Latest addition: A bondi-blue iMac

[Liam Proven]

On 1 July 2016 at 03:09, Terry Stewart <terry at webweavers.co.nz> wrote:
> My classic/vintage computer activity has taken a back seat lately but I did
> find a machine I had on the "classic" list for some time.  It's now part of
> the collection.
> http://www.classic-computers.org.nz/collection/imac.htm


Totally an interesting, valid machine.

The first-gen iMacs are very limited. However, with major surgery, you
can put quite a lot of RAM in them -- 384MB I think -- and a random
big EIDE hard disk. In that config, they will run MacOS X up to 10.3,
I think.

I find it useful to have G3-era Macs dual-boot, because OS X can talk
to a modern network, read USB mass storage etc., without significant
problems, whereas MacOS 9 struggles.

But -- very important note! It's *ESSENTIAL* to upgrade their firmware
before ever attempting to boot OS X on them even once. Not install,
_boot_. If you don't, OS X resets the screen brightness to minimum --
1% or so -- and it's very hard to get out of that state. You then need
to boot MacOS 9 "blind" and install the firmware update without being
able to see what you're doing.

I've done it. It's tricky but it is possible. I suspect a lot of iMacs
got trashed as "dead" in that condition, though.

But upgrade the firmware first and they run old editions of OS X fine,
and are rather more useful running it and TenFourFox or something,
than they are with Classic only.

-- 
Liam Proven • Profile: http://lproven.livejournal.com/profile
Email: lproven at cix.co.uk • GMail/G+/Twitter/Flickr/Facebook: lproven
MSN: lproven at hotmail.com • Skype/AIM/Yahoo/LinkedIn: liamproven
Cell/Mobiles: +44 7939-087884 (UK) • +420 702 829 053 (ČR)