you guys dont need to tell me that osX is so much better than os9. what i do need is help in trying to get all my equipment to work in an osX enviroment. my brother and i have had our t-shirt and poster thing going for awhile now, and i had to go from osX to os9 because my stuff wouldnt work properly or at all. but osX has adobe cs and all kinds of stuff that just performs better for screenprinting and graphic whatnots. my brother has an iMac DV upgaded to a G4 550mHz. all his stuff works perfectly, but he just does the illustration and prepping. i have to do the printing. there is the issue. keep in mind i want to do this with a cost total of twenty dolla or less (that is my computer budget for the next few months). so this is what i need inorder to convert to osX:
*my comp: (g3 mobo)G4 500mHz/384mb/20gb/cd-rw/zip/floppy/aio case (painted to look like indigo iMac)
1. floppy; this is mostly so i can convert my wife, but i could just buy a usb floppy. i dont need floppy, but without floppy, i have an empty slot on my aio case. i hate that. what could i do with that slot?
2. apple onescanner greyscale: it is scsi and will not work under osX. i need this piece. is there other software to work with it? could i use a scsi to usb adaptor to make it work? i can not get rid of this because i have not found a scanner for less than twenty. plus i had to argue with my wife in order to even get it. it was during a time i was collecting way too much computer stuff. so if i get rid of it, she will hate me and no longer touch my pen15. or is there a way to make it work in classic?
3. personal laswriter 300: i know it is non-postscript, but i love it and there is nothing wrong with it. i will gladly take a 320 on donation. is there a hack for this, or is this the sertial printer holy grail? can it work in classic?
4. epson 3000: it works under osX, but the printer just doesnt perform like it does under os9. in X it takes at least an hour to print a full 16x20 poster, where in 9 it only takes 20min. plus all the colours are way too light. i think this is the cups driver fault. i tried to find another driver, but no luck. is there a way around this?
keep in mind that these are the only things holding me back, and i will gladly take donations or pay very little for replacements. but i would really love to find new and better drivers or adaptors to make it all work. if you have something that will make it work but you want money, that i dont have, i will barter art or graphic design. rummelx2.com has some samples. i will paint or design my way to osX. and i would love to be able to get all this to work with out classic. but if this cannot be done at all, then i will need to sell some osX discs. i have received many over the years ( for free ). most of what i own has been given to me mostly out of pitty, or i get it free when no one bought it at my church's yard sales. but i have $20, if that helps in any way.
any help will be greatly appreciated.
peace and love
ande
i forgot to mention the radeon 9200 video card with a 17" mon attatched. so when i go osX it has to be panther(xpostfacto, i have done it before)). 10.2.8 is the earliest that will take the vid card, but i have had no luck getting 10.2.8 to actually work on a g3AIO.
peac and love
ande
My rarely-humble-opinion is that you should stick with what works.
OS 9 works for you, and most importantly, works with all your equipment. You don't want to add aggravation and incompatibilities to your business, do you?
Run X on a spare machine, or save up until you can get all your peripherals up to par (and I don't think you'll ever find an OS X driver for your onescanner, unfortunately).
1. Even a used USB floppy will likely set you back $20 or more just by itself, blowing your entire "budget";
2. SCSI to USB adapters are finicky under OS X and they only work with storage devices, not with scanners.
3. You can't print to a serial printer under OS X (at least AFAIK).
4. If Epson has no driver for this printer, then you're stuck with CUPS. It's difficult to troubleshoot your slow printing problem without more details.
The only practical way to move to OS X would be to get a new scanner and laser printer. Given the poor quality (by today's standards) of your current scanner and laser, you might be able to get one of those inexpensive Brother laser-based all-in-one units that sometimes go for $200 or so, and use the scanning and printing features of that.
Or you could get one of those cheap, under $100-after-rebate Samsung or Brother lasers, and a $50 Canon USB scanner, and be good to go that way.
But no matter what, you're still going to be stuck with slow printing on your large-format inkjet, and you're going to have to drop at least $150-$200 on new peripherals. No escaping that.
Matt
A little over a year ago I added a USB board to a PPC 8500 motherboard. Worked well and it is the same card that goes in a generic PC (cost about $5.00 on eBay).
I like to collect older computer equipment and go looking at all sorts of places for parts. Goodwill and The Salvation Army have policies in place not to take computers (ID theft liability), but other thrift stores carry all sorts of stuff including parts. Fairly modern, up to date printers are pretty common to thses store as people fine it cheaper to buy a new unit than continue to support it. This includes laser printers.
That being said, you need these machines to run your business and there comes a point where the fixes outweigh the benefits. Why don't you purchase a complete, up to date system that will keep your business running for the next 5 years? Buy the system off the Apple website, with applecare, and then depreciate the computer either this tax year or over 3 years ( I would that the line item). I think that would be more cost effective than trying to continue to backfit technology into your AIO.
you CAN print to a serial printer from OS X... I've done this with the StyleWriter II.
this has been at macosxhints for a good while
I've been upset that no one at fritter (face it, there is a lot of talent here) has taken it upon themselves to get a serial apple laser to work. I certainly don't know enough, but just enough to follow instructions.
Anyway, not a reason to switch, just a clarification.
thx, I have been needing a printer for my AIO under 10.3 Now I know that I can use my StyleWriter II again