[X4U] Best System Version for Old iMac

[Zane H. Healy]

>A friend with an old 400/128 G3 slot-loading iMac (Bondi, I think -- 
>second- or third-generation) has been running OS 9.1. She is a light 
>user, basically email, web, Word, and a bridge game she'd probably 
>have to run in Classic if she upgraded. She just purchased a printer 
>(HP 8500) that has no Classic driver, and is trying to decide 
>whether to return the printer or update her system and software.
>
>With a pretty basic OS X installation, what kind of performance 
>might she expect on that computer (compared to running native in 
>OS9), and which OS level would offer the best performance? I'm sure 
>she'd do well to have a more modern browser to work with, but 
>outside of that, she'd probably opt for not having to learn new 
>tricks.

Is there an earlier model of the printer?  If so, what happens if you 
use its driver?  Believe it or not, this might work, I support a lot 
of printers at work, though they're B&W LaserJets, rather than 
Colour, and we're using the older model's drivers, rather than the 
new ones (that way we don't have to get the new drivers qualified for 
our Windows build).  I can't guarantee the same trick will work on 
Mac OS 9.1, but it's certainly worth a try!

		Zane


-- 
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| Zane H. Healy                    | UNIX Systems Administrator |
| healyzh at aracnet.com (primary)    | OpenVMS Enthusiast         |
|                                  | Classic Computer Collector |
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