Tiger or Leopard for PowerBook G4 1.5 GHz?

[Winston]

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

What slow parts in 10.5 can be turned off?


- W

[Lew Zealand]

Clean installs of 10.5 a half to a year ago are still running great on our 2 PowerBook G4s:

15" 1.67GHz, 2GB RAM, 320GB 5400RPM HD
12" 1.33GHz, 1.25GB RAM, 60GB 4200RPM HD

One gets daily use and the other on and off use (which one is used which way changes from time to time). We've turned off nothing in the OS and having the updates and not worrying about 10.4 compatibility with software is nice. Time Machine backups on the PowerBooks is convenient.

OTOH 10.4 works well too, our iMac G4/800 w/1GB RAM, 250GB 7200RPM HD. No TM though, boo hoo!

[deckeda]

Winston wrote:
[quote=mattkime]
I'd go for 10.5. newer os versions have speed enhancements and their slow parts can be turned off.

What slow parts in 10.5 can be turned off?


- W
In Terminal:

defaults write com.apple.systempreferences SPEEDMakeMiracle 1

[deckeda]

But for some reason I couldn't get that to work until swapping out the mobo, SSD for HD and 3 times the RAM.

[space-time]

having 2 nice OSes to choose from is nice. Imagine if this was PeeCee and then you had to choose between XP and Vista. Ouch. I know there is Linux too, but some people need Windows or better OS X for one reason or another.

I will nuke and pave my PowerBook G4, 15" 1.5 GHz 2 GB RAM 160 GB HD 5400 RPM soon and I follow this thread with great personal interest. Thanks for bring it up, there is no need for me to ask in 2-3 weeks.

[mattkime]

you can turn off spotlight indexing and dashboard. (okay, dashboard isn't that bad) and other things, none of which come to mind.

[RAMd®d]

There's an OFF widget for Dashboard, free, that- well, turns off any widgets you have running.

It shows the amount of memory they're sucking up, as well.

You can then relaunch Dashboard from the Dock as usual, if you've a mind to.

No C/L mojo needed.

[Winston]

mattkime wrote:
you can turn off spotlight indexing and dashboard. (okay, dashboard isn't that bad) and other things, none of which come to mind.

10.4 has Spotlight and Dashboard too.

If I decide I don't need Time Machine I will go with 10.4 to preserve the ability to run Classic. The intended use will occasionally involve old files and I might want to fire up WordPerfect. I can view those files in NeoOffice, but the formatting is often off.


- W

[silvarios]

Doc wrote:
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.

I have never noticed this issue. I installed Leopard on a dual 450MHz G4 with 1.5GB RAM (thank you LeopardAssist) and an iBook G4 1.33 GHz 1.25GB RAM and both worked well. The latter is still in my daily rotation of computers, but the former was taken out of commission (no fault of Leopard, i just needed the space and reduced noise level).


Nathan

[BobC]

silvarios wrote:
I have never noticed this issue. I installed Leopard on a dual 450MHz G4 with 1.5GB RAM (thank you LeopardAssist) and an iBook G4 1.33 GHz 1.25GB RAM and both worked well.

I also have 10.5 on an iBook G4 1.33 GHz 1.25GB RAM. It works well enough. There's a bit of sluggishness when starting apps, but it's made up for by the time I save with QuickLook since I don't have to launch apps as much. It's nice to have some of the apps that are 10.5 only. I used TinkerTool and some other tips I found to turn off some of the features that make a speed difference.