Mac OS 8 upgrade

>I have bought iMac G3

To begin with, which exact model/year (see, for example, http://lowendmac.com/imacs/index.shtml)? Processor speed? Amount of RAM? Running operation system 8.1, 8.5 or 8.6? The system profiler application should be of help. Please do not post a serial number.

>I have the Mac OS X install cd

Which Mac OS X version is it? Is it a retail system CD, or possibly a machine-specific disc for another Mac? Colour of the CD? Any text on it?

10.0 is barely worth the trouble to install burnt or not. Even so, it is licensed software, so unfortunately we can't help you with that. For historical purposes it offers an interesting look to how Apple developed Mac OS X, but there is barely any software for it available today. Your Mac can upgrade to Mac OS X 10.3.9, although first you must apply the firmware update 1.2 before you go further than Mac OS X 10.1.5. Once your firmware is up to date, then you can install 10.3 retail and then apply the 10.3.9 combo update on that. Some down sides of that model:

1. No booting externally into Mac OS X via USB.

2. No Airport card. Ethernet/WiFi bridge is recommended with at least 802.11g.

3. You can install a much larger hard drive, that is parallel ATA, but you have a limitation of how big the partition can be.

See my FAQ*:

http://www.macmaps.com/macosxnative.html

To determine how far you might want to go.

* Links to my pages may give me compensation.

The question is whether an original 233 Mhz iMac (you do not mention the amount of RAM installed) with a 4 GB hard drive really is the best candidate for an upgrade to Mac OS X. The old LowEndMac article http://lowendmac.com/macdan/04/0907.html could perhaps be of interest to you.

Mac OS 8.1 is not adapted to the use of certain USB peripherals. An upgrade to Mac OS 8.5 (not free) with a following update to 8.6 (and installing USB Mass Storage Support 1.3.5) would improve matters. Mac OS 8.6 is a good and fast system for a computer like this, especially with a limited amount of RAM and a small hard disk. It will allow the iMac to access the Internet, but not all functions may be fully used because of web browser limitations, etc (problems that also appear under many early Mac OS X versions).

Yes, but 8.1 will not operate as a "classic environment." And you won't be able to switch to Mac OS X from 8.1 unless it is on the same partition without holding down the X key at startup. You need a minimum of 8.6 for Startup Disk to allow you to switch to Mac OS X, and a minimum of 9.1 to run 9.1 as the Classic environment which lets you run Classic applications without special drivers while still booted into Mac OS X. Plus you'll need to install 9.1 anyway to put the firmware to allow you to install 10.2 or later. Given how slow USB 1.1 is at backing up your data, you may just find the whole effort not worth it.

A Sonnet Tech board may still exist that lets you add Firewire to your Mac. That would make backing up a lot easier, and the process to install Mac OS X a lot easier.