Battery performance with age

[Ruffin Bailey]

I've got an iBook 500 and the battery that used to give me 4-5 hours of use is starting to drop to under 2.

That got me wondering how long a typical iBook battery will last, what experiences others have had, and if there's a preferred replacement battery for the G3 iceBook models.  

I've also started using the iBook almost exclusively in OS 9, having used it in OS X up until I purchased a 1 GHz iMac -- my totally unscientific study with my single iBook seems to suggest OS X might do a bit better battery management, but I'm suspcicious that's a result of using it in X more when the battery was younger and me not being able to shake that experience.  Guess I should try and figure out some fair way to test the two against each other.

Anyhow, any input on what others have experienced would be awfully interesting.

Ruffin Bailey