[kmac]

I was looking for a portable email program to replace "Mail" that came with this version. Like most software, what i found - Portable Thunderbird at OS X Portable Applications — FreeSMUG but it only works on 10.4. & later.
Anyone know of a way to get newer apps to work on my version of?

This machine works OK but it's too old and underpowered to spend the money on upgrades.
Thanks!
K

[ibook_steve]

You don't say what machine you are trying to use. You should upgrade to at least 10.3 if not 10.4. You'll have much better choices of software.

Steve

[kmac]

Thanks for your reply.
It's a 2004 imac 800mhz PowerPC G4
It has 512MB RAM and the most it will hold is 1GB.
My wife only uses it for mail & iphoto. Both are pretty full so it runs painfully slow. I just want to backup the mail & photos and reinstall the os. Thought I'd use a portable mail (Thunderbird) which is what I use on my PC - it's much easier to backup. But as usual with this machine, I run into a dead end....pretty much stuck with the software that came with it.
Like I said - it's getting old and I don't want to put money into upgrades .

[naphtali]

What sort of email do you use? If there's some chance that you can connect to it via IMAP, then perhaps you could save some/a lot of space by downloading only a partial collection of all the mail and leaving the rest online.

If you're just trying to have your mails stored on an external drive, I think you could rig a setup with Mail too - Mail stores all the mails and settings in ~/library/mail, so perhaps you could move the folder to another drive, then create an alias to it (but remember to connect the drive before launching mail).

I have not tried this myself, so proceed with caution! Please don't kill me if you lose your mail

That said, backing up your email is done this way too, so I don't think it's much trickier than Thunderbird.


You could probably try the same trick with iPhoto too - move the files off to another drive then alias them.


Part of the slowness you're experiencing is probably due to the stuffed hard drive. Been reading on the forum that as your drive gets fuller everything starts to lag. Perhaps you could look into upgrading the version of OS X too - there were some speed bumps along the way, though the 800MHz G4 may not support it.



I'm sorry you don't seem to be liking the Mac too much! I've used my PowerBook G4 for about 4 years now and each version of Mac OS X has made it all the more enjoyable. I certainly hope things get better for you

[ghporter]

This really doesn't have anything to do with iMacs or Minis... I'll move it to the Applications forum where it will probably get better exposure.

Portable applications are helpful when you move from one machine to another and don't necessarily own either one. I don't see how having a portable app for your home machine is an advantage...

[analogika]

Originally Posted by kmac 

Thanks for your reply.
It's a 2004 imac 800mhz PowerPC G4
It has 512MB RAM and the most it will hold is 1GB.
My wife only uses it for mail & iphoto. Both are pretty full so it runs painfully slow. I just want to backup the mail & photos and reinstall the os. Thought I'd use a portable mail (Thunderbird) which is what I use on my PC - it's much easier to backup. But as usual with this machine, I run into a dead end....pretty much stuck with the software that came with it.
Like I said - it's getting old and I don't want to put money into upgrades .

10.4 will run MUCH more comfortably on that machine.

10.2 was Slo-o-o-o-ow.

Also, iPhoto from the iLife 06 pack was a HUGE speed improvement over whatever may have shipped with your machine in 2004.

[adamfishercox]

I have an emac with the same specs, and tiger and iLife 05 seem to be best for it.