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I have recently purchased a iBook G4 Mac OS X VERSION 10.5.8 and I cannot download any apps such as firefox, adobe reader, or anything it says cannot download with this architecture please help me with this what do i do

I am a rookie as most of you can probley see from my question, I have got a mac os x version 10.5.8 ibookG4 and i cant download anything it always says cannot download because of the architecture what does this mean and is there anything I can do please help me if you can.

iBook, Mac OS X (10.5.8)

Posted on Feb 4, 2014 10:48 AM

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Posted on Feb 4, 2014 10:56 AM

You're problem is you purchased a PowePC Mac computer. Apple left the PowerPC processor and architecture behind in 2006 when they switched to Intel cpu's and associated architecture. For awhile, there was software being coded for both systesm, but as the Mac PowerPC has faded into history, and Intel Mac's came into their own, many developers have simply dropped all software support for PowerPC systems.


You will need to use archival sites to find older releases of software compatible with PowerPC.


for some you will find material


e.g. adobe reader - http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/detail.jsp?ftpID=4977

firefox - http://www.oldapps.com/mac/firefox.php


But you will have to search for such versions, and for some software, you simply will not find anything available for PowerPC.


P.S. you also cannot update your OS X as 10.5 was the last release for PowerPC. OS X support for PowerPC machines officially ended with the release of OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard) in 2009. The emulation layer, Rosetta, was then finally dropped with OS X 10.7 (Lion), and Apple ended parts service and support for PowerPC machines in 2013.

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Question marked as Best reply

Feb 4, 2014 10:56 AM in response to mitchole1963

You're problem is you purchased a PowePC Mac computer. Apple left the PowerPC processor and architecture behind in 2006 when they switched to Intel cpu's and associated architecture. For awhile, there was software being coded for both systesm, but as the Mac PowerPC has faded into history, and Intel Mac's came into their own, many developers have simply dropped all software support for PowerPC systems.


You will need to use archival sites to find older releases of software compatible with PowerPC.


for some you will find material


e.g. adobe reader - http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/detail.jsp?ftpID=4977

firefox - http://www.oldapps.com/mac/firefox.php


But you will have to search for such versions, and for some software, you simply will not find anything available for PowerPC.


P.S. you also cannot update your OS X as 10.5 was the last release for PowerPC. OS X support for PowerPC machines officially ended with the release of OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard) in 2009. The emulation layer, Rosetta, was then finally dropped with OS X 10.7 (Lion), and Apple ended parts service and support for PowerPC machines in 2013.

Feb 5, 2014 6:32 PM in response to mitchole1963

Hey I am the guy who asked about getting some downloadfs for the ibookG4 and the info someone gave me was awsome thank you so much and one more thing could you please send me a way to download the adobe flash player for this same ole mac I wouls again be very greatful I got it on my e-mail went right to the site you sent me and wham it was on you guys are sooooo coooool

I have recently purchased a iBook G4 Mac OS X VERSION 10.5.8 and I cannot download any apps such as firefox, adobe reader, or anything it says cannot download with this architecture please help me with this what do i do

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