I have an imac OS 10.4.11 and am using Safari 2.0.4. I would like to update this. I have 1 Gb memory. Do I need more memory to update my computer? I would also like to add an airport system and something where I could read word applications.

Question

I have an iMac OS 10.4.11 and am using Safari 2.0.4 I would like to update. I have only original 1 GB memory-do I need more to update?I would also like to add an airport or router and would like to add something where I could open word applications. Is it hopeless?

Answer 1

Thanks. That's a Mid-2007 model with an Intel Core 2 Duo processor. You can run any version of Mac OS X on it up to and including Mac OS X Lion, though for Lion you'd need to increase the memory to at least 2GB, something I'd recommend doing anyway; it's inexpensive and often can increase performance. Your iMac can take up to 6GB if RAM; 4GB is probably a good compromise between cost and performance with a 4GB kit costing about $50.00 US from a reliable vendor such as Crucial.
Your system already should have included the Airport wireless networking capability, so all you'd need would be a wireless (WiFi) access point (aka "router" or "base station") and an appropriate Internet connection. Apple's Airport Express and Airport Extreme, and the Time Capsule if you'd like to have a built-in hard drive for backups and extra storage, are good choices for a WiFi access point, but there are a number of other manufacturers.
As to upgrading the operating system, as I said, you can upgrade to Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard, Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, or Mac OSX  10.7 Lion (the most recent release).  Apple no longer lists Mac OS X 10.5 on their web site, but if you call the Apple Store you may still be able to purchase a copy. Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard is easily available as is Lion though with Lion you'd need the $69.00 USB flash drive installer or you'd need to purchase and install Snow Leopard first (other than on the flash drive, Lion is only available from the Mac App Store which can only be accessed from Mac OS X 10.6.6. or later). Before you decide, I'd strongly suggest you find out what versions of Mac OS X your applications and perpherals will support, either as they or with a free or affordable update. I'd suspect most of your applications and peripheral drivers would need to be upgraded, at least to support Snow Leopard or Lion. If you consider Lion, make sure of your applications; Lion will no longer run PowerPC-only applications, so many older appliations will not run under Lion.
Finally, as to Microsoft Word documents which is what I presume you mean, you can of course just purchase Microsoft Office. There are other ways to work with Word documents, though. If you just need to view Word documents, TextEdit in MOSX 10.6 and 10.7 (and perhaps 10.5; I can't remember) can open and view many Word Documents. For something a bit more capable, you can purchase Apple's Pages, part of the iWork suite and now available separately for Mac OS X 10.6 and 10.7, or try one of the open-source solutions such as LibreOffice.
Regards.