having some serious issues...

N

nelaine85

Registered
Okay, I bought an Apple iBook off of Ebay. Maybe that was my first mistake. Regardless, I have it.

There's a folder on the right side that says "Desktop (Mac OS9)"...but when I go to click on it, I get a pop up that says "The alias 'Desktop (Mac OS 9)' could not be opened, because the original item cannot be found." This lead me to believe I had Mac OS 9.

Well...apparently I was wrong. When I click "About This Mac" it tells me I have Mac OS X Version 10.1.4.

We'll get to that issue in just a second...

Whenever I use Internet Explorer, it crashes. It doesn't happen all the time, but it's happened at least 30 times in one day. I have tried installing Firefox, but nothing works. When I tried to install the newest version, it starts the mount thing for like a split second. Then it gives an error message that says "The application Disk Copy has unexpectedly quit." This is the same error message I am getting with Internet Explorer. I also tried downloading older versions, but they were downloading in PHP format, which the computer and internet explorer don't know how to open.

So, question 1: How do I get Internet Explorer to stop crashing?

Question 2: How do I get Firefox to download and run properly?

Now, back to the OS X 10.1 issue. Some downloads are thinking I am running OS 9 and won't allow me to download from them.

So, question 3: Why is my computer saying I have Mac OS X 10.1, but certain websites are detecting that I have Mac OS 9?

I am just desperate for some help here. I really want to be able to use my Mac in full functionality. The whole reason behind buying the Mac was so my fiance could have this computer. I really hope someone can help me.
 
Where to begin? It appears that your iBook has MacOS X 10.1.4 with MacOS 9.2.2 as the Classic environment. I presume that your iBook is a 2002 vintage laptop that has never been updated. If this is the case, then your computer can be upgraded to 640 MB RAM. If your computer has less than 512 MB RAM, then I strongly suggest that you max-out the RAM. I also strongly suggest that you acquire a retail version of MacOS X 10.4 and install it on your computer. Then run Software Update until your OS and other Apple-supplied software are fully updated. This will leave you with a fully-patched version of MacOS X 10.4.11.

Now for Internet Explorer. The most recent version of Internet Explorer is IE 5.2.3. It has been out of development since the early 2000s. Microsoft's browser quickly became the least compatible browser on any platform. Close the door on IE, walk away, and never look back. If you perform the upgrade/upgrade process recommended above, then you will have Apple's Safari 4.1.3 installed on your machine. It scores a perfect 100 on the Acid3 test, at least it does on some hardware. You will also have the option of running such browsers as Firefox 3.6.13, iCab, and others.

Advice: The only downside to upgrading is that MacOS X 10.4 requires more than the minimum RAM configuration for your computer. Apple replaced MacOS X 10.1 in August 2002, more than eight years ago. Since then, MacOS X has changed so much that it is very difficult to find software that is compatible with MacOS X 10.1. Also, most Mac users have moved so far beyond the old OS making it very difficult to get help on this forum with it.
 
So, in short what MisterMe is saying is you are looking at a machine with even maxed out RAM, can still only run a newer version of OSX that is still two (close to three) versions old. With what he mentioned it will need (RAM and OS10.4.x retail installer), you still have a couple hundred bucks to go to make that thing "somewhat functional" on the web. Also, this all hinges on the fact also that hopefully that machine has more than a CD Rom so a retail 10.4 dvd can install onto that machine. Then it is only a matter of a short time before web development to support OS 10.4.x technologies starts dropping like crazy.
 
A second alternative for that Mac would be to use some PPC-distro of Linux, but even that would still benefit from having way more RAM. (And Linux wouldn't be as user-friendly and intuitive as Mac OS X is usually, unless you've used some Linux before).
 
Giaguara said:
A second alternative for that Mac would be to use some PPC-distro of Linux, but even that would still benefit from having way more RAM. (And Linux wouldn't be as user-friendly and intuitive as Mac OS X is usually, unless you've used some Linux before).
Click to expand...

I'd have to agree regarding Linux/ppc, even with Ubuntu (there is a community supported PPC version available). The installation isn't as brain-dead simple as it would be on Mac OS X, but if the OP is willing to give it a go it definitely is a worthy alternative. The only issue would be the lack of a Flash plugin from Adobe for Linux/ppc. However, LibreOffice does make a Linux/ppc port so office productivity would be covered. Firefox and Chromium (the open source browser that Chrome is based on) should also be available.

If you're willing to give it a try, you can get the disc image here:

http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/ports/releases/maverick/release/ubuntu-10.10-desktop-powerpc.iso
 
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