Just got this old Power Macintosh 8500/180 and have questions

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Buffalo

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I just got this Mac and I know it is about 10 years old. I ask for it as I want an old Mac to tinker with. I am PC user who want to learn about Mac. I haven't crank it up yet. I want to know where to get OS software for it free or real cheap. What kind of OS should I look for on Ebay or elsewhere?? Also how do I remove all the personal information from the previous user? Can I use this Mac to surf the Net or is it way too old? Thanks for any help.

I went with PC because there are alot of software for PC. So few for Mac. Can anybody tell me why Mac is better than PC other besides the fact that Mac is less likely to get viruses from the Net. I know the hackers hack PC because they don't like Bill Gates (at least that is the impression I am getting).
 
Buffalo said:
I just got this Mac and I know it is about 10 years old. I ask for it as I want an old Mac to tinker with. I am PC user who want to learn about Mac. I haven't crank it up yet. I want to know where to get OS software for it free or real cheap. What kind of OS should I look for on Ebay or elsewhere?? Also how do I remove all the personal information from the previous user? Can I use this Mac to surf the Net or is it way too old? Thanks for any help.

I went with PC because there are alot of software for PC. So few for Mac. Can anybody tell me why Mac is better than PC other besides the fact that Mac is less likely to get viruses from the Net. I know the hackers hack PC because they don't like Bill Gates (at least that is the impression I am getting).
Click to expand...

I believe that Power Mac 8500 are support from Mac OS 7.5 (known as System 7) to Mac OS 9.1.
Power Macintosh 8500

You can browse the internet but you need find old version of IE, Netscape Navigator, Opera or Mozilla for mac, plus it can be outdated in some parts due lacking of latest support for flash or stuff, it can find from this link.
Old Versions Browsers for Mac
 
I know old Mac OS 9.1 or less are sometime crash. If you add more extensions that can be mess with its system. iCab browser is possibly good chance to keep up with today's Flash and anothers. I doubt.
 
Mac OS 9.1 is the maximum it can run. Make sure it has at least 256 MB of RAM or more. The 8500 is a pain in ass to upgrade hardware to it. This was one of the 604 PowerPC processor running at 180 MHz. That thing is ancient, LOL.
 
I finally got around to crank it up and found it not working. The lady who gave it to me, got it from someone else. I think she was looking at that little green light on the monitor and decided that it is working. OOOOhhhh well, I can try to trade it and a working Window 95 PC for a working used Mac (hopefully a laptop).

Well, I will let you guys know later on... much later on. Thanks for your help anyhow.
 
I'm forgot to mention that certain of ISP don't support older Mac than G3 Mac.

If you get G4 (dual) or G5 Power Mac, or Mac Pro then you have everything to get from Apple support at last longer, such as Safari, iTune and latest version of apps.
 
Why did you buy an oldest Mac computer? It is a risk for viruses and hackers because it is easy for someone to invade the old OS 9. I hope that you bought it very cheap price or free.

I would absolute never buy used Mac computers unless it is one or perhaps two years old. We must avoid older OS 9 no matter what because all software companies do not make a software for OS 9 and under.

If you decide to get rid of it, you could donate it to a school or a rehab program.

Viruses and hackers could attack OS X with Mac Intel computers because they contain an IBM chip that runs both XP and OS X. But, OS X has better security. OS 9 has no way to protect your personal storage on your hard disk.

Without Intel chip on Mac computers, they cannot be infected except malicious sites. I never head of keyloggers that could be infected on Mac - that's something new for both IBM and Mac users.

It's wise not to open any link from your unknown e-mails because of the phishing websites.
 
webexplorer said:
Why did you buy an oldest Mac computer? It is a risk for viruses and hackers because it is easy for someone to invade the old OS 9. I hope that you bought it very cheap price or free.

I would absolute never buy used Mac computers unless it is one or perhaps two years old. We must avoid older OS 9 no matter what because all software companies do not make a software for OS 9 and under.

If you decide to get rid of it, you could donate it to a school or a rehab program.

Viruses and hackers could attack OS X with Mac Intel computers because they contain an IBM chip that runs both XP and OS X. But, OS X has better security. OS 9 has no way to protect your personal storage on your hard disk.

Without Intel chip on Mac computers, they cannot be infected except malicious sites. I never head of keyloggers that could be infected on Mac - that's something new for both IBM and Mac users.

It's wise not to open any link from your unknown e-mails because of the phishing websites.
Click to expand...

No, it's not true about viruses on Mac OS X.

Go check this wikipedia about Apple Intel transition
Apple Intel transition - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

THe viruses is only affected via OS but not from processor, this processor has nothing with viruses, also Mac OS X don't have viruses problem, unlike Windows does.

PPC (PowerPC) is created by IBM, how does processor interfere with viruses, only viruses are biggest common on Windows but Linux is more rare, well as none on Mac OS X, only OS can cause viruses, depends on codes that built in OS, not from processor.

Intel and IBM isn't same.

If you experience that Mac OS X is slow to you then you are probably have bad application (third party) that can mess up with OS, need be removed or fix it.
 
webexplorer said:
Why did you buy an oldest Mac computer? It is a risk for viruses and hackers because it is easy for someone to invade the old OS 9. I hope that you bought it very cheap price or free.
Click to expand...


I got it free from the freecycling.org because I want to learn about Mac. See... I am learning something from this thread. I don't know about OS and GS and am learning. :)
 
You can get a PowerMac G3 (Blue and white) for around $100. It can run Mac OS X 10.4 (Leopard) as long you give it at least 512 MB of RAM and it will run, but will run slow at times. It will give you opportunity to learn about using Mac while using Mac OS that isn't so old.
 
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