which OS

[ssahl]

My better half has a Powermac 8500/120
right now it has Mac OS 9.1 on it, but it runs pretty slow, especially when surfing the internet, and I know it's not the connection because a straight download I get about 4-6k per second. My question is, am I asking to much of this old mac (120Mhz cpu) to run system software 9.1? Anyone with alot of experience with older powermacs please help me out, would this machine run better if I put Mac OS 8.1 on it? I would of just went ahead and did it already but I dont have a mac OS 9 cd anymore, and dont think thats free like 8 is. I even thought about trying to put Linux on there, but I dont think it would handle the Red Hat version 8 which is what I have.

[OOPS!]

Hi,

I don't think your OS is causing problems with your web browsing. Maybe you want to look at what your browser is doing. Kinda like I.E. vs. Opera for speed of use.

As far as Linux goes, if you want to do that, you will need a PPC version of a distro. Not sure if RH has one.

HTH,
OOPS!

[ssahl]

I thought of that too, I have used netscape 4.08 & 4.7 and those ran deathly slow, I'm running IE 5 right now and it's a little better, but even still, some pages take forever to come up, I have also tried Mozilla, and snails move faster then that. Think maybe should try IE 4.5?

[Streams]

I believe the RH distro for PPC is Yellow Dog. You can get it here: www.linuxiso.org

[\/\/ickes]

WAIT!!!!

Don't install linux on that mac... It will run, but there is no reason for you to trash a good os...

What you need to do is enter your extension manager and click off any pointless extensions (stuff you never use anymore) Then defrag your drive, Apple may not offer a defraging tool but you can find one done by Norten. Check your ram when you start up
and see if a program is clogging it up. Your computer is fine for OS 9 and OS 8 will run just as good, but don't install linux. Linux runs great on a PPC like a G3 or G4 but on the older systems like yours it will only be good in text mode, using X will really bog it down. (limitations of a 120mhz CPU)

Also see www.download.com to look for free apps to help with memory management.

[LocoCoyote]

Linux will run on Mac OS? I thought Linux was x86 only?

[jglen490]

There are versions of Linux that will run on PPC, x86, and other processors. I don't know that Linux will run inside Mac OS, or even what the point would be to such an exercise !!

[kilgoretrout]

Linux can run on virtually anything, from cell phones to mainframes and everything in between. I agree with VVickes that your hardware isn't up to running most modern linux GUIs; your likely to be disappointed with the end result. If you want to give it a try, you might want to consider Mandrake 9.1 which just came out with a PPC version. If you do so, I wouldn't try running the KDE or Gnome GUIs. Try a less resource demanding one like Icewm.

[mattg2k4]

I've heard of someone doing a homebrew install of linux on their pda, and they've made some version to go on an xbox.

Yep, it's versatile all right

[LocoCoyote]

Just goes to show how little I know of Linux! Gotta work on that.