Im looking to be rid of an old Dual-2Ghz G5 soonish (well, by "soonish",i mean, when the next Pro Refresh hits) and my aunt is looking into picking it up from me for an OK price if i can get windows working on it.
She only needs windows working on it for some accounting software she uses - so even slow emulation isnt really a problem, as they are pretty low-horsepower apps - i just dont even know what the options are anymore for a G5 doing windows emulation.
anyone got any ideas?
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WIndows on a G5
Started by Tetsuya, Jul 14 2010 04:47 PM
12 replies to this topic
#3
Frost
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Posted 14 July 2010 - 05:56 PM
Pick up a copy of Virtual PC 7 with XP off eBay or wherever else you can locate it. I use that on my Quad. Can't exactly run 3D games, but everything short of that works fine.
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Eric5h5:
When there's a multiplayer version, I'm going to be on Frost's team. Well, except he doesn't seem to actually need a team...I mean, what's the point? "Hey look, it's Frost and His Merry Gang of Useless Hangers-On!" Or something.
When there's a multiplayer version, I'm going to be on Frost's team. Well, except he doesn't seem to actually need a team...I mean, what's the point? "Hey look, it's Frost and His Merry Gang of Useless Hangers-On!" Or something.
#4
Hansi
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Posted 15 July 2010 - 03:12 AM
Q is free and works on par with VPC.
#5
Tetsuya
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Posted 15 July 2010 - 07:42 PM
Hansi, on 15 July 2010 - 03:12 AM, said:
Q is free and works on par with VPC.
Q says it only works with Intel Macs; i need this to run on a G5. Unless there is a version im missing that supports G5s?
#6
Sneaky Snake
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Posted 15 July 2010 - 08:34 PM
Frost, on 14 July 2010 - 05:56 PM, said:
Pick up a copy of Virtual PC 7 with XP off eBay or wherever else you can locate it. I use that on my Quad. Can't exactly run 3D games, but everything short of that works fine.
Yea, thats your best option. I ran VPC7 on my old G5 tower (same as yours) back in the day, it should be fast enough for that accounting software
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#7
Hansi
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Posted 16 July 2010 - 02:26 AM
Tetsuya, on 15 July 2010 - 07:42 PM, said:
Q says it only works with Intel Macs; i need this to run on a G5. Unless there is a version im missing that supports G5s?
Well it started out on PPC and the svn branching mentions a fix for ppc leopard so maybe it's just broken in the current version but an older version might work?
#8
dimmer10
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Posted 04 September 2010 - 11:46 PM
Virtual PC is probably the best option, if you need a single box solution. If her use of the Accounting application is the primary use of the system for her though, it might be a little rough.
One alternative that might work would be to retain her current PC just for the accounting app, and access that using VNC client/server apps. These apps are free, and with an Ethernet connection between the two systems, she'd get performance much the same as she has now.
But all of this sounds like quite a bit of effort for what won't be an especially useful solution. You could probably sell the G5 for the same price as a MacMini, which would be a much better platform going forward: various emulation options available, supported by current and future OS updates. Way faster for just about any task you throw at it. But there are some folks who want/need PowerPC systems, and they'll pay a fair price for a good G5 system.
Good luck with it whatever you end up doing.
One alternative that might work would be to retain her current PC just for the accounting app, and access that using VNC client/server apps. These apps are free, and with an Ethernet connection between the two systems, she'd get performance much the same as she has now.
But all of this sounds like quite a bit of effort for what won't be an especially useful solution. You could probably sell the G5 for the same price as a MacMini, which would be a much better platform going forward: various emulation options available, supported by current and future OS updates. Way faster for just about any task you throw at it. But there are some folks who want/need PowerPC systems, and they'll pay a fair price for a good G5 system.
Good luck with it whatever you end up doing.
#9
dimmer10
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Posted 05 September 2010 - 07:28 PM
Hmm, OK, so eBay seems to think your G5 is worth between $160 and $125 -- so I may have been outdated in my suggestions.
#10
Eric5h5
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Posted 05 September 2010 - 09:30 PM
dimmer10, on 05 September 2010 - 07:28 PM, said:
Hmm, OK, so eBay seems to think your G5 is worth between $160 and $125 -- so I may have been outdated in my suggestions.
They go for up to $1500 here. eBay prices usually are way low right up until a few minutes before the auction ends; the "buy it now" prices seem to average about $500-$600 from a quick look.
--Eric
#11
Forrest
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Posted 06 September 2010 - 09:45 AM
Hansi, on 16 July 2010 - 02:26 AM, said:
Well it started out on PPC and the svn branching mentions a fix for ppc leopard so maybe it's just broken in the current version but an older version might work?
There is an old version of Q that runs on the PowerPC - though it hasn't been updated since 2007. You can get it here http://www.kju-app.org/ although the wiki and forums aren't working. Q has one big limitation IMHO - USB was never functional with any PowerMac version of Q. There was a workaround for printing that was discussed in the (now broken) Q forums, but it wasn't very useable in my opinion. Also it was often mentioned in the Q forums that any version of Windows newer than Windows 98 was very, very slow under Q. Windows XP was not recommended.
VirtualPC 7 is more functional and printing is directly supported.
#12
dimmer10
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Posted 06 September 2010 - 05:46 PM
Eric5h5, on 05 September 2010 - 09:30 PM, said:
They go for up to $1500 here. eBay prices usually are way low right up until a few minutes before the auction ends; the "buy it now" prices seem to average about $500-$600 from a quick look.
--Eric
--Eric
Thanks for that Eric: I was surprised by the "low" eBay prices, but didn't have time to check further. So I guess my original point still stands...
#13
Tetsuya
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Posted 09 September 2010 - 08:22 AM
Virtual PC worked fine; i had to roll the G5 back to OS X 10.4, though, so that it could see the CD drive and thereby get it to install windows.
It works fine for what she needs, and everything got up and running pretty quick.
It works fine for what she needs, and everything got up and running pretty quick.
