[joel]

The subject line pretty much says it all. What has your experience been with Jaguar on a 600 MHz iBook?
Thanks for all the replies!!!
-joel

[gmiller1977]

Well, I don't run it on an iBook, but I do run it on a 400Mhz BW G3. If you're looking for performance observations, I'll say that it is usable, but not as fast as OS 9.X

[rockinphotog]

I use it, but not a lot. It runs great for my purpose (which is to play dvds and act as a stereo and printing from photoshop) but don't expect to be zipping through the GUI.
As far as web browsing or other non-processor intensive apps, it doesn't matter what machine you have. Your internet connection makes more of a difference. It works great.

[griffman]

I run it quite a bit on a G3/500 iBook, and it works fine. I wouldn't want to make it a primary video editing station, but it's great for web surfing, email, word processing, spreadsheets, and the occasional foray into Photoshop Elements or iMovie for some more intensive work. It won't set any speed records, and the GUI feels slower than OS 9's, but the overall speed and responsiveness isn't bad at all.
-rob.

[Larand]

I've been running Jag on my iBook 600 since it was released, and it works great. I don't do anything terribly taxing on it, mostly word processing, e-mail and web surfing, and for those activities it serves admirably. I've also modified it slightly, using Unsanity's FruitMenu to give back the functionality of OS 9's Apple menu, and iClock to replace the menu bar clock and give me an application switcher. With the Dock replaced, I use TinkerTool to pin the dock up on top behind the menu bar, set to auto-hide, where it stays out of my way. (I do all this because I find that on the iBook's 12 inch screen, the Dock just takes up too much real estate, and even if it's hidden, if you have too much stuff open at once the icons become too small for my liking.)
Jag is the fourth OS I've had on the iBook; it came preloaded with OS 9.2, which I used as my sole OS for a few months until I got curious about OS X, when I installed 10.1. After running 10.1 for a while, I got curious about Linux and installed Yellow Dog Linux 2.3 in a triple-boot setup with OS 9 and X (now upgraded to Jag). I'd say that in a speed contest, OS 9 and YDL are pretty closely matched, with X running third, but I still prefer Jag over the other two because of a) Jag's greater stability compared to OS 9 and b) the ease of use of Jag compared to Linux.
The key to success with Jag (as with any flavor of OS X) is memory. OS X likes memory, a lot of it, and it will run better the more you have installed. My iBook has 384 MB, which is adequate, but it actually runs better on my 500 MHz iMac, which has 576 MB. If you add as much memory to your iBook as you can, I think you'll be very happy running Jag.

[joel]

Thanks for all the replies! I suppose that it would have been more helpful to state what I was going to be using it for in my initial post. I'm trying to find a low cost iBook for college that I can do usual college things (word processing, web, e-mail, IM, etc). I know that it will handle those things just fine. However, I'm also going to be using it to run my fledgling web design company using Studio MX. The key word being "fledgling", I have completed two sites, but there is no guarantee that it will pan out. I'm looking at either a 600 MHz iBook and an 800 MHz iBook. Obviously the 800 will be faster in everything, on account of the larger cache, faster clock, and much improved video subsystem. I'm just wondering if it is worth the extra $300...any comments would be very helpful.
-joel

[Larand]

I'd go for the 800 MHz iBook, for the reasons you stated. If you qualify for financial aid, you might want to see whether or not your college will give you a loan for a computer purchase...that's how I got mine. It gets folded into your other college loans, and you get to pay it back over an extended period at the absurdly low interest rates that student loans are at right now. Just a thought...

[griffman]

Ditto - grab the 800 if you can find the $300 -- it's easily justified by the MX stuff. I played with the demo of MX on my G4/733, and it got a bit slow when building a fairly long HTML page with lots of inline graphics ... so I think you'll want as much CPU as you can afford.
-rob.

[Matt_G]

If you're going to be doing work with graphics, it is almost certainly worth spending the extra $300 for the new computer.

[NYCFarmboy]

I run it on a 500 mhz ibook with 356 megs of ram... works like a charm. I get that colorful spinning rainbow quite a bit.. but..ox2 never crashes on me. 9 did all the time.
9 was snappier..but x is much more reliable.
I also run os x.2 on a orange 300mhz clamshell ibook.. and it works very well on that as well.