Should I upgrade to Leopard on a PowerMac G5?

Running Tiger 10.4.11 on a PowerMac G5 1.6 GHz, 2GB RAM currently.
Will upgrading to 10.5 slow things down significantly? Any possible downsides?
Thx.

Slow down? Probably not; in fact your Mac may run a bit faster. This of course presumes that your applications, utilities, drivers, etc. are Leopard-compatible. That's the downside; you may have to spend money for upgrades or, if you have older programs, may not be able to get an upgrade to Leopard for some software.
But I would turn the question back on you; why do you feel that you want or need to upgrade? If we know what's driving your thought process, we may be able to provide more specific suggestions/advice.
Regards.

Similar Messages

G5 Dual 2.7 - should I upgrade to Leopard?

Tiger is fine, but just purchased standalone Leopard. Having buyers remorse after hearing that others with my configuration have not had a pleasant time.
Need constructive input. Time is money with these installations -just want to make sure I should keep Leopard only on Intel Macs. Also- how about iMac G5?

Hi Kurt Triffet;
I am running Leopard on a PowerMac G5 Quad without any problems at all.
But sine you say that Tiger is fine and that time is money, I would say that foregoing the upgrade to Leopard might be the best plan in your case.
If you do decide to go ahead with Leopard, I would strongly suggest that you clone the system drive and test the clone to be sure it boots. Once you do that I would suggest you do an Upgrade to get to Leopard. With the clone as a fallback in case anything goes wrong you should be able to get back to the current working system very quickly.
Allan

Should I upgrade Snow Leopard and to what?

Currently I have a model 11,3 iMac and an early 2008 Macbook. I updated the Macbook to Lion as a fresh install (with migration using Time Machine) as I wanted to utilise full disk encryption on the internal hard drive and any external portable drives I took with me. My iMac is left running Snow Leopard.
As things have moved on there now seem differences with Apple applications such as iPhoto (library gets updated/upgraded) and I am left wondering whether to upgrade the iMac from Snow Leopard?
If so, to what? If I go to Mountain Lion then I am on an OS that my Macbook cannot use but if I only go to Lion I may find issues that others on forums have indicated whereby they ended up downgrading. Are these unlucky downgraders victims of in-place upgrades rather than re-installs? I really like SL and see no reason to upgrade as I am no fan of the iOS appearance of the system in Lion (and ML). However, the security patches have stopped, the World has moved on, and I also cannot access those FileVault encrypted drives.
What do people advise?
The way I'm looking at it is...
Snow Leopard - cannot read encrypted disks, iPhoto libraries updated/upgraded in Lion etc, unsupported, but I do like the OS
Lion - keeps both systems the same, may have issues with upgrade as indicated in forums (were they early adopters? in-place upgraders?).
Mountain Lion - latest and greatest, said to be improvement on Lion, may end up with backwards compatibility issues in iPhoto just like Lion -> SL

Hi, panto74.
It looks like you're in a little bit of a spot, and you ask some good questons.
I know this doesn't directly answer your questions, but here is some food for thought.
Consider this option... upgrade your iMac by way of an external HD. By that I mean, purchase an external drive and install OS X 10.8.1 Mountain Lion on that. Then migrate your user accounts and data onto the the new drive, use System Preferences to set it as your startup drive, and use it for a while - an evaluation period, if you will.
By doing this you get to determine if 10.8 is what you expect - see how it behaves for you. And, if you don't like it, you haven't yet wiped your startup disk and can simply reselect that drive and OS as your boot and go about your day using SL. Very little muss and fuss. If worse come to worst, you haven't munged your original setup, and now you have an external HD that you can use for other purposes, such as data backup or external storage.
Another option that comes to mind... since you have already interrupted the feng shui or balance of your two machines by upgrading the MacBook... why not upgrade the MacBook to the next level? This way you still have the comfort of using SL on your iMac, and you won't have moved BOTH machines into the realm of the unknown. You can even upgrade your MacBook with an external startup hd as I described above.
As for the question of why some users have poor luck when upgrading/downgrading... the answers are about as varied as the problems are. There are so many things that can affect the process.
Of course, whatever you do, PLEASE make sure you have backed up your data before you make any move on your iMac... or MacBook, for that matter.
I hope this is helpful.

Should I upgrade to Leopard or Snow OS?

Hi everyone!
I have one of the first MacBook Pro's. I got it on September 2006, and still have the Tiger OS. I bought it with 1GB RAM, but upgraded it to 2GB about 1 year ago. I'm a designer, so I mainly use the Adobe Suite, and sometimes find my oldie Mac going slow... but it's still working.
I wasn't really interested in upgrading to the Leopard OS, but I'm recently considering it since I just got the new Iphone 4 and I discovered that I cannot sync them together unless I have the 10.5 upgrade.
I was wondering, if you could advice me on whether it could be good to upgrade my mac to leopard, or if you think doing this would just make my computer even slower and harder to work with the Adobe software.
Thanks
MJ

Well, according to Wikidot, a trusted site, your version of Adobe is fully supported when running Snow Leopard as your OS.
So, you might as well upgrade to the Snow Leopard box set. It includes iLife'11 and iWork with Snow. And it's the same price and most often cheaper then Leopard all by itself. Also, a legit copy of Leopard is pretty hard to find.
Let us know if you intend to do so. Make sure all your apps. are Snow ready by reviewing that site. We can help you find sites you need for that too and help get your system ready for the Snow upgrade.
DALE

Have LR 1.3 working on Tiger OS... should I upgrade to Leopard

I recently bought an 20" IMac and was pleased that it came with Tiger installed so I could use LR while waiting for the 1.3 update.
Is anyone using LR with Leopard and are all the features in LR working?
Are all the features involved with Lepard working?
I am real interested in using Leopard's Time Machine application.

Claude,
could you please share the url of these updated drivers (is this the beta drivers for Leopard -- I've not tried that).
I know there has been a great deal of discussion on the topic, but a precise solution to following I've not found:
The Epson SP 3800 driver I downloaded from the Epson site today was labeled as Leopard compatible (though it is not the beta written for the Leopard system) but did not print correctly from LR 1.3 on Leopard (10.5.1). I selected my paper profile for 3800 in LR and turned off printer color management in the print dialog. The exact same printing settings from Tiger in LR 1.2 and 1.3 prints very close to what my calibrated monitor suggests. The print from Leopard was washed out with a magenta cast. So, that url and advice would be most welcome!
Hugh

GMA X3100 Macbook-Should I upgrade to Snow Leopard?

I've read all kinds of horror stories about this Graphics Card GMA X3100 and Snow Leopard. I see that SL doesn't support it. I'm running ok on 10.5.8.
Should I upgrade or not? I'm mostly doing audio in Logic Pro and will be doing more HD video in iMovie for YouTube etc.
I like to hook up an older monitor to mirror my Macbook's. I've read where people have had problems with this after upgrading from 10.5 to 10.6.
Should I stay on 10.5 or will I get any benefit from 10.6? I'd like to get as close to up to date as possible if it'll be good for me. Thanks!
I have a few years old white Macbook:
MacBook
Model Identifier:          MacBook4,1
Processor Name:          Intel Core 2 Duo
Processor Speed:          2.4 GHz
Number Of Processors:          1
Total Number Of Cores:          2
L2 Cache:          3 MB
Memory:          2 GB
Bus Speed:          800 MHz
Chipset Model:          GMA X3100
Type:          Display
Bus:          Built-In
VRAM (Total):          144 MB
Vendor:          Intel (0x8086)
Device ID:          0x2a02
Revision ID:          0x0003
Displays:
Color LCD:
Resolution:          1280 x 800
Depth:          32-Bit Color
Core Image:          Hardware Accelerated
Main Display:          Yes
Mirror:          Off
Online:          Yes
Quartz Extreme:          Supported
Built-In:          Yes

I've read all kinds of horror stories about this Graphics Card GMA X3100 and Snow Leopard. I see that SL doesn't support it. I'm running ok on 10.5.8.
Should I upgrade or not? I'm mostly doing audio in Logic Pro and will be doing more HD video in iMovie for YouTube etc.
I like to hook up an older monitor to mirror my Macbook's. I've read where people have had problems with this after upgrading from 10.5 to 10.6.
Should I stay on 10.5 or will I get any benefit from 10.6? I'd like to get as close to up to date as possible if it'll be good for me. Thanks!
I have a few years old white Macbook:
MacBook
Model Identifier:          MacBook4,1
Processor Name:          Intel Core 2 Duo
Processor Speed:          2.4 GHz
Number Of Processors:          1
Total Number Of Cores:          2
L2 Cache:          3 MB
Memory:          2 GB
Bus Speed:          800 MHz
Chipset Model:          GMA X3100
Type:          Display
Bus:          Built-In
VRAM (Total):          144 MB
Vendor:          Intel (0x8086)
Device ID:          0x2a02
Revision ID:          0x0003
Displays:
Color LCD:
Resolution:          1280 x 800
Depth:          32-Bit Color
Core Image:          Hardware Accelerated
Main Display:          Yes
Mirror:          Off
Online:          Yes
Quartz Extreme:          Supported
Built-In:          Yes

HT1338 I am trying to get my system current. I am now running Mac OS X, version 10.6.8 (I believe this is "Snow Leopard". What should I upgrade to?

I am trying to get my system current. I am now running Mac OS X, version 10.6.8 (I believe this is "Snow Leopard"). What should I upgrade to?

The current system is OS X 10.8 which is downloadable from the App store, which you can upgrade to directly if your system meets the system requirements. Note that starting with OS X 10.7, PowerPC-based programs will no longer run. So, for example, people with Office 2004 got surprised when they upgraded and found that the older Office programs would no longer run. Newer Office programs are OK.

Rephrase..Have 2009 iMac running snow leopard should I upgrade to Mavericks

Rephrase..Have 2009 iMac running snow leopard should I upgrade to Mavericks

If your machine meets the specs, the latest is Yosemite; make sure you check all the requirements as your machine falls right at the back end of being supported - meaning that it will not run at its maximum speed due to an older processor. You'd also need an absolute minimum opf 4 GB RAM - 8 would be much better.

Should I upgrade to Snow Leopard/ Lion using a MacBook Pro with 2.26 GHz Inetl Core 2 Duo Processor and 2GB Memory? Can my old macbook take it?

Should I upgrade to Snow Leopard/ Lion using a MacBook Pro with 2.26 GHz Inetl Core 2 Duo Processor and 2GB Memory? Can my old macbook take it?
thanks

Yes. You should be fine with Snow Leopard, but Lion requires a minimum of 2 GBs of RAM. If you upgrade to Lion I would first upgrade your RAM to at least 4 GBs if your model supports it. Also, see:
How to Install OS X Updates Successfully
A. Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions:
Boot from your current OS X Installer disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. Then select Disk Utility from the Utilities menu. After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list. In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive. If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported click on the Repair Permissions button. Wait until the operation completes, then quit DU and return to the installer. Now restart normally.
If DU reports errors it cannot fix, then you will need Disk Warrior (4.0 for Tiger) and/or TechTool Pro (4.5.2 for Tiger) to repair the drive. If you don't have either of them or if neither of them can fix the drive, then you will need to reformat the drive and reinstall OS X.
B. Make a Bootable Backup Using Restore Option of Disk Utility:
Open Disk Utility from the Utilities folder.
Select the destination volume from the left side list.
Click on the Restore tab in the DU main window.
Check the box labeled Erase destination.
Select the destination volume from the left side list and drag it to the Destination entry field.
Select the source volume from the left side list and drag it to the Source entry field.
Double-check you got it right, then click on the Restore button.
Destination means the external backup drive. Source means the internal startup drive.
C. Important: Please read before installing:
If you have a FireWire hard drive connected, disconnect it before installing the update unless you will boot from this drive and install the update on it. Reconnect it and turn it back on after installation is complete and you've restarted.
You may experience unexpected results if you have installed third-party system software modifications, or if you have modified the operating system through other means. (This does not apply to normal application software installation.)
The installation process should not be interrupted. If a power outage or other interruption occurs during installation, use the standalone installer (see below) from Apple Downloads to update. While the installation is in progress do not use the computer.
D. To upgrade:
Purchase the Snow Leopard Retail DVD.
Boot From The OS X Installer Disc:
Insert OS X Installer Disc into the optical drive.
Restart the computer.
Immediately after the chime press and hold down the "C" key.
Release the key when the spinning gear below the dark gray Apple logo appears.
Wait for installer to finish loading.
E. If updating:
Download and install update(s)
Use Software Update, or
Download standalone updater(s).

I have OS X 10.5.8, should I upgrade to Snow Leopard, or a later version?

I have OS X 10.5.8 on a 2008 Macbook Pro. Should I upgrade to Snow Leopard, or a later version?

Depends. If you use and need PPC apps, then SL. If you don't use any of those, then go to whatever the machine supports. Details at Lion specs and MLion specs.

How far should I upgrade from snow leopard

how far should I upgrade from snow leopard. I just installed more RAM for a total of 4 GB.
Thanks

Check that your computer is compatible with Mountain Lion/Mavericks/Yosemite.
To check the model number hold down the option/alt key, go to the Apple menu and select System Information.
iMac (Mid 2007 or newer) model number 7,1 or higher
Your Mac needs:
OS X v10.6.8 or OS X Lion already installed
2 GB or more of memory (More is better - 4 GB minimum seems to be the consensus)
8 GB or more of available space
Check to make sure your applications are compatible. PowerPC applications are no longer supported after 10.6.
Application Compatibility
Applications Compatibility (2)
Do a backup before installing.
If you can/do upgrade, I recommend you make a copy of the installer and move it out of your Applications folder. The installer self-destructs. The copy will keep you from having to download the installer again. You can make a bootable USB stick to install using this free program.
Bootable USB Flash Drive – Diskmaker X
If your computer isn’t compatible, you might be able to upgrade to Lion. Personal opinion, I'd stay with Snow Leopard rather than Lion.
Computer Compatibility - Lion Lion

HT1338 I currently have Snow Leopard and am thinking of upgrading to Lion but have heard some bad things about it. Should I upgrade or not? What do you like/dislike about Lion?

I currently have Snow Leopard and am thinking of upgrading to Lion but have heard some bad things about it. Should I upgrade or not? What do you like/dislike about Lion?

It is indeed all down to what you need to do with your machine.   Snow leopard is an excellent OS and as Baltwo suggests you have to check out your current apps and programs because PPC won't work on any higher OS than the one you have.
Andy's comment is very interesting and, I suspect, insider knowledge based    Certainly I would wait for Mavericks now it is on the horizon ... and then add six months or so for the bugs to be ironed out.
Good luck, whatever you do.   I'm staying with Snow Leopard.

Should I upgrade to Snow Leopard from Leopard on Early 2009 Mini?

Just got an Early 2009 Mini on eBay. Here's the specs:
2 Ghz Core 2 Duo Intel CPU, 120 Gb Hard drive, 4 GB RAM and a Super Drive optical drive
Wondered if it should be upgraded to SL or not. How does Snow Leopard compare to Leopard? Also, I've noticed on eBay that there's Full Retail versions of Snow Leopard available for sale. I've only seen upgrade versions, not full. Is this true?
Thanks.
silverado93

I've got a 1.66 GHz Intel Core Duo (2nd Gen) and had OS Tiger originally on it. I've sinced went to Leopard and then Snow Leopard through the OS releases. I found that since my original HD was only 80 Gb (it died on me last year and now have a 500 Gb) that the stream lined snow leopard was a great benefit as it made every program on the computer (Ilife, etc) smaller in size. The only downside for me was that the USB webcam i had was not supported by with snow leopard and stopped working. The Ecamm company who sells a usb driver online for usb based cams to work with macs do not support snow leopard OS and will not make a driver for it. So I've gone back to Leopard for the time being.
On another note, with the older mini that i have, when i bought Ilife 11 and installed it, i found that the new iphoto program was very slow and lagged so much, that it was bothersome in comparison to the previous iphoto in ilife 10 which never had an issue. It was not worth the upgrade for this machine and i have gone back to ilife 10 as a result.
And since my machine is older, my internal speaker has recently died, preventing me from using external speakers. So just a note, that these items may fail, but are replaceable.

Should I upgrade from Panther to Tiger or Leopard?

Many are considering upgrading their existing Mac to 10.4 (Tiger) or Mac OS 10.5 (Leopard) because of iPhone or iPod compatibility, or other software compatibility. This makes sense, but you have to realize there are both pluses or downsides to doing this.
If you have an application that is only Tiger or Leopard compatible, it makes sense to upgrade.
Unless you are able to completely migrate away from Classic, it doesn't make sense to upgrade to Leopard. Leopard no longer offers Classic support. Though a Firewire external hard drive with Tiger on it on a PowerPC Mac, or on a separate partition (which requires erasing your hard drive), will allow you to maintain Classic. Booting into Mac OS 9 if it was possible with Panther, is still possible with Tiger and Leopard on the same machine. Erase and installing Tiger or Leopard will not preserve the Mac OS 9 system folder needed to use Classic. That will either have to come from your backup, or your original Mac OS 9 installer discs which installed 9 on your Mac. Mid 2002 through late 2005 Macs used a restore utility to restore Mac OS 9 system folders from those original discs. Macs which shipped with 9.2.1 and 9.2.2 can't use the 9.2.1 retail disc to install Mac OS 9, and must use the disc that came with them to install 9 or Classic.
Upgrading to 10.4 and 10.5 introduces a new find file system called Spotlight.
It is much weaker than 10.3.9 for locating files quickly by name. Though if you find files mainly by content, then it is better to have Spotlight. See this thread on how difficult it is to work with Spotlight based systems. Launchbar offers limited Spotlight like features without losing the 10.3.9 and earlier Find File systems on 10.3.9 and earlier.
If Dashboard Widgets are your reason to install 10.4 or 10.5, consider the third party utility Amnesty

Many are considering upgrading their existing Mac to 10.4 (Tiger) or Mac OS 10.5 (Leopard) because of iPhone or iPod compatibility, or other software compatibility. This makes sense, but you have to realize there are both pluses or downsides to doing this.
If you have an application that is only Tiger or Leopard compatible, it makes sense to upgrade.
Unless you are able to completely migrate away from Classic, it doesn't make sense to upgrade to Leopard. Leopard no longer offers Classic support. Though a Firewire external hard drive with Tiger on it on a PowerPC Mac, or on a separate partition (which requires erasing your hard drive), will allow you to maintain Classic. Booting into Mac OS 9 if it was possible with Panther, is still possible with Tiger and Leopard on the same machine. Erase and installing Tiger or Leopard will not preserve the Mac OS 9 system folder needed to use Classic. That will either have to come from your backup, or your original Mac OS 9 installer discs which installed 9 on your Mac. Mid 2002 through late 2005 Macs used a restore utility to restore Mac OS 9 system folders from those original discs. Macs which shipped with 9.2.1 and 9.2.2 can't use the 9.2.1 retail disc to install Mac OS 9, and must use the disc that came with them to install 9 or Classic.
Upgrading to 10.4 and 10.5 introduces a new find file system called Spotlight.
Spotlight does improve with Leopard. There are some of the new features of Spotlight on Macworld and Wikipedia. It is however, much weaker than 10.3.9 for locating files quickly by name. Though if you find files mainly by content, then it is better to have Spotlight. See this thread on how difficult it is to work with Spotlight based systems. Launchbar offers limited Spotlight like features without losing the 10.3.9 and earlier Find File systems on 10.3.9 and earlier.
If Dashboard Widgets are your reason to install 10.4 or 10.5, consider the third party utility Amnesty
Message was edited by: a brody

Help!!!! trying to install leopard on a powermac g5 tower

ok im new here and i would like to get some kind of help. i have a powermac g5 tower that is been giving me alot of problems. i currently have 10.4.11 and trying to upgrade to leopard. but every time i do the install process it quits on me and tells me the source media is bad try to install again or restart it. i did that already and still no go. so i contacted the apple people and they first tell me that my opitical drive was bad so i go ahead and replace it. still gives me the error message. ok so i call again they tell me ok that my hd is bad i need to replace it. ok so i being the dummy and listening to them go buy a hd and try to install it once again nope still gives me the error message so i call them again and they tell me ok that i need mac os tiger and the leopard should just install fine. nope i bought tiger for cheap on ebay and nothing no luck i cant get to work i keep on getting the message that the source media is bad and i need a new disk . so im really confused as to why i cant get leopard to install in to my g5.
p.s. i do have another copy of leopard because the mac people taught that my disk was bad but i know for a fact that the one that they sent me is not bad also.
p.s.s .
please help me to try to fix this problem thanks

sorry about the late answer. but i do not have the tiger cd like the one in the picture mine is gray and it says on the dvd for g3g4g5 install dvd. also the leopard cd has the big x on the dvd. i called once again the apple people to see if they can help me now they tell me that my ram is bad. so first they told me my optical drive was bad. then my hard drive, then my video card was not right. then i needed mac os tiger to install leopard. so now i need ram. also all the plugs for the optical drive are installed right and the hard drive also installed right. and i tell them the specs and they tell me they are more then fine for leopard. so now im going to purchase some new ram to see what happens. also is it true that mac os leopard needs original apple ram to work. i keep on reading about that

Should I upgrade to Leopard on a PowerMac G5?

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