new to Macs... so where do I start?

I am eagerly awaiting the UPS guy to drop off the rev. B iMac I just bought on eBay-- it will be my first Mac! I want to upgrade the memory from the factory installed 32M to whatever I can afford, but in spite of this, I don't see myself upgrading to OSX (or should I?).

If I keep OS9, what software programs are "must haves?" Is there a site on the internet to get great shareware? What web browser or email client would people recommend?

And finally, am I asking FAQs that are already answered elsewhere that I just don't know about yet?

Thanks!

--
phatbob

I would put OS X on that Mac if you can get the memory up to 256mb (at a minimum) and the hard drive to at least 40gb. If won't be as fast as OS 9 but if you're going to be mostly web surfing, email, word processing and other light-duty tasks, it will be ok. But to really get the best Mac experience, you'll need something more up-to-date than a Rev. B iMac.

OS 9 is officially dead according to Apple and no one is developing any software for it. That's why there are only a few posts in this forum while over in the OS X related forums there are more posts than you can shake a pee cee at.

msuper69, thanks for the advice. Taking a quick look at the cost of memory, maybe I can upgrade RAM and the hard drive. Where is a good place to buy OSX?

Now if only that UPS guy would get here... :P

Amazon has Panther for $109.

You can buy Panther and iLife bundled at the Apple store online with a $50 rebate so net result = free iLife.

You don't need iLife 04 as an older version comes with panther on the install disks.
And $109 is not a good deal: http://www.megamacs.com/v1/index.php...ew&pid=2375289

Get a 7200 RPM drive so long as it is a newer model. They don't give off as much heat as they used to so it should be fine inside the iMac. You will have to partition the drive into 2 and install OSX onto the first 8 gig partition and make the second partition the remaining amount size.
Max the RAM. 256 is OK but 384 would be better. 128 on the bottom slot and 256 on the top.
Update the firmware to the newest one before you do any of this.

I would recommend tinkering around with your iMac as-is, and if you like the Mac get a refurb eMac for $550 or new for $799. If you add up HD, RAM and Panther ($300?) you'll still end up with a slow machine.

If you want to use the iMac as your main machine all the previous advice is very good. :thumbsup:

Just to go off-topic for a sec... but can anyone recommend, or know of, some good OS 9 sites? Especially ones that kinda refuse to believe that it's dead, and covers lots of OS 9 software.

Thanks.

Google Mac Search

Google is your friend. Use it.

yup

I still run OS 9 with Mozilla on a B&W G3 400..... and it runs good. I would recommend getting a 20 plus gig drive ( pricewatch.com ) and some memory for it... If you can get panther get it, its nice to have a retail copy on hand. And if you do upgrade to a used emac or such then you won't have to deal with restore disks.

@Vpro7

I found a good site at clubofnines.com. Not many articles (yet), but a decent forum: http://www.clubofnines.com