The debate over whether Leopard will run on G3s has thickened. Our initial report noted that Apple’s Leopard page read as follows: “From G3 to Xeon, from MacBook to Xserve, there is just one Leopard.” But only a couple of days later, Apple revised the sentence to read: “Leopard delivers 64-bit power to both Intel- and PowerPC-based Macs, so you don’t have to install separate applications for different machines.” Explicit confirmation of compatibility PowerPC-based Macs: good. Dropping the specific mention of G3 processors: uh oh.
Now, reports have surfaced that the Read Me accompanying Leopard’s Developer Preview only explicitly lists support for G4 and G5 processors. Some developers have apparently been able to get Leopard’s Preview running on G3 machines with a performance hit.
The question, to my mind, is what portion of the installed base is made up of G3 users? The last Macs to ship with a G3 processor were the final round of iBook G3s, which were phased out in the fall of 2003 by the introduction of the iBook G4. Is three years a reasonable time in which to expect a user to upgrade their computer? Having modded my own seven year old B&W PowerMac to a 600MHz G4, I no longer have a machine with a G3, but I still see people using G3-based Macs from time to time. One hopes they’ll be happy with Panther or Tiger for the rest of their days.
Just because Leopard may not support G3s, this doesn't not mean that they are obsolete. They still run great under Panther or Tiger. Apple can't be expected to please everyone. How can they create a technologically advanced os that supports old hardware? Panther and Tiger are still fantastic, and the G3's aren't going anywhere either.
hell I have a beige 233Mhz DT G3.
it barely made X.2
but it's time imo
I think it's a moot point. I have a G3 iMac (among other machines) and it's still on Panther. It runs fine and I didn't see much of a point of putting Tiger on it. My guess is that much of the installed base just uses the OS that comes with their Mac. My experience with a pool of about 30 other users bears this out.
I have three G3 Macs - an original Bondi iMac with Sonnet 400mhz upgrade, an imac DV 400, and a Pismo Powerbook with a 900mhz Powerlogix upgrade.
The Bondi iMac runs Panther quite happily, while the DV and the Pismo run Tiger. I use the Pismo regularly and would hope to be able to run Leopard on it - and can it really perform worse than a 350mhz G4?
The Bondi and the DV, on the other hand, are kids' machines and used only for basic web browsing - so if they're stuck on Panther and Tiger respectively I shan't cry.
After all, look how many Windows users are still running 2000, ME or even 98.