best os for iMac G5

Probably Leopard, only because for a little while longer, it will continue to be supported by Apple with security patches or other updates. A G5 can't run anything higher than Leopard. In a very short while, it will be in the same boat as Tiger.

Already, many apps aren't supported any longer on a PPC computer. For example, the latest Firefox and Flash.

Mac OS X v10.5 Leopard requires:

• A Mac computer with an Intel, PowerPC G5, or Power PC G4 (867 MHz or faster) processor
• 512 MB memory or more
• A DVD drive for installation
• 9 GB of available disk space or more

Agreed

I used to say 10.4 but with some software you can not install the lattest version any more. You need 10.5 leopard.

It depends what you mean by "best"?

If you mean the "fastest, most reliable and stable", then Tiger wins hands down. It was the last OS written purely for PPC, and it shows.

Unfortunately, as others have said, some software just isn't supported on Tiger anymore, so that means you would need Leopard, which is the last OS that will run on a PPC.

If you have a good size HD (or get a new one installed), you can have the best of both worlds assuming you have access to install disks for Tiger and Leopard : create two partitions on a new HD, then install Tiger on one and Leopard on the other. To launch either, hold down the Option key at startup, and you will be prompted to choose between the two.

Leopard works perfectly well on G5s and is an excellent OS. I'm not sure why some people are so down on it, I found it a vast improvement over Tiger.

Leopard works perfectly well on my G5 too, and it is an excellent OS as you say. But it's SLOOOOOOOW!!

(But just as a reference - the fastest OS ever in my experience was OS 9.2.2 running natively on a G3 iBook.)

I agree with Miriam.

Leopard 10.5.8 is faster even than Tiger 10.4.11 was, and just as stable.

I have never had a problem with it.

Klaus1 wrote:

I agree with Miriam.

Leopard 10.5.8 is faster even than Tiger 10.4.11 was, and just as stable.

I have never had a problem with it.

Tell me how you get it to run so fast? I run Safari, Firefox, Mail, FileMaker Pro 10, Photoshop Elements 6, Word 2001, iLife 2006; I run Onyx as often as I remember to do maintenance; yet it seems much slower than Tiger was. It's not my HD - I have a 640GB drive only 1/3 full. Is it my 1.5GB RAM? Should I knock it up to the full 2.5GB?)

christopher rigby1 wrote:

Klaus1 wrote:

I agree with Miriam.

Leopard 10.5.8 is faster even than Tiger 10.4.11 was, and just as stable.

I have never had a problem with it.

Tell me how you get it to run so fast? I run Safari, Firefox, Mail, FileMaker Pro 10, Photoshop Elements 6, Word 2001, iLife 2006; I run Onyx as often as I remember to do maintenance; yet it seems much slower than Tiger was. It's not my HD - I have a 640GB drive only 1/3 full. Is it my 1.5GB RAM? Should I knock it up to the full 2.5GB?)

If you run all of those concurrently, I don't know if even the full allotment of RAM will help. But maxing out the RAM always helps.

I don't know why you're running Onyx on a routine basis. It's not needed, except on the rare occasion, for troubleshooting, and then to be used selectively for certain functions. OS X mostly takes care of itself. One of the effects of cleaning out all the caches, one of the routines of Onyx, is to slow things down. If you delete those caches, they all then need to be rebuilt. The purpose of caches is that the data is right there for a process or app which needs it. If it has to go looking for that data and the cache where it is usually located is gone, it slows things down.

EDIT: If you open Activity Monitor>System Memory, what do you see for Page outs and Swap used, down at the bottom? How much free and inactive RAM?

Message was edited by: WZZZ

WZZZ wrote:

christopher rigby1 wrote:

Klaus1 wrote:

I agree with Miriam.

Leopard 10.5.8 is faster even than Tiger 10.4.11 was, and just as stable.

I have never had a problem with it.

Tell me how you get it to run so fast? I run Safari, Firefox, Mail, FileMaker Pro 10, Photoshop Elements 6, Word 2001, iLife 2006; I run Onyx as often as I remember to do maintenance; yet it seems much slower than Tiger was. It's not my HD - I have a 640GB drive only 1/3 full. Is it my 1.5GB RAM? Should I knock it up to the full 2.5GB?)

If you run all of those concurrently, I don't know if even the full allotment of RAM will help. But maxing out the RAM always helps.

I don't know why you're running Onyx on a routine basis. It's not needed, except on the rare occasion, for troubleshooting, and then to be used selectively for certain functions. OS X mostly takes care of itself. One of the effects of cleaning out all the caches, one of the routines of Onyx, is to slow things down. If you delete those caches, they all then need to be rebuilt. The purpose of caches is that the data is right there for a process or app which needs it. If it has to go looking for that data and the cache where it is usually located is gone, it slows things down.

EDIT: If you open Activity Monitor>System Memory, what do you see for Page outs and Swap used, down at the bottom? How much free and inactive RAM?

Message was edited by: WZZZ

I could run all those programs concurrently in Tiger with barely a blink (namely : Mail 2, Safari 3, FileMaker Pro 6, Photoshop 7, Word 2001, iPhoto 6, iTunes 7.5 - most of those have since been upgraded in Leopard, namely : Mail 3, Safari 4 and now 5, FM Pro 10, PSE 6, and iTunes 9.2, which may be part of the problem)

I tend to use Onyx for the housekeeping that would normally occur in the wee small hours (the Daily, Weekly, Monthly tasks).

I find Safari's cache is more a hindrance than a help, so I'm always clearing that out. Other caches I leave alone.

Right now, I'm only running Safari, these are the Activity Monitor figures :

Free : 313.59 MB

Inactive : 104.86 MB

Page outs : 1013.86 MB

Swap used : 445.31 MB

Which all seems kind of heavy for only Safari, and I really think Safari may be the problem here.

(EDIT: In the blink of an eye, Free has gone down to 289 MB, while Inactive hasn't changed. Safari is using 493 MB of Real Memory, but there have been times it's gone up to over 1 GB. Then, it's so slow that I Quit & Relaunch, and it goes down to around 256 MB ... for a brief time).

More RAM would certainly help. I'd max it out. Those Page outs and Swap numbers are heavy hitters. I'd want to see them much, much lower, maybe even zero. I just opened Safari (never use it, so this isn't much of a test) but just on opening it's using only around 25 MB of real memory. Visiting one site and it's up to 58MB. No idea what it would be like if I really used it. (This is in 10.6 and a different Safari, so this may be apples to oranges.) Do you use clicktoflash?

Safari memory leak? (Different Safari in Leo than the one in Tiger, right?)

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2575549?messageID=12246606

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2752121?start=0&tstart=0

EDIT: just checked before quitting Safari and doing nothing with it, it was up to 106 MB, and I suppose, climbing.

Firefox, my usual browser, is around 400 MB.

Message was edited by: WZZZ

To use Mac OS X v10.4, your Macintosh needs:

• A PowerPC G3, G4, or G5 processor
• Built-in FireWire
• At least 256 MB of RAM

• DVD drive (DVD-ROM), Combo (CD-RW/DVD-ROM) or SuperDrive (DVD-R) for installation
• At least 3 GB of free disk space; 4 GB if you install the XCode 2 Developer Tools

Mac OS X v10.5 Leopard requires:

• A Mac computer with an Intel, PowerPC G5, or Power PC G4 (867 MHz or faster) processor
• 512 MB memory or more
• A DVD drive for installation
• 9 GB of available disk space or more

Looks like Tiger just has a lighter footprint, to begin with.

WZZZ wrote:

To use Mac OS X v10.4, your Macintosh needs:

• A PowerPC G3, G4, or G5 processor
• Built-in FireWire
• At least 256 MB of RAM

Mac OS X v10.5 Leopard requires:

• A Mac computer with an Intel, PowerPC G5, or Power PC G4 (867 MHz or faster) processor
• 512 MB memory or more
• A DVD drive for installation
• 9 GB of available disk space or more

So the RAM in my machine was 6 times what I needed for Tiger and 3 times what I need for Leopard! But I take your point.

On your earlier reply, I note from those threads that this is not an uncommon problem. Unlike for some, this was problem in Safari 4 (I only just upgraded to 5) for me, and I keep around 14 tabs open all the time. You're noticing the same thing. I like Safari as a browser, but if it keeps on like this I shall switch to Chrome or Camino or something else. To go over 1GB of memory is not good, and it seems that my gripes about Leopard may be unfounded (I used Safari 3 in Tiger), as without Safari it probably runs very fast.

Pedro

The short answer is: Leopard.

Why?

Because Tiger is no longer supported, but you still get security updates for leopard

Because with many applications you can run a more up to date version than on Tiger - Safari being one example, Java being another

Because it is as fast, or faster, than Tiger, and has useful features not present in Tiger.

But bear in mind that any G5 will be officially obsolete* in two years' time, so we have two years to save up for an Intel Mac running Lion Cub!

* Obsolete products are those that were discontinued more than seven years ago. Apple has discontinued all hardware service for obsolete products with no exceptions. Service providers cannot order parts for obsolete products. These include ALL G4 models. If the same time scale applies, the G5's will be obsolete in 2013.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1752?viewlocale=en_US

No, time's already up, unless you bought your G5 in California. Last G5s (iSights) were produced in '06. Pre-iSights discontinued in '05.

Vintage products are those that were discontinued more than five and less than seven years ago. Apple has discontinued hardware service for vintage products with the following exception:

Products purchased in the state of California, United States, as required by statute. Owners of these products may obtain service and parts from Apple service providers within the state of California, United States.

Yes, well, it is still cheaper to buy a new Mac than to move to California! 😉