It’s a question I’m frequently being asked around the net: how does Mac OS X Leopard run on a PowerBook G4? I’ll give my take here and hopefully it’ll help anyone else wondering the same thing.

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The PowerBook is an additional machine to my iMac and as such I’m not running anything hugely intensive on this. The apps I have open on the PowerBook on a daily basis are Mail, iCal, Camino (sometimes Firefox alongside it for sites that don’t play well with Camino), Twitterrific and often iTunes or DVD player. I have also given a few demos of iDVD on the PowerBook and whilst it lags a little compared to the iMac, it’s not in any way unacceptable. I’m actually surprised at how smooth this does run given it’s around 5 years old with 1GB RAM and 867MHz. So, Apple is spot on with their recommended system specs for Leopard: Mac computer with an Intel, PowerPC G5, or PowerPC G4 (867MHz or faster) processor.

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It’s a lovely machine and I’m really enjoying using it. I mostly use it at the recording studio (my other half’s) a few times a week when I do stuff there and of course the comfiest of all, bed browsing. I initially bought the iPod touch for bed browsing as to be honest I’m happier at my desk (with the iMac) than I am using a computer elsewhere in the house, which is why I opted for the iMac over a portable machine when I was upgrading late last year. The iPod touch was the perfect solution for occasional net browsing away from the desk, although that’s felt somewhat pushed out since the PowerBook arrived. The battery life is also pretty good on the PowerBook. I haven’t really caculated the time exactly, but I’d say it does around 2 hours.