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pete · Jul 17, 2003, 08:05 AM

My mother has a lombard running os 9. I'd like to bring her into the world of X for tech support reasons (I barely remember what 9 looks like and I help her over the phone a lot.). How slow is it? My friend has a pismo 400mhz with 700+ ram and it runs Jaguar well, at least for everyday office apps, email and internet. If it is anything close to that, I'd say it is worth the upgrade.

I know that the best thing would be to just get a new computer, but that's not an option right now.

So, should she stay on os 9 or would it be worthwhile to upgrade to X and add ram?

Thanks for any suggestions

elppa · Jul 17, 2003, 12:43 PM

Well i think it depends on what your mother wants to do with OS X. I run a rev. C iMac with Jaguar and all i do is simple computing tasks and it runs reasonably well. I do however have 288 MB of RAM. The only problem is that Open GL doesn't work on some of the "older" computers that Apple has said can run OS X. This is because there are no drivers are included for the Rage Pro (there are drivers for the Rage 128 pro though). I am not sure which card the Lombard has in it. Jaguar will run, how well it runs depends on what your mother intends to do.

mitchell_pgh · Jul 17, 2003, 10:25 PM

I think if you stick to the basics, you will be fine (email, chat, surfing...)

The RAM is going to be a major issue...

arocha · Jul 18, 2003, 01:55 AM

Hi
I'm using this exact model with OSX.2 and find the basics VERY usable.
I use FlashMX and DreamweaverMX, and find that any code based work is fine on this model. Things like Photoshop and Fireworks are quite sluggish on this machine.
So the bottom line is that text based web development or programming is fine, and graphics is a bit more frustrating.

Graymalkin · Jul 18, 2003, 02:40 AM

I ran Jag on a 333MHz Lombard for quite a while. Depending on what you want to do it can be pretty snappy or pretty sluggish. For internet basics like Mail and Safari the Lombard has plenty of umph to keep your mom happy. If you want to run more intensive stuff like Photoshop, use Classic instead of the Carbon port.

Your first order of business should be load the sucker out with RAM. Put a 512MB SODIMM in the top slot, and if you're daring a 256MB low profile SODIMM in the bottom slot. The more memory Jag can use the better off you and it will be. If you have the cash go for a 5400rpm laptop hard drive of reasonable capacity. A 20GB IBM Travelstar 40GNX will set you back $107 but will speed up boot and application load times considerably.

Partition the drive such you've got a dedicated partition to use as a swap drive. There's a MacOSXHint page describing the process, I'll try to find it if no one points it out sooner. You can map the system's VM pagefiles to any location you want, doing so to a dedicated partition keeps fragmentation down which helps with access times.

Jeff Jones · Jul 18, 2003, 02:43 AM

I've been running the very same setup since 10.0 and while 10.0 was very slow (no comment!), since 10.1 it is usable. The are some "tricks" that really help a lot: First of all, there is a "hack" to enable the ATI drivers. What you do basically is to add the Lombard's GPU board code to a plist file (not very difficult). You can find the hack on the Internet, I believe it's on macosxhints.com. Without it, you won't even be able to watch a quicktime video. Also the UI becomes a bit "snappier".

As for speed: It's certainly no speed daemon, but it does the job. What you need, however, is the max ram you can put in (384MB). And I am using an IBM 5.400 rpm 8MB cache harddrive, which also helps quite a bit.

And while we're on the subject, I do have some problems with my setup. Once in a while, the system freezes. As in: the mouse cursor does not move any more and the system does not respond to keypresses. The whole machine is effectively halted. I've had this problem since 10.0. OS 9 runs without a hitch. I have swapped the RAM, I have re-installed, I have re-set the PRAM -- I have done everything to my knowledge. And it still happens. So if anyone has an idea what the problem could be *crossingmyfingers* then PLEASE HELP ME! This is really driving me nuts! The PB could be such a nice machine if it just wouldn't freeze...

GENERAL_SMILEY · Jul 18, 2003, 04:56 AM

also use shadow killer (I think that is what it is called) - really speeds up the finder on all systems.

cre8tif · Jul 18, 2003, 09:12 AM

Hey Pete,

I currently have been running the 10.3 preview on my Lombard, and the good news is that the GUI seems to be a bit faster than 10.2.6. It feels more responsive. Screen re-draws seem smoother.

I agree with everything that has been said so far
except with the ATI hack. Apple corrected this with the release of 10.2. so unless plan to run an earlier version of 10.x.x you really do not need to worry.

-- cre8tif

cenutrio · Jul 18, 2003, 12:19 PM

I us my bondi iMac (233 MHz) as an apache server and use it for common tasks as email, surf, etc.

Runs fine

Cellery · Jul 18, 2003, 02:42 PM

I have a 400 MHz Lombard set up with 10.2 as an e-mail/internet station in the house, and though performance is on the slow side, it's definitely useable. As previous posters have stated, RAM makes a lot of difference- I went from 128MB to 384MB and the performance increase was noticeable for such a minimal investment. The upgrade to X would definitely be worth it.

brachiator · Jul 19, 2003, 02:07 AM

I concur with the general positive comments. See my specs, below. A RAM upgrade will be essential, though.

best of luck...

Fallout · Jul 19, 2003, 02:43 AM

Get it up to 512MB ram, and it'll run the basics just fine. ShadowKiller helps a lot also.

Cipher13 · Jul 19, 2003, 04:44 AM

On a 333 G3? Damn.

How slow will it be? Ever waded through pitch?

pete · Jul 19, 2003, 07:05 AM

Sounds like it's actually a worthwhile upgrade. She doesn't need anything fast, just something that will allow her to surf the web, check email and write. Great. I'll get more ram and investigate the swap drive thing.

Thanks all! I'll report back once I've done it.

theolein · Jul 19, 2003, 10:29 AM

I have both a 667MHz TiPB with 1GB RAM and a Lombard 333MHz with 192MB RAM. I used the Lombard for OSX 10.1 until I got the Ti. There is quite a speed difference. I love the Lombard though and don't want to sell it. The general comments are sensible though, in that it'll be ok for surfing and email, and the occaisional letter in Appleworks. But personally I would just stick to OS9 if I were her. It is very snappy and the machine is really usable for most tasks then. What about giving here the best of both worlds in that you make two partitions, one for OS9 and one for 10.2? That way she can choose herself which one she likes the most.

Jeff Jones · Jul 21, 2003, 11:02 AM

@cre8tif:

In 10.2 the ATI drivers still don't load by default. Try playing a quicktime movie in full screen on an unhacked install and you will see what I mean...

See also:

http://www.macosxhints.com/article.p...21003055803561

and

http://www.macosxhints.com/article.p...20607095019479

JJ.