On 31.05.2006, at 00:10, Chen Wang wrote: Thanks Wayne. I’ve checked my original CDs. The version is 10.3.7. My understanding is that I will not have chance to install all Jaguar versions and Panther prior to 10.3.7. Perhaps I will try to find a beige G3 for testing.
Keep in mind what Philip wrote, he is right: Most companies (including me) restrict their testing to the last revision of a given system, i.e. 10.3.9 and 10.2.8. And unless you have a very solid reason do to otherwise, you should stick to that. There is no reason for users not to upgrade to the releases.
As to getting a machine: The Beige G3 is a nice "bare minimums" testing machine, and if you are a bit lucky you might even get one for free. It keeps developers humble, and reminds us that not everybody has USB or Firewire, and may still have SCSI hardware. However, I find it is not useful for very much else these days.
On the other end of the scale is the June 2003 PowerMac G5 -- the most powerful machine that still runs Jaguar. It will be a bit more pricey, but on the other hand the machine will run anything from 10.2.8 to 10.4 -- and while I do not have a crystal ball, it may well be supported by the next OS. So, depending on your needs, it may well be worth the investment.
There is a very bright side compared to the windows world: You can easily install several version of Mac OS X on different partitions on one machine, or external drives. This is a lot, a lot easier than keeping different versions of Windows on a test machine and not going insane.
Alex |