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View Full Version : Running Panther on an iMac


rivid
2005-07-31, 11:34
Long story short I bought an iMac to write papers for school. It has the following specs;

333MHz
160 MEGS of RAM
OS9
also if you care to know, it's tray-loading

I thought I did enough research before I dropped ninty-nine dollars on a Macintosh. It was to write papers and do school work. While on my PC I could focus on gaming, free of nervous breakdowns when something would go wrong, prompting me to start anywhere from the beginning to middle of the paper... again. Rather, I could move everything over to the Macintosh and do schoolwork there.

Unfortunately I assumed that the operating system would be bundled with software ready to be used as soon as I plugged the machine in. (Assuming is the worst thing to do, but I have an awful tendency to do just that when it comes to computers.) Pretty much all I had was Sherlock, an old version of IE, and simple text. I soon also found out that pretty much all software for the MAC is now made for OSX. This means I have to upgrade. It seems that I can run 10.3. As it is CD format, rather DVD and I seem to meet the requirements. Or should I go with 10.1, or 10.2? Oh, almost forgot, where to you suggest I buy the operating system? I think Apple only carries Tiger (Somewhere you have purchased something before please).

Also while not a problem now, I will have to deal with printing my papers in the near future. I'm thinking about getting an external floppy drive, rather than hooking up a printer. There are two other computers in the house with a floppy drive and printer, plus you can print them at school. Ebay seems to have an abundance of them. As far as I know, most programs save in .doc, as everyone in the house and school uses MS Word.
I know theres a lot of questions, but just the smallest bit of help will go a long way. If you need any more information from me I will be more than willing to do so. Thank you. :)
(As I'm a little green when it comes to MACs, sorry if I forgot a vital part of information.)

kaseyha
2005-07-31, 22:22
eBay also has plenty of copies of Panther that you can purchase. Yes you will want 10.3 over 10.2 and 10.1, it was a huge improvement.

Are your computers at home networked, do you have USB printer Sharing enabled? If yes, printing from the iMac shouldn't be a problem if you can find a driver for your printers. If you don't have MS Office on the Mac, you should be able to save in Rich Text Format (from Text Edit, Apple Works etc...) and print from Word on any of your Windows PCs.

eleazar
2005-08-01, 15:07
Hey I just saw this deal so I thought that I would let you know about it:

Dealmac.com (http://dealmac.com/deals/Mac-OS-X-10-3-Panther-OEM-for-30-on-DVD-48-on-CD/92485.html?ref=rss_dealmac_20)

rivid
2005-08-01, 18:22
Thanks for the link, but I think I may be able to get 10.3 for a little less. (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B0000E6NK9/qid=1122938498/sr=8-1/ref=pd_bbs_sbs_1/103-3979465-9039817?v=glance&s=software&n=507846) Although I have never purchased off of Amazon. Also I think my printer is a little too old for USB, but I'll see what I can do.