I just want to verify some facts.
I inherited a PM8600 from the school I teach at. It's been upgraded, with FireWire, USB, an internal ZIP and a G4 Crescendo. I'd like to run Panther on it, but the Sonnet page says I need to spend $30 to get their Sonnet PCI X Installer.
Is this the straight dope?
Hehe, that rhymed, kinda. Anyway, check out my How-to here:
http://www.applefritter.com/node/view/2852
It's for an upgraded Beige, not an 8600, but the same principles should apply. Let me know if there are any problems/hang-ups or successes so I can update the How-to.
I read about this free program called XPostFacto, that a allows you to install OS X on forbidden Macs, just download it at http://eshop.macsales.com/OSXCenter. I don't know how well it works,or if it works at all. The article warns, "There are a few glithces along the way: for example, you can't reboot into OS 9.2, but you can keep OS 9.1 on a separate partition or drive, but you can use Classic. Even so, there's no reason why you shouldn't be able to enjoy Mac OS X and all the cool programs :macos:, just don't call Apple for Tech support." So, thats what I know.
Xpostfacto works very well. Intalling with a G3 or G4 upgrade is very easy as you can install 10.2 or 10.3 right away. Just remember to use a L2 cache enabler when you have everyting up and running (described in the info on the Xpostfacto)
make sure that you have big enough HD and RAM. A 2 GB is possible to use but a 4 GB or bigger is a better. With only say 128 MB RAM OS X is terrible 192 and upwards helps.
Due to the very slow motherboard graphics it will feel much slower than a native G4 at the same CPU speed, but for things like Distributed Folding and such things it will work as fast
I even installed X on a 7500 with a 200 Mhz 604E card, slow but usable!
Just an FYI, my article that I linked to above is a How-to for using XPostFacto and the various L2 enablers.