eMac 10.3.9 upgrade to os x

cecelia

Registered
Can anyone advise me on upgrading my eMac 10.3.9 to OS X. I have a Mac Book OSX install disk. Can I use this in my eMac?
 
You will need a full retail copy of OSX to install on your emac.The disk you have is machine specific and will not install on your mac !! The highest version of OSX that you can use on your emac is as follows. 700-800 mhz G4 up to OS 10.4.11 min.512mb ram.A 1 ghz or better with 1gb. ram or better,OSX 10.5.8. Also you must have a dvd drive to install.
 
If your eMac is already running 10.3.9, it is running OS X. Now if you mean to upgrade it to a newer OS X version....No you can not use the MacBook disk. That disk is for the Mac Book only. You need to purchase the full install disk of the version you want to install. You can go up to 10.5.8 on that eMac. Snow Leopard (10.6) will not run on the eMac.
 
Thank you for the prompt responses. The information you have shared has been noted, very appreciated. I will see about upgrading my eMac with the proper retail copy of OS X...I am doing this because I want to read iWorks files on my eMac. I want to be able to open an Excel Spreadsheet. To use iWork the computer has to be OS X. Thanks again for such thorough help.
 
Thank you for the prompt responses. The information you have shared has been noted, very appreciated. I will see about upgrading my eMac with the proper retail copy of OS X...I am doing this because I want to read iWorks files on my eMac. I want to be able to open an Excel Spreadsheet. To use iWork the computer has to be OS X. Thanks again for such thorough help.
You cannot open iWork (not iWorks) files on your Mac unless you purchase and install iWork. iWork is commercial software and not a part of MacOS X. You must make sure that the version of iWork that you install will open the iWork documents that you receive.

As for Excel spreadsheets, I recommend that you download and install the PowerPC version of the free NeoOffice. It will open 99.9% of the Microsoft Office documents including Excel spreadsheets that you receive. This will account for approximately 99% of all documents that you receive.

It is curious that you say that you want to read iWork documents. Do your colleagues, friends, and family produce iWork documents that they share with you? I can enthusiastically recommend iWork for document creation. As I have written previously, the Keynote presentation application makes PowerPoint look like the scribbles of children. iWork does a decent job opening Office documents.

Be clear with yourself about what you want and why you want it.

To reiterate the posts by oldmanmac and Cecilia, you currently have an eMac with MacOS X 10.3.9 installed. You want to upgrade your MacOS X 10.3.9 installation to a newer MacOS X installation. The newest version of MacOS X that you can install on your eMac is MacOS X 10.5.8.

MacOS X 10.5.8 can run all the latest MacOS X software except for those titles that specifically require Intel processors. However, this may not be your best bet. Do you use Classic applications? If you do and if there are no MacOS X versions of your Classic applications, then you will lose your Classic applications if you install MacOS X 10.5. If you upgrade to MacOS X 10.4, then you will use Software Update to upgrade to MacOS X 10.4.11. It is compatible with most PowerPC software. It also allows you to run Classic (MacOS 9) applications.
 
Hi, Well the first thing I want to say is how happy I am to have found this site.!! What a great resource.

In addition to my eMac I have a MacBook with Mac OS X 10.4.11 and Parallels ( tho I never work on that side. I installed Parallels strictly to interface with an old work website that I no longer use).....

Anyway, presently, I need to open Excel Spreadsheets on my eMac. This way I will be able to type into a spreadsheet on my laptop what I am reading from a spreadsheet on my eMac. This will be so much smoother than toggling back and forth on my MacBook from one window with a spreadsheet to another window that has the other spreadsheet while typing.

So this is why I thought I would just download my iWorks software that I already purchased for the MacBook into the eMac, and this is what started this thread. But I know now I can't do that.

So you are suggesting that I may very well be able, with the PowerPC version of the free Neo Office, to, perhaps 99% of the time , open the Excel spreadsheets and other Office Documents.... That is great. I will look into that option. Thank you all for all the helpful advice!! Very appreciated.
 
If you have iWork, then go ahead and use it. Understand, however, that installing it on two computers when you purchased it for only one is piracy. Further discussion of installation it on multiple computers is not permitted. If you have a MacBook, then I recommend that you download and install OpenOffice.org. The advantage of OpenOffice.org over NeoOffice is that OpenOffice.org is a native MacOS X application whereas NeoOffice is a Java-based application. Otherwise, they are nearly identical twins.

I am curious why are use Windows to access your old website. I understand that some such sites require Windows, but not all. My experience is that many employees use Windows to access internal computer resources because IT staff are unaware that the tools are readily available to access these resources using a Mac. Have you ever tried to access the site using a Mac? If so, then how do you access your site using Windows?
 
Hi Misterme, Thanks again for detailed response. I purchased iWork for my MacBook. Someone recommended it for reading Excel spreadsheets. It works fine for that in my MacBook.

This has nothing to do with my objective here but since you asked I will respond to your question of why I had to use Windows for my old work site........The reason I needed Parallels on my MacBook is because the website I was interacting with was written for Internet Explorer 7 and, it wasn't available on any Mac at that time ( three years ago). So I got Parallels for it but that is not what this thread is about or what my objective is now.

Now my objective is to open Excel spreadsheets on my old eMac desktop so that I can type data from them into another Excel spreadsheet on my MacBook laptop. Much easier than toggling two windows of spreadsheets on my MacBook. Do you understand my objective?

I had no idea that using software for more than one of my computers was piracy.. WOW thanks for telling me. I will know in future not to do that. I could not do it anyway since my eMac is not running the right numbers of OS X and that is necessary to download iWork.

Will I be able to download OpenOffice.org on my eMac 10.3.9 ?

So what do you suggest for me to download into my eMac to enable it to read Excel spreadsheets and maybe some other Windows documents. ?
 
...

Will I be able to download OpenOffice.org on my eMac 10.3.9 ?

So what do you suggest for me to download into my eMac to enable it to read Excel spreadsheets and maybe some other Windows documents. ?
If you can find a version of OpenOffice.org that is compatible with your eMac, then it will be X11-based rather than based on the MacOS X Aqua user interface. NeoOffice is functionally identical to OpenOffice.org but uses the native MacOS X Aqua UI. The latest version, NO 3.1.2, will run on your eMac if you upgrade its OS to MacOS X 10.4.11. The native version of Oo_O works only on Intel-based Macs like your MacBook.

NeoOffice 2.2.6 is compatible with MacOS X 10.3.9. You may find a link to download it here.

The Numbers spreadsheet application in the iWork suite will open most Excel spreadsheets. However, there is more to Excel spreadsheets than can be discerned by simply opening them. Numbers is a small spreadsheet application. With Excel spreadsheets, it will do a great job with what it can do. It will do nothing with what it can't do. Excel is a big whomping application. If you install Microsoft Office 2004 plus Microsoft's Open XML File Format Converter for Mac 1.1.6, then you are probably set. Office 2004 includes Excel 2004, a big whomping application. NeoOffice/OpenOffice.org is also a big whomping application that is nearly 100% file-compatible with Office including Excel.

BTW, don't make the mistake of believing that Office documents are the same as Windows documents. Word originated on MS-DOS and was one of the first third-party Macintosh applications. Excel originated on the Mac in 1985. PowerPoint originated on the Mac by a company named Forethough, Inc. in 1987. Microsoft bought the company later that year.
 
Thank you Misterme for more detailed, very detailed, information. I will look into Neo Office or OpenOffiice.org. for my eMac. Are you saying that since Excel is such a big file that I will have to also install Office 2004 and Open XML File Format Converter in addition to either NeoOffice or OpenOffice?

I do use Numbers on my MacBook and it does all I need it to do. Once I can do the same on my desktop that will be good. I'll put up a post and let you know how it goes.

Thanks for explaining that Office documents are not always the same as Windows. I am just about 100% clueless of the PC world. Everything originated with MAC didn't it ? :]
 
Thank you Misterme for more detailed, very detailed, information. I will look into Neo Office or OpenOffiice.org. for my eMac. Are you saying that since Excel is such a big file that I will have to also install Office 2004 and Open XML File Format Converter in addition to either NeoOffice or OpenOffice?

I do use Numbers on my MacBook and it does all I need it to do. Once I can do the same on my desktop that will be good. I'll put up a post and let you know how it goes. ...
No, I am saying that you cannot expect a small application to do everything that a large application can do. Indeed, Numbers may be able to do all that you [and 99.9% of other spreadsheet users] need to do. If this is the case, then use it. My only concern is that you may receive spreadsheets from other sources that use features that are available only in Excel and NeoOffice/OpenOffice.org. To be specific--Numbers can probably do all of Excel's calculations, but cannot handle Excel (Visual BASIC for Applications) macros.

Excel 2008 also cannot handle VBA, but Excel 2004 can as can NeoOffice/OpenOffice.org. This is why I recommend Excel 2004 over Excel 2008. VBA has been restored to Office 2011. However, only your MacBook can run Office 2011.

The complication here is Microsoft-compatibility. Despite what anyone says, Microsoft-compatibility is a contradiction in terms--even on Windows. Until Microsoft released Office 2007 [for Windows], Office 2004 [for MacOS X] was the most compatible version of the Microsoft productivity suite on any platform ever. Even that was not 100% perfect. Recently, a collaborator with another firm sent me a large Word:win document that neither Word 2004 nor Word 2008 could handle. NeoOffice handled it with aplomb.

So why not just use NeoOffice and forget about it? My experience with NeoOffice/OpenOffice.org is that they produce subtle aesthetic formating glitches in Microsoft Office documents--particularly those with embedded graphics. If I intend to send a document to an Office user, then I polish it in Office before I send it.
 
So it sounds like NO 2.2.6 will be compatible with the eMac 10.3.9. Or the latest version NO 3.1.2 will work if I upgrade the eMac to 10.4.11

Thanks for all your help.
 
I have a new help request. I use iWork 08 on my MacBook 10.4.11. and have received a spreadsheet sent to me by a PC user who uses MS Office 2000 Professional. When I send the Excel spreadsheet back with my data entered upon it she says she can not open it. Can you help me with this?
 
How did you save the document after you were done with it? Excel on a Windows machine can not open a Numbers document. You have to save it as MS Excel under the Export option.
 
Cheryl, Thanks so much I have done as you advise and I know it will work now. If not I'll be back here for more help. I really appreciate this site. Thank you.
 
Another query.... On my Macbook 10.4.11 I would like to know how to "empty cookies" or how to delete files kept temporarily by my Safari browser. The computer has been slow lately and often not downloading websites at all.. ( perhaps this has to do with the speed of my DSL) I am hoping I can get rid of some unnecessary weight such as partially downloaded files etc.. I do a defragmentation fairly often by holding down the option and apple keys whilst I start up the computer waiting until after the second bell sound before letting go of the keys. Is there more I can do? Thank you.
 
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