The Best of Low End Mac The Best of Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger Last revised 2012.08.29 was released on April 29, 2005, went through 12 revisions before it was replaced by on October 26, 2007 - two-and-a-half years (almost 30 months to the day) later. Many consider Tiger a high point because of the wide range of hardware it supports and its length of time on the market, which we will probably never see matched with Apple moving toward an annual update cycle. Tiger would become the first version of OS X to support Intel Macs when they began to ship in January 2006. The PowerPC and Intel versions of Tiger were maintained in parallel, and you can't boot a Mac from a version of Tiger made for the other hardware architecture. Because most Intel Mac users have since moved on to OS X 10.5 and beyond, we focus primarily on the PowerPC version of Tiger on this page. The best reasons for using Tiger are its support for Classic Mode, which allows you to run Mac OS 9.2.2 within OS X, providing access to a wide range of vintage software (OS X 10.5 Leopard dropped support for Classic Mode) and because your Mac - slower G4s and any G3s - cannot run anything newer. As of mid 2012, Apple no longer provides security updates, yet some antivirus apps are still available for Tiger.

A few months ago, covered on a Nexus 5, and if they're good enough for his Android phone, they're good enough for our desktops.

Jul 2, 2017 - There have not been many updates here lately. Truth to be told, I haven't used Tiger much lately. Due to work requirements, I had to fiddle.

Flash is no longer being updated for PowerPC Macs, but there's a that lets Flash 10 run most Flash 11 apps. Browsers are for the most part getting left behind, but remains in development, bringing the power of Firefox 10 to PowerPC Macs.

Apple's official hardware requirements for Tiger are a G3 CPU, 256 MB of system memory, 3 GB of available hard drive space, an optical drive that supports DVDs, and a built-in FireWire port, although it can be run on the 350 MHz iMac, which does not have FireWire. We strongly recommend more than 256 MB of memory - at least 512 MB if your Mac supports it. Buying and Installing Tiger • •, Adam Rosen, Adam's Apple, 2009.06.10.

Mac OS X 10.4 uses less memory than Leopard, supports Classic Mode on PowerPC Macs, and, unlike Leopard, is supported on G3 Macs. • You can install Tiger on Macs without DVD-compatible optical drives. See and for details. •, Joe Rivera, Mac Fallout Shelter, 2006.01.09. Although Apple doesn't support it, you can install Tiger on the Lombard PowerBook and many other unsupported Macs. •, Simon Royal, Mac Spectrum, 2011.08.31. Although Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger can run on almost every G3 Mac, the installer prevents installation on some models.

How to overcome that. •, Simon Royal, Mac Spectrum, 2009.04.15. Increasing memory can make your old Mac faster and make you more productive, but it probably won't improve resale value by the amount you spend. •, Simon Royal, Mac Spectrum, 2009.01.15. With dual-core Intel CPUs running beyond 2 GHz, is any G4 Mac a practical choice? •, Dan Knight and Bill Brown, Mac Daniel, 2007.12.07.

Tips on hard drives, memory, WiFi, and getting Mac OS X 10.4 installed on G3 iMacs and other older G3 Macs. Tiger Overview •, Dan Bashur, Apple, Tech, and Gaming, 2012.02.20. Mac OS X 10.4 and 10.6 stand apart by providing lots of support for older Macs and older Mac software. •, Simon Royal, Mac Spectrum, 2012.04.27. In many ways, OS X 10.4 Tiger was Apple's best yet, supporting a wide range of hardware and software. •, Simon Royal, Mac Spectrum, 2010.03.11.

For writing and basic Internet access, a 500 MHz G3 provides sufficient power and Tiger provides fairly up-to-date software. •, Simon Royal, Mac Spectrum, 2008.09.22. Two great versions of Mac OS X, but unless your Mac is well above the minimum spec for Leopard and has lots of RAM, stick with Tiger. •, Charles Moore, Miscellaneous Ramblings, 2007.01.22. Today's Intel-based Macs are great with Tiger, but how old a Mac can you use and still find satisfactory performance?