Installing Panther on an old iMac

I have a very old iMac. One of the CRT display ones which came in 5 or 6 different colours. I want to install Panther, OS X on it.
I have the installation discs for the OS from an iBook G4, but am not sure if these are CDs or DVDs? I only have a CD drive in the iMac and my only other PCs are PCs and not macs.
Can anyone tell me if I can get the OS installed on the iMac, if it will work ok and if I need to re-write the discs if they are DVDs to CDs?
Basically I need help and any help would be much appreciated.
Thanks team!

Scott,
Welcome to discussions.
The discs that you require will be CDs. As already noted, you will not be able to use the grey discs from an iBook G4 to install OSX 10.3 onto your old iMac G3.
So the good news is that OSX 10.3 retail CDs come up every week or so on eBay UK. Some go for a few quid, but if you get a quiet week (perhaps with the auction ending during a big footie match on TV) they can go for £0.99.
You'll need to prepare by making sure:
- you have enough memory in the iMac G3,
- you have a big enough disk in the iMac,
- you've applied all the required firmware updates to the iMac - this is critical, the earliest iMacs blew their video card if upgraded to OSX 10.2 or later without upgrading the firmware.
- you understand that the iMac may crawl with OSX 10.3.9 on it.
The earliest iMac G3's, from 233MHz to about 500MHz will feel like treacle, the 700MHz models will just be bearable.
If you're just trying to get some use out of an old Mac fine, but if you have a real use for it, consider picking up an eMac G4, up to about a 1.25GHz G4, for under £40 on eBay. Look for one with keyboard, mouse and original discs. Some may be on offer at £100+, but they're only worth £40 Max. Edinburgh / Glasgow gumtree have them all the time too, usually overpriced, but at least you can haggle.

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