mojave was the last one to run 32 bit applications but it isn’t a 32 bit OS either.

I believe Lion 10.7 was the last one to actually be able to run on a 32 bit CPU, and even that needed coaxing.

You're right, I got my "M" OSes mixed up there! Thanks for catching that.