Tech Tips

Mavericks Forever?

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Happy New Year!

While this isn’t a post related to my PowerMac G5, still sitting close by waiting to be booted in a day or two, I have been intrigued to give Mac OS X Mavericks a try recently on an older Mac mini (2014).

Why Mavericks? The author of the excellently put together Mavericks Forever website makes a case that he simply wasn’t interested in what the modern MacOS experience was providing and found Mavericks a cozy balance between past and future:

  • Speed. Mountain Lion was noticably slower than Mavericks on the same hardware, particularly in memory-constrained environments. Mavericks supports memory compression, and it makes a big difference! 
  • Aesthetics. Mountain Lion borrows many visual elements from early iOS, such as its linen-clad Notification Center and leather-bound Contacts app. I wanted a computer, not an iPhone. The Contacts app in Mavericks is actually closer to the one in Snow Leopard.
  • App Compatibility. Mavericks supports more recent versions of apps like Affinity Photo and VMWare Fusion. iMessage works on Mavericks, as does Zoom. By contrast, I’m not aware of any software that works on Mountain Lion but not Mavericks.

The website provides a detailed process to prepare, install, slim down, and stock your older Mac with everything it needs to get on the net and enjoy a more austere Mac OS X experience.

While it took a small amount of finagling, I decided to take the plunge and turn my old Mac mini with 16GB of RAM and 2TB SSD into a Mavericks server. Instant reaction? It’s fast. Very fast. With a legacy version of Firefox, recently updated, I can browse the web with speed. There is little clutter – it feels good.

What are the downsides? Theoretically, just like our G5s, security holes that have not been patched will remain unpatched. Using older software brings those same risks.

The only major disappointment I encountered is rediscovering that Mavericks will simply not recognize a non-Apple SSD on an old MacBook Air. I forgot that High Sierra was the inflection point that opened up wider SSDs and TRIM support on many laptops with proprietary connections. However, I like this setup enough that I may install the original SSD and see if my MacBook Air running Mavericks can make a small but capable daily driver in 2026.

Anyway, enjoy!

And yes, planning to hit VCFSocal in February.

— Nathan

Potential Cheap Video Card Upgrade

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I’m popping back up to update the site and point to this interesting thread on the MacRumors forum about an option for an improved video card on the cheap for our G5s.

The Radeon X1900 Mac Edition was an expensive aftermarket card in its day and is near the top of the performance level for Power Mac G5s. The FX4500 is probably slightly better as a workstation card, but the X1900 holds its own against the 7800GT. If the method below works for you, it will save you a bundle of cash and give you another option for your aging PowerPC machine.

Read: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/radeon-x1900-g5-mac-edition-cheap-n-easy-flashing-guide.2308103/

Let me know if you have any luck.

— Nathan

Lubuntu-Remix

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If you are looking to extend the life of your G4 or G5 PowerPC machine, open source software is a valuable tool for interesting software packages that can provide better security and breath some life into our aging computers.

One of the Linux variants that is available for PowerPC Macs is Lubuntu-Remix.

You won’t find this one on the official Lubuntu pages, because it is maintained by “wicknix” over on the MacRumors forum. He provides a few different versions, including one that is based off of Ubuntu 16 and works better on G5s. The one I have been utilizing to test some things out is MacBuntu, based off of Ubuntu 12 but with some newer software packages and more modern web browser options. Oh, and a shiny little bit of Mac friendliness like a faux Dock.

As you can see from the screenshot, MacBuntu is functional and provides some nice software options right out of the box (including ArcticFox pictured above). You will need to pay attention to your boot options, as Linux on PowerPC machines often requires making some adjustments to the boot string to make the GPUs function correctly. Without doing so, the system will likely lock up. There are helpful guides in the thread, and wicknix does a great job answering questions from newbies.

In the screenshot above, I am running MacBuntu on an old Mac mini G4. It doesn’t take too long to boot into the desktop, and it is decently responsive. You can browse the web, although webpages are fairly slow to load. Using terminal is of course nice. I also enable a vnc server, so I can remotely log in and tinker with it a bit. Ultimately, it works, and it’s something nice to mess with on a machine that is old and is limited to 1GB of RAM. Keep all that in mind as you tinker with it.

The other challenge is figuring out ways to load the OS in the first place since using a CD/DVD is likely the friendliest solution, but in my case and many others, the old slot loading CD/DVD drives in these PowerPC machines have reached the end of their life. I ended up just pulling mine out, so I was able to get the G4 to boot off a flash drive. It took some trial and error though.

I won’t say that it is as pleasant to use or speedy as a Leopard or Tiger install. It certainly isn’t as fast as OS 9 (which you can install on these old G4s). But since some of the software is newer, it is a nice alternative to throw in the mix and tinker with.

Pro Tip: DNS Ad Blocking

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AdGuard DNS is your friend.

As our old PowerPC machines age, especially our G5s, browsing the internet is still possible because Cameron Kaiser is a gift. Kaiser in turn single-handedly dives into reams of code to keep TenFourFox updated and lively, including new features like “sticky reader mode“.

Ads and tracking stuff definitely slow down web browsing for all PCs, so more and more people have switched to using their browser’s built-in ad blocking systems or plugins like Wipr or uBlock. (Cameron has directly embedded an ad blocker on TenFourFox, which does help pages load quicker.) But the good news is there are alternatives that reduce the rendering load on our old Macs.

DNS level ad blockers are services which block well known ad serving domains and tracking services at the DNS level. So when you punch in BuyMyOldMac.com, some elements are just outright nixed before they even hit your web browser, saving your ancient Mac’s precious processing power. It’s damn fine stuff.

There are a couple of routes to go to set up this kind of ad blocking, using services like AdGuard DNS or NextDNS. (Right now, I’m using AdGuard DNS but I’m considering switching to NextDNS in the future.)

The easiest way is to switch over your router or your computer’s DNS settings with new name servers. AdGuard DNS, for example, has an easy tutorial guide right here. It takes all of 2-3 minutes to see the instant impact this service can have. Many of you probably have already experimented with alternate DNS servers for your home network to get more responsive web browsing as is, as your ISP’s options are often not optimized and more frequently slow.

Another option is to run your own internal server, using software like AdGuard Home or Pihole on a Raspberry Pi. It’s relatively easy to set up, if you have a Raspberry Pi. Once installed and configured, you just point your router’s DNS settings to that internal server, and you get complete control. Check out the AdGuard Home info here (as it is does a little more than Pihole) to get a feel for its many features and how doable it will be for your tech level to get running.

Still, there is a downside to running your own internal server. If it freezes up (as Raspberry Pis are known to do), your whole network will likely be unreachable if you are on a trip and trying to remote in to get a crucial file. I know this from experience.

Let me know if you use AdGuard, Pihole, NextDNS, or another service.

— Nathan

System 7 Extension MEGATHREAD

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First, for those looking for G5 content, it’s coming. I still am working on a review of a Lubuntu Remix that I’ve been tinkering with as an alternative OS. But for now, since I’ve been developing my skills recapping old motherboards and getting some vintage Macs working, that’s the focus.

Which brings me to this MEGATHREAD – what System 7 extensions/control panels do you recommend?

Here are a few that I love to make life a little easier on System 7.

StickyClick is rad. It makes menus sticky like in OS 8 and beyond, and without it, you feel kind of weird getting use out of these old computers.

SpeedDoubler 8 is helpful to speed up file transfers.

RamDoubler could be helpful too, but I’ve never truly trusted it and think it does slow down your ancient Mac a little.

Helium gets rid of that stinking help balloon on the menu bar. Simple and cutthroat.

Option-Tab Program Switcher brings Mac OS X functionality to System 7. So cool.

Thread Manager is helpful for some programs you will use.

Snitch extends the Finder in some interesting ways.

Windows is an interesting little control panel that adds an extra “Windows” menu to the menu bar for every app, giving you some ability to manage your… windows… a bit easier.

That’s enough for now. What do you recommend? Any hard to find ones that make System 6/7/8 better?

— Nathan