I just purchased a IMac Power PC G4 which has the Tiger 10.4.11 OS. I would like to upgrade to Lion OS. How can I upgrade the OS?

You cannot.

No PPC Mac can run beyond Leopard 10.5.8.

Buy an Intel Mac if you want Snow Leopard, Lion or Mountain Lion.

PPC (PowerPC) is the processor architecture of all G3, G4 and G5 Power Mac computers.

PPC Macs cannot run any OS greater than Leopard, 10.5.8 because after that, Apple quit developing for PPC processors and limited support for the Intel processor line only.

As for upgrade to Leopard, Yes, if your machine meets the minimum requirements of 867 MHz or faster processor, 512 MB or greater of RAM and has a DVD reader it can have Leopard installed.

To install Leopard, one must first purchase a RETAIL (black with X on it) disc.

After install of 10.5, 10.5.1,10.5.4 or 10.5.6 retail version, free updates to 10.5.8 are available from Apple.

Check eBay for discs:

http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=mac+os+x+leopard+retail+10.5

If your machine is slower than 867 MHz, Google "Unsupported Leopard Installation".

Tiger is lthe best choice for slower PPC Macs.

It is impossible to answer your question knowledgably without knowing what you intent to do with your Mac.

What do you intend to do with your Mac? Wnat software do you want to run?

??????

It is impossible to answer your question knowledgably without knowing what you intent to do with your Mac.

It is if you know what machines can and cannot run Lion.

That was the question.....

The question is answered and the user has been informed regarding the OS options available beyond Tiger for a PPC G4 Mac.

If that is so, may the OP move on with all the knowledge he needs.

But perhaps he has no idea what he needs...

To go out in August, 2012 and purchase a G4 Mac with OS X Tiger is not generally a smart move, even if the purchase price was ridiculously low! This is further supported by his statement that he is new to Macs.

But if you think that all he has to do is ask if he can upgrade to Lion and you correctly answered that he cannot. And you further suggest he go into the marketplace and purchase Leopard, which will cost him many multiples of what he paid for his Mac, and you think that is the best advice to give him, then...

I guess the question of what he wants to do with his Mac is irrelevant as you suggest! 😉

I have a MDD Dual 1GHz Processor Power Mac (2GB RAM) that I upgraded from 10.4 to 10.5. The machine is too slow for 10.5. I wished that I never upgraded.

Regards,

THe Video card is a big factor in moving from 10.4 to 10.5, lots of really superfous Video rendering.

For my money, OSX never got as polished again after 10.4.11, just change for changes sake. 😟

BD,

I'd have to agree with your assessments on OS X.

OS X Tiger was the Creme de la Creme of OS X versions.

It ran absolutely super on both of my 1.25 and 1.42 Ghz G4's and my mother's 800 Mhz eMac!

With my newly acquired 27 inch iMac, I am not going beyond 10.6. I don't like where OS X is heading, now and I do not want my Mac to be acting anything like a giant iPhone or iPad.

I don't like where OS X is heading, now and I do not want my Mac to be acting anything like a giant iPhone or iPad.

Agreed, I'd never buy a 27" imac that coudn't run 10.6!

If I had the money, I might buy a 12 core iPhone Pro though! 😉

The machine is too slow for 10.5. I wished that I never upgraded.

The performance hit that a machine takes between 10.4x and 10.5x is measurable in benchmarks.

I quantified the performance hits using benchmark utilities on my page as follows:

http://www.jcsenterprises.com/Japamacs_Page/System_Benchmarks.html

I saw time and again game benchmarks running faster in Tiger as compared to Leopard.

Those results can also be seen in my other benchmark pages:

http://www.jcsenterprises.com/Japamacs_Page/All_Things_PPC.html

RAM usage also increases with Leopard, as well as the need for free hard drive space for use as virtual memory.

THe Video card is a big factor in moving from 10.4 to 10.5, lots of really superfous Video rendering.

Absolutely.

Without a graphics card that supports Core Image, many GPU functions in Leopard are dumped on the CPU for a performance hit and a lack luster appearance as compared to Tiger.

Leopard saw the beginings of Windows like thinking with regard to OS overhead and bloat......

Tiger is the best choice for slower PPC Macs.

More like ALL PPC Macs, huh? 😐

Yep! 🙂

But mysteriously, PPC Mac's Zeros & Ones arent good enough for today's rigorous Ones & Zeros, despite Apple's admonition that creating a "Universal"" Apwas a cake walk! 😟

I have no doubt in my mind that for the "cost" of a KB upgrade to see Funcion keys, that we could run OS7 through OS9 Apps for the same expenditure. 😟

And just when you think Apple couldn't possibly Gray things more in OSX... what could be the FN possibilty for this be???

And to no benefit! 😟