I am curious on what OS my iMac probably would have came with. It is a iMac G3 built on 9/14/01. Did Apple sell iMac G3s at the time with OS 9 on it. Or at the time, would it have come with OS X 10.0. Also, since some OS X disks won't work with some Macs, will any version of OS X 10.0 (If that is what my iMac came with) that says iMac work on the computer?
iMac, Mac OS X (10.4.11), G3 Processor
1. All PowerPC Macs other than servers shipped with Mac OS 9.2.2 or earlier regardless of whether or not Mac OS X came with them.
2. A 2001 iMac G3 may also have shipped with Mac OS X 10.0.
3. Your iMac can use its original disks or a retail Tiger or earlier disk, not including the Mac OS X 10.4 Server Universal Binary.
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I'm using an app called MacTracker and it says that for the iMac introduced in July 2001, the "Original OS" is "Mac OS 9.1 (Mac OS ROM 7.5.1) and Mac OS X 10.0.4 (4P13)". I'm not sure if that means it came with both. It says the latest OS it takes is Mac OS X 10.4.11.
When you need to look up this kind of info, there are websites like EveryMac.com that list every Mac ever made and what their specs were.
At that time, and up until G4 / Tiger, Macs were 'dual boot' in that you could boot into either OS 9 or OS X. However I believe you needed to upgrade to 9.2.2 to make full use of Carbon apps like AppleWorks and iMovie which ran in both environments.
Mac OS: Versions, builds included with PowerPC Macs (since 1998) - Apple Support
Is an article that should answer most of your questions. No Mac may install an older version 9 or X than was prebundled with it.
When Did Apple Discontinue Selling Macs With OS 9?
