Given my Late 2005 Mac Mini (1.5GHz G4 PPC, 64MB VRAM, 667MHz bus, 1024MB RAM max)
has several things going against several kinds of intense use, especially online, this latest Ten4Fox
tends to work faster than previous FPR builds and a bit better than a few older ones. Part of this
configuration deficit due to a hardware lack of immediate resources, is the smaller 5400-RPM HDD
and that is running about 50% full. And Virtual Memory is read-writing rather too much to suit me.
Usually I run the older 'last model PPC G4 Mac mini' with Activity Monitor open on desktop so I can
see the lower part as its working; between CPU and System Memory, it shows me causes of lags,
hangs, and where the limited resources may be held up. And I can 'quit/force-quit' when need be.
This model due to limit in RAM memory upgrade, is prime candidate for 'mercury legacy ATA-IDE
version SSD' as that would move packets of Virtual Memory much quicker than slower hardware.
For a time, I owned up to three eMac models, two were 1.25GHz, one 1.0GHz(?) if I recall correctly.
And had issue with power to the CRT on one, the display wavered and sometimes rolled when new.
So back it went. Of the other two, one was supposed to dual boot MacOS 9 and OS X but didn't.
The other of three arrived by parcel delivery at -20°F in unheated truck at my semi-rural location and
wasn't handled much until the box and contents were warm enough to not condense. ...It was then
I found the bottom of the box damaged in such a clever way to break the computer inside, the eMac
had a broken shell and so I didn't take it out of the box. Back in those days, here in AK, the carrier
would not return to pickup goods and they were long gone by time came to inspect or open box.
While I didn't have or use eMacs all that long, they were excessively costly to get rid of; all required
me to drive them hundreds of miles. Not as bad as my iMac G4 from Apple, delivered by truck via
Canada; it has several sample defects that arose after attempted use. No authorized reseller would
touch these under AppleCare (I bought extended care plan too) because I'd not bought from them.
So I worked around their arrogance; direct with Apple support by phone & slow email, and got one
to repair/replace parts after I thoroughly tested and troubleshooted the unit. I could make the iMac
G4 crash repeatedly at specific intervals, that anyone could replicate. And these were elaborate.
Apple told the final singular authorized repair/reseller in Anchorage who'd even open it up under
AppleCare, to just repair it as I asked. Two logic boards, replacement/upgrade RAM, and a new
chrome arm (bent prior to being shipped) were finally adequate. The third logic board (just under
three years in) wasn't replaced because I could not trust the 'authorized' shop; 200 miles distant.
Performance from FPR_1 through current FPR_4 TenFourFox shows improvements; the issue where
several Apple fonts were oddly presented as iconic A letter boxes instead of readable text, is mostly
a thing of the past. Due to clever configuration changes in about:config and other white/blacklisting
in the browser. ~ I still see icon errors in ASC where a disclosure triangle or other arrow is a block of
tiny numbers; these still work OK when clicked on. But you take a chance the first time, not knowing.
And the TenFourFox/Box has proven helpful to launch from Dock, several items such as gmail or a
specific regional weather pages from NWS that have custom feature forecasts, etc.
{So I'd say it's a good thing; unlike some aspects of the most recent firefox Quantum (v 57) that was
automatically upgraded over better GUI (and now unsupported extensions/add-ons) of firefox v 56.}
Anyway, presently I'm testing the unwanted upgrade to Quantum in Late 2012 Mac Mini i7 quad server.
This one dual boots, so I was sure to deny it internet access prior to restart in older Mavericks so the
Firefox would not be auto-upgraded before other consideration. I wanted to turn off that feature. It had
already seen Quantum in later OS X without my knowing until it started up, in El Capitan. Also recent.
Thanks for your input...! 🙂
