Upgrading to 10.3 or 10.4-software conflicts?

Question

I have a Power PC G4 (Dual 867 MHz Processor). Running Classic 9.2 and OSX 10.2.8. I'm looking at the pros and cons of upgrading to 10.3 or 10.4. And I want to minimize upgrade purchases and conflicts for my existing software.
Any known software conflicts with OS X 10.3 or 10.4 and older Adobe products? I'm using Photoshop 7.0, Illustrator 10. I'm also using Dreamweaver MX 2004, Microsoft Office 2004, Quark Xpress (am upgrading to 6).
Also, what's the best browser and email program to use with 10.3 or 10.4?
Thanks!
Dual 867 MHz ProcessorPC G4    

Answer 1

Is there a particular reason you need to update? Do you use your computer and software in conjunction with a business or job? In the case of the latter you should never upgrade when you depend upon mission critical software or hardware until you have verified compatibility.
In your case you should contact the individual software developers/companies and inquire about version compatibility with different versions of OS X. Sometimes you can find this out by visiting their respective websites and reading the System Requirements information. You can also use the resources at www.versiontracker.com to find out about OS X version compatibility for your various titles.
For Tiger you can also consult these resources:
http://www.macintouch.com/tigercompat.html
http://www.macintouch.com/tigerreview/incompatibility.html
Personally if you are planning to upgrade I would upgrade to Tiger because it is current. However, before upgrading I would plan to make a bootable backup of your current system to an external Firewire drive. In case you have any problems or change your mind you can always restore the backup. To make a bootable backup you will need an external Firewire drive equal to or greater in size than your internal hard drive. You wil need to download Carbon Copy Cloner from www.versiontracker.com and install it. Carefully read the documentation for CCC to learn how to use it properly to make a bootable clone. After you make your clone test it by trying to boot the computer with it.
In my opinion the best browsers for OS X are Safari and OmniWeb. The best email application is Entourage (part of Office X 2004) or Power Mail. However, you will not find much consensus on either of these applications. Everyone has their opinion. The best suggestion is try them all out and see which ones you like best. Trial versions can be found at www.versiontracker.com for the shareware or commercial products.