Available software for old iBook & G4tower?

Question

I inherited a 14 inch iBook from my mother running 10.4.11 & I also have an old G4 tower running 10.4.11 & OS 9. Is there any newer OS system I can install that would be compatible with either of these, and where would I get such a thing? What are the security risks accessing the internet using an older browser that I cannot update anymore? Does it hurt to browse sites as long as I avoid doing anything financial? Is there any point in try to update these older computers and still trying to use them. I have had no problem networking them with my newer iMac running Maverick. My husband would like to use the older computers to browse the internet for information on mountain climbing.

Answer 1

Mac OS X 10.5.8 is the newest system that will run on G4s as long as they are a minimum of 867 Mhz (dual processor 800 Mhz doesn't count, and 1 Ghz and higher are more than 867 Mhz).
The disadvantage is that unless the tower is the right model, you'll lose access to Mac OS 9:
https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-1757 (tells you which towers can boot into 9 & 10.5).
The iBook G4 can only use Classic, which is gone in Mac OS X 10.5 and later.
Cloning the system to a Firewire external hard drive is possible to maintain the older operating system as it was before, with older versions of Carbon Copy Cloner or Superduper, and should be done prior to any upgrade or software install anyway.  Except for the original PCI PowerMac G4 (which is too slow for 10.5 anyway), you can boot off Firewire hard drives Mac OS X.  A second internal hard disk on the tower for 10.4 is another possibility.  But Parallel ATA hard drives are getting scarcer for that option.  And may need a jumper to handle the slower bus speed.   Disk Utility can be used to format the drive Apple Partition map so the operating system can be installed.  GUID is not understood by most PowerPC 10.4 systems.
http://www.apple.com/usergroups/ is a good source for finding people with older software.   Otherwise it really is hit and miss with search engines such as C!Net & Macupdate.  Do not download MacKeeper or any system cache cleaning software, whatever you do.