[vexingv]

so i do some research at a lab and they have an old beige G3 they're getting rid of. so my supervisor asked me if i wanted it...and i was like uhh sure why not. but i guess i spoke too soon. the thing is clunky and would be a pain jsut to take home.
i'm still fairly new to macs but i feel comfortable using OSX. but OS9 simply annoys the hell out of me. could i load OSX on it? would any upgrades (RAM or HD) be possinble and woould it be cheap?
i just want to know if it can be of any use? i was thinking maybe it could serve in some type of server capacity. file server? could i get some type of exchange server setup (my main system is a PC desktop and i also have a 12" rev C PB and i'd love to be able to sync email and such using some type of server).

[RealMadrid]

Probably a server of some kink is just the best thing you could do with it. Mac OS X will install on it probably with the use of XPostFacto. Using it as client machine probably will be to slow. I have set up an old 7300/200 as web server with 10.1.5, including PHP and MySQL for web site testing. Works fine. A G3 will probably do even better.

[DeathToWindows]

Sounds like a server to me.

[Oneota]

That, or keep it around to run old games that don't have Mac OS X versions (or don't work well through classic).

I've got a B&W G3/450 whose only purpose is to play the games and other apps (Encore 4, for example) I bought in High School that don't have OS X equivalents (or do, but that I haven't bought).

[bbales]

Dumb question -- just what exactly would a server DO? I know it connects various machines, but say he wanted to turn his old G3 into a server. What would he put on it? In theory, of course. I keep hearing the term but I'm not completely clear on how it could improve computing life. I have an old Performa, you see ...

As for games, I also have an old G3 laptop that my kids use for old OS 9 games. They don't use it much, but upon occasion it gets pulled out and they have quite the fine time with Carmen San Diego and a couple other oldies but goodies.

[kiazer]

I have a MDD as my main computer. And a beige 366, 640 megs of ram, Radeon 7000 and a 10 gig drive for a test machine. It runs Panther OK - Nice for surfing and such. I can test applications, updates and such.... if all goes well then I install whatever onto my main machine.

Always nice to have a test OS X box. I also share it out on my network and back up my windows machines to it...

[macaddict0001]

I use my server to store files on and stuff.

[reader50]

Originally posted by bbales:
Dumb question -- just what exactly would a server DO? I know it connects various machines, but say he wanted to turn his old G3 into a server. What would he put on it? In theory, of course. I keep hearing the term but I'm not completely clear on how it could improve computing life. I have an old Performa, you see ...

A server is a computer who's primary duties are to serve requests from other computers rather than from a user. Examples:

Print Server - It queues print jobs to it's attached printer for a network. This type of server is less common now that printers are so cheap. Still found often in schools.

File Server - It serves as a central repository for files on a network. Multiple people may need to access or modify common files, this type of server makes sure that only one person can modify a file at a time, and that all users have access to the latest versions of each file. The most common home use is probably an MP3 server - keep the music collection on the server and off everyone's hard drives. Check the folder size on your Music folder and you'll understand why this is a good idea. As Gigabit Ethernet gets more common, and movies become more available in digital format, expect to keep the movies on a central file server too, instead of eating a few terabytes on everyone's local hard drives.

Web Server - It runs Apache and serves up your website, complete with money-making ads, Flash popups, all the other good things to transfer money from visitors to your account. Oh, and family pics, private forums, etc. By hosting on a server, you can reboot or sleep your desktop box when you like without having your website go down. Also, you can skip paying for professional hosting. I know that most ISP's offer free webspace, but the size is limited and services like PHP/MySQL are not available.

[bbales]

Originally posted by reader50:
A server is a computer who's primary duties are to serve requests from other computers rather than from a user. Examples:

Print Server - It queues print jobs to it's attached printer for a network. This type of server is less common now that printers are so cheap. Still found often in schools.

File Server - It serves as a central repository for files on a network. Multiple people may need to access or modify common files, this type of server makes sure that only one person can modify a file at a time, and that all users have access to the latest versions of each file. The most common home use is probably an MP3 server - keep the music collection on the server and off everyone's hard drives. Check the folder size on your Music folder and you'll understand why this is a good idea. As Gigabit Ethernet gets more common, and movies become more available in digital format, expect to keep the movies on a central file server too, instead of eating a few terabytes on everyone's local hard drives.

Web Server - It runs Apache and serves up your website, complete with money-making ads, Flash popups, all the other good things to transfer money from visitors to your account. Oh, and family pics, private forums, etc. By hosting on a server, you can reboot or sleep your desktop box when you like without having your website go down. Also, you can skip paying for professional hosting. I know that most ISP's offer free webspace, but the size is limited and services like PHP/MySQL are not available.

Thank you -- What a clear and concise reply! That makes perfect sense.

I was thinking, as I was reading about the music server idea, that my ipod mini has a bigger hard drive than my old Performa. How times have changed...

[-Q-]

My old beige serves as my music/file server for my home. It's very nice to not have to store all the music on my desktop machine. Frees up a lot of space for the video editing I do.

But if you want to install OS X on the machine, there are a couple things to watch out for:

1) If you're using the original IDE controller with the machine, OS X has to be installed on the first 8 GBs of the HDD, otherwise the machine won't boot. I've heard rumors this was corrected in later versions of OS X, but I've never seen it illustrated.

2) OS X 10.2 was the last official version to be supported for the machine. To install panther, you'll need Xpostfacto.

3) A decent video card (the max VRAM you could have it 6 MB I think) can do wonders for OS X.

4) Buy more ram. I don't care how much it has. Buy more. (It maxes at 768 MB).