I have a Powerbook G4 that someone gave me with a blank hard drive. I'd like to install OS X on it, but the only version listed on apple.com is Snow Leopard, which only supports Intel processors.
What version of OS X can I use with this G4, and any ideas where I can obtain it?
You can probably shoehorn 10.5 on there, but 10.6 is Intel only.
Wikipedia says that you need a 867MHz processor, 512 MB of RAM, and 9 G of drive space. As well, you'll need a DVD drive to get it installed, unless you have some other tricky method (like installing from an external HD).
You could Install Leopard 10.5, but if you don't have much ram You may want to install Tiger 10.4 instead.
I run it on my 1.5GHz G4 PowerBook with 1GB of memory, and it runs OK for light tasks like browsing the Web, emailing, etc.
You should be able to upgrade to Leopard (10.5) without any trouble. Leopard is the last that will work with the PowerPC procs, though.
I've installed Mac OS X 10.5 on my iBook G4 and it runs fine. In some areas it is much faster than 10.4, plus you get to have “Spaces”.
