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Tiger or Leopard for PowerBook G4 1.5 GHz? - Printable Version

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Tiger or Leopard for PowerBook G4 1.5 GHz? - Winston - 04-15-2010

I recently got a 12" PowerBook G4 with a 1.5 GHz processor as a hand-me-down. I think it has 10.3 on it. I plan to reformat the drive and start fresh, and am trying to decide between 10.4 and 10.5. I'm running 10.4 on my TiBook and 10.5 on our Cube. My impression is that 10.4 is a bit snappier, although the Cube is upgraded to a 1.8 GHz processor and the TiBook only has 667 MHz.

Thoughts on which would be better for the 12" PowerBook? Reasons to use one over the other?

I have been plagued by 10.4's "settings have been changed by another application" in the Network pane of System Preferences on the TiBook. But 10.5 might have its own issues.


Thanks.

- Winston


Re: Tiger or Leopard for PowerBook G4 1.5 GHz? - mattkime - 04-15-2010

I'd go for 10.5. newer os versions have speed enhancements and their slow parts can be turned off.


Re: Tiger or Leopard for PowerBook G4 1.5 GHz? - JEBB - 04-15-2010

We have two 12" G4 Powerbooks with 10.4. We have never had the preferences problem you wrote about. I believe that version is optimal for PPC Macs. At 10.5 you get into the version that is more into the 'PPC to Intel transition' and not optimal for your G4. Also, if you ever want to run OS9, you can with 10.4 in Classic but not with 10.5.


Re: Tiger or Leopard for PowerBook G4 1.5 GHz? - Wailer - 04-15-2010

I vote 10.4 unless there is some feature or application you need that requires 10.5.

My Pismo with 10.4 and shadowkiller is very responsive.


Re: Tiger or Leopard for PowerBook G4 1.5 GHz? - Doc - 04-15-2010

10.4 without a doubt.

Apple hasn't done much to speed up Leopard on a PPC and even a clean install slows down fast.

A fast dual-processor and a fast video card help a bit, but you've got neither.


Re: Tiger or Leopard for PowerBook G4 1.5 GHz? - Fritz - 04-15-2010

I've just done this with 2 friends with the exact same vintage pbooks, one a 12" and one a 15" both with the same ram, 2G and proc, 1.33Ghz.

The first got Tiger the 2nd got Leopard, both the last versions. Neither owner is particularly computer savvy so they were fine with the experiment, as it were.

If there is a difference in speed, I don't see it.
Both are happy (I haven't seen the 1st to update him to Leo).
Neither are doing video editing or ProTools with these pbooks.
Mostly email, Safari and other pedestrian acts of electron activity.

That said, I'd steer to Leo. It adds a few functions that are user friendly for the non savvy. Time Machine comes to mind.

What was more important in both cases (they were both updated from 10.3), was teaching them both file management (IE: don't drop files on the desktop).


Re: Tiger or Leopard for PowerBook G4 1.5 GHz? - AlphaDog - 04-15-2010

Another vote for 10.4. It's been very solid for me, and certainly without the problem you describe.


Re: Tiger or Leopard for PowerBook G4 1.5 GHz? - tortoise - 04-15-2010

Winston wrote:


I have been plagued by 10.4's "settings have been changed by another application" in the Network pane of System Preferences on the TiBook. But 10.5 might have its own issues.


Thanks.

- Winston

Winston that is an old problem that only affected 10.4 systems and is easily fixed, see link below for help. However I agree with others that Leopard is the better choice for many other reasons than the simple problem you have been having with the network settings that does not apply to Leopard.

http://www.applelinks.com/index.php/forums/viewthread/166/


Re: Tiger or Leopard for PowerBook G4 1.5 GHz? - SKYLANE - 04-15-2010

I was running Leopard on a 1.5 GHz G4 Mac Mini with 1 GB RAM. Ran just fine....


Re: Tiger or Leopard for PowerBook G4 1.5 GHz? - Winston - 04-15-2010

Thanks for all the responses. The availability of Time Machine might tip the balance to 10.5. I've generally been using SuperDuper! or Carbon Copy Cloner for backups, but there are reasons to have TM available too. I note that this particular Mac came with the predecessor to Time Machine, Apple's Backup.

I'd like to have Classic available on one machine, however. But I have older Macs I can use for that if I really need or want it. It would be nice on the 12" PowerBook, but probably not necessary.

As to the "settings changed" problem in 10.4 I fixed it, but it came back, so for now I'm just living with it.

Thanks again.


- Winston