Q: Is it worth it to buy a 10 year old used iMac G5?

Skype should work fine but using Netflix may require updates.

It can be updated to Leopard 10.5.8 if you can find a retail Leopard install disk on eBay or Amazon.

It will not run Netflix.

As for Skype, that's only a 'maybe' :

Skype (v.5 or later) is for Intel Macs running OS 10.5.8 or above only.

And from September 2014 no more Skype for PPC Macs:

https://support.skype.com/en/faq/FA34492/is-skype-for-mac-being-discontinued-on- mac-os-x-10-4-tiger-and-below-as-well-as-on-mac-devices-running-on-powerpc-archi tecture

See this post from Andyyyyyy for a possible way of getting round that:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/6537913

Perhaps you had the disgusting experience of Skype cutting off your service if you were running version 2.8 because it's cleaner than the current spammy crappy versions or because you have a PowerPC (PPC) mac that can only run this earlier version, or whatever your reason, and you have been informed that MS / Skype will no longer work on your computer. I am practicing my best restraint here not to use all the 4-letter words that came to my mind when MS did this and screwed us.

It took a lot of searching, but I found a work-around that solves the problem for the time being.  You have to edit a .plist file so that the Skype server thinks you are running a modern version when you are actually still running 2.8.  Here is how to do it:

I will write up the geeky way that definitely worked. You may be able to accomplish the same thing using the Finder, Show Package Contents, and an editor like TextEdit, but I ran into permission problems when I tried that, so I switched to doing this through the Unix terminal and this worked fine.

1) make sure Skype is not running (Quit if it is) and run /Applications/Utilities/Terminal.      From there....

2) cd /Applications/Skype.app/Contents/ (if this is where your Skype is)

3) ls (this (LS in lower case) will list the components there, and you can confirm that one is named Info.plist)

4) sudo vi Info.plist (this opens Info.plist in the vi editor) you will need to type your admin user password.

5) /2.8 <return> (this searches for and finds an instance of 2.8 in the file, so you can edit it and change it to the currently "acceptable" skype version)

6) type the letter i. this puts you in insert mode and you can edit the file.

7) replace whatever 2.8 version you have with 6.15.0.334

8) type <esc> to exit insert mode

9) repeat steps 5-8 until you have replaced all instances of the 2.8 version number. (I found 3)

10) after done editing, type :wq   (this saves the file and quits the editor

11) launch Skype, and you should be good to go!

On some later versions of Mac OS X, the package contents are more challenging to access, but you can search for how to do that, separately. The main take home from this is that you need to edit the Info.plist file in package contents of the Skype application and change the version number from 2.8.0.866 (or whatever version you have) to 6.15.0.334 (of whatever version skype is now requiring).  There are other terminal editors, such as "nano" and "pico" that you can use instead of "vi".  Please post other methods to accomplish this in a more streamlined way if you find something that works better for you.

Mac OS X (10.5.8), PowerPC

You should like to tinker around.

Video is processor intensive.  This make running video apps an adventure.

You can run the latest browser with tenfourfox.

TenFourFox -- It's a port of the latest FireFox to run on older hardware and software.

"World's most advanced web browser. Finely tuned for the Power PC."

    --  works for me on 10.4.  Supports 10.5

http://www.floodgap.com/software/tenfourfox/

alternative download site:

http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/37761/tenfourfox

Turn on pipelining.  This will allow Firefox to make simaltaneous requests to the server.  Chrome has pipeling turned on. Some sites could fail to load with pipeling set on. The site will be old. See "Increase pipelining" in:

http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/firefox-optimization-tips/

I assume facebook uses flash for video.  Will need to play around to get flash 'working'.  You will not be able to run the latest version of flash.

Robert

I wouldn't buy any 10 year-old computer to accomplish the uses ("email/Facebook/Netflix/Skype computer") that you've described.  Ten years is a long time in terms of technology and the requirements of modern-day internet use are exactly what retired many older, otherwise capable computers.  If you had bought the iMac when new and were attempting to get every last mile out of it, this would be a different discussion.  Today, you'd be better off investing $200 in a computer that doesn't have so many hardware/software limitations from the start of ownership.  As for your MacBook, if you're getting low on storage capacity, you can easily connect an external hard drive or a USB memory stick.  With a 64 GB memory stick available for about $20, additional storage capacity doesn't break the bank anymore.  Apple sells refurbished Intel-based Mac minis, so that's an option you could investigate.  Whatever you decide to do, I'd stick with the Intel architecture, rather than stepping back in time.  Buying older technology is fine, if it's a classic car and won't be the daily driver.

Unfortunately, I have to agree with Jeff above me. Its simply too old, and will have too many limitations with the defunct PPC architecture.

You can get newer more powerful Mac Minis for about the same price. A Good Tv or Monitor would be all you need, and you would be able to run pretty much anything you want.

As to your MacBook Pro, external storage is very cheap now, and there's also the option of getting a larger internal hard drive for it.

Personally I would not bother with the 10 year old iMac.

Well, I'd say anything is worth it, provided it's the right price, but $200 considering its age seems like too much. As pointed out, it can't do some of the things you would hope to use it for.

I had a G5 iMac for 8 years. Worked perfectly until it stopped with a defunct hard drive, plus a few other assorted problems. I was quoted $300 for repairs. For that I bought a completely refurbished Intel iMac running Snow Leopard and sold the old G5 to the vendor for spares!

Now everything works as the OS is so much more up to date.

Forget about this iMac. It is just too old.

It, definitely, won't stream Netflix or 1080p video. A PowerMac can, barely, stream 720p video.

Skype is a maybe.

Performance on the Internet won't be great and with no more updates for Adobe Flash Player for the PowerPC platform, many websites may not work or load properly.

There are plenty of used Macs that are out there that are much newer, but will cost you more, but will handle modern day computing much better.

If you can't afford to buy another new Mac right now, here is a Mac reseller I buy my used Macs from and they have great customer service plus they have a great warranty on their used Macs that is a great piece of mind when purchasing used Apple computers.

https://www.powermax.com/productcategory/used-macs-imac

A really great reseller!!!

IF you decide on purchasing a used iMac, I wouldn't go any older than the early 2009 models.

The early 2009 iMacs can,at least, take a max. RAM total of 8 GBs of RAM.

Good Luck on whatever you end up doing.

Just upgraded the iMac G5 to a SanDisk 120 SSD which makes a big difference, but no where as fast as the ones I added to my Mac Pro 1.1. Still it gives this 10 year old iMac G5 a big speed boost. Only surfing the net on graphic intensive sites seems to slow it down and make the fans kick in frequently. Otherwise, this iMac is for simple browsing etc, is ideal for my sister's needs. Her Dell burned up after a year and she loves this iMac for her fall back computer.

Again,

Forget about this iMac.

A SSD is not going to do anything for a very old CPU/graphics processor and a Mac that can only install 2 GBs of RAM and can't run the more newer OS X versions.

No. Not worth it. If they give it to you for FREE, and you like to tinker with such things, then fine. Otherwise, you are not going to find decent software support for a machine that old. Been there, done that.

trying to get this to work.  This is what I get in terminal---

doug-rathells-power-mac-g5:~ dougrathell$ /Applications/Skype.app/contents

-bash: /Applications/Skype.app/contents: is a directory

any ideas??

I really want to be able to use this awesome isight!

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