[aoprods]

I just purchased an iMac Power PC G3 350 with 256mb ram, 40gb hd and cd on ebay for $17. I has Mac OS 9.2.2 installed and nothing else. It didn't come with a keyboard or mouse. I've been using pcs for over 20 years, this is my first mac. Any keyboard or mouse recommendations would be appreciated along with any other comments (helpful I hope, lol). What applications/OS could I run on this machine? I bought it hoping to learn about macs. Oh yeah, day before I also bought a Power Mac G4 400. Guess I kinda went nuts. Pick both of these units up tomorrow, can't wait. Any help would be appreciated.

[P]

Any USB mouse and keyboard works fine, although two of the keys (command and option) are flipped if you use a Windows keyboard. In general, Apple's keyboards are pretty good. For mice, get what you would use on a PC - they all work. Personally I like Logitech's midrange models.

As for OS, you'd want to use OS X if you want to learn about the way Macs work today. 10.4 is the latest, but you'd need more RAM to get it to run well. 512 MB RAM should do it if you're just starting out - both of those machines use the old standard PC100 RAM (SDRAM, 168 pin DIMMs).

As for applications, any most apps will run if they are available in PPC versions. Only exception is apps that require Altivec, which won't run on the iMac.

[JKT]

The highest OS you can install on a 350MHz iMac is Mac OS X 10.3.9. 10.4 is not supported. Regardless of that, if you decide to install any version of OS X on either machine, you will need more RAM. 512MB in total would be OK, more if you can afford it (especially for 10.4 if you get it for the G4). I would wait until the end of today to buy either - it is Steve Jobs keynote at Macworld today and if he announces a release date for Mac OS X 10.5, you might want to see if you can install that on your G4, or see if prices for 10.4 fall significantly. 10.3 can be bought for a few dollars on e-bay etc.

Also, before you install OS X, make sure that the firmware of the iMac is up-to-date:

iMac Firmware Update 4.1.9: Information and Download

Download, follow the instructions, and run the software - it will tell you if it is needed or not.

FWIW, all apps will run on the iMac, Altivec or not unless they require specific hardware like a decent graphics card and a faster CPU - they just won't be able to utilise the Altivec instructions to speed up the process.