OS-X on Cube?

N

norik

Registered
I want to buy a Cube and run OSX.

Main purpose: to mess with OSX and run an AirPort (Wirelesslan 802.11) to Ethernet gateway, Apache server, Disk server (samba), print server, mail server.

My current machine for this stuff is a dual PIII 500MHz system (ATA/100, 512MB RAM, ATI/128 video)

I love Apple's industrial design work, and now with a real OS, the Mac is back! (About time!!!)

Questions:

Is the Cube stable with OSX? I read numerous posts that talk about kernel panic. I think they have bad RAM, since most also talk about installing cheap RAM. I know my Linux box and my SparcStation 10 did the same and RAM was the culprit in both cases.

Should I expect similar performance to the PIII system? Disk I/O throughput, video system (2D performance), network throughput, stability, etc...

How easy/difficult does open-source stuff build under OSX? Are all the libs/headers available in the right places? Does OSX come with some sort of compiler (gcc?)

thanks

Norik
norikd@yahoo.com
 
>Questions:

>Is the Cube stable with OSX? I read numerous posts that talk about kernel panic. I think they have bad RAM, since most also talk about installing cheap RAM. I know my Linux box and my SparcStation 10 did the same and RAM was the culprit in both cases.

My boss has a cube that has been running the fc and then the release for a few weeks without any stability problems. He has a large amount of third party RAM in it. I don't think he has tried the latest firmware upgrade though (this is know to disable some non-spec RAM ... his may or may not be spec).

>Should I expect similar performance to the PIII system? Disk I/O throughput, video system (2D performance), network throughput, stability, etc...

I can't compare directly. OS X seems to run differently on various systems. Recent G4 machines do best ...

>How easy/difficult does open-source stuff build under OSX? Are all the libs/headers available in the right places? Does OSX come with some sort of compiler (gcc?)

Trivial if you are used to Unix in any flavor. OS X ships with a developer's disc filled with gnu stuff. To first order you can treat it as freeBSD ( I have done a few massive compiles with very minor changes).
 
I am running OS X (final) on an Apple G4 Cube with 192 megs of ram. Well, it is running fine. I don't seem to be having any technical problems here, everything works great! I am a little concerned with the speediness (or lack of it) in OS X. When clicking menus "File" for example, it takes a tiny split second to come up, along with draging to other menus across the screen, it's a little sluggish. When I resize windows, forget about it! it looks like it draws the windows at 3 frames per second! I am a little POed about this, I heard the newer releases were speedy! I also read that testers of the builds after OSX Beta were so fast that the icons on the dock didn't have time to "jump" and would open instantly.. Not the case here. Opening anything takes about 5 jumps! Itools, control panel, Internet Explorer, Mail, everything opens slow. OSX, all in all, feels slugish. Possibly because I have Classic running in the background most of the time, but when closed there is little difference. Is it my cube? is it OSX? I really haven't heard anyone elses experience with OSX yet.

Manny
 
Things improved a lot for me with the update (yeah, yeah, I know it's not official) on my Cube. However, I will install it on a G4/677 on monday as I will be using that machine on our wednesday seminar about OS X. I'll keep you posted.
 
Just bought a new Cube today. One of the originals. It runs pretty well. The speed gets better with use. I think there must be a disk cache optimization thing going on. Stuff snaps open now. I am running 4L5, too.

I'll say this- right now I'm encoding an MP3 at 5X speed, while lsitening to a different MP3 album, while surfing the net and I haven't had any skips and my CPU monitor has been sitting at about 80%. Pretty sweet.

I went back to OS9 earlier today to run the Firewire firmware update (which BTW, cause no problems for my 3rd party RAM). After using OSX for a week at work, going back into OS9 was like dropping the nail gun and picking up a hammer. How we lived without preemptive multitasking for so long, I'll never know.

I'm so used to working now, when the computer is doing other stuff. Click on all the apps in the dock at the same time. They all start up and you can get to work, even while Classic loads in the background.

I use a Win2K 'puter at home, too, and I have to say that OSX's multitasking seems more robust than Win2K's. Anyway, buy it. OSX on a Cube rocks.
 
You say:
I'll say this- right now I'm encoding an MP3 at 5X speed, while lsitening to a different MP3 album, while surfing the net and I haven't had any skips and my CPU monitor has been sitting at about 80%. Pretty sweet.

The CPU utilization is too low: it should be 100% since MP3 encoding should be a CPU bound task. Apparently, you are disk (CD) bound, and the encoder cannot get enough data to use the CPU fully.
 
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