[nycbug-talk] BSD on a G3

[Dave Steinberg]

> Our graphic design dept. recently upgraded their machines.? I know 
> have a couple of older green/blue G3s.? They won't run OSX very well 
> and besides,? I don't have the spare licenses.? I'm considering 
> putting OpenBSD on them..
>
>  Does this make sense?? OpenBSD will run on these, right?

This is perhaps the one rare opportunity where I might not encourage 
OpenBSD _unilaterally_.  I think you'd be surprised how well OS X runs 
on these machines.  It really depends what you'll be using them for, of 
course, but I'm writing this email to you from a G3 pismo laptop (400 
mhz, 384 megs of ram, bigger hard disk) and it works great for my 
usage.  I'm running OS X 10.3.6 and my working set of apps include 
Mail.app, Safari, iCal, iTunes, and a bunch of terminals.  I also do 
some light programming on here from time to time.

Basically if you're considering anything server related, stick with 
OpenBSD.  Anything remotely desktop-oriented... OS X still is pretty 
awesome even on older hardware.  Granted expose isn't the fastest thing 
on this machine, but it still is useful.

And as a perhaps vague display of my commitment to this laptop, I'll 
add that I just placed an order for a new power adapter on Wednesday, 
since mine sparks if you gently twist the cable wrong.  :)

Regards,
-- 
Dave Steinberg
http://www.geekisp.com/