What applications are included in OS 10.3.9?

[scott]

I just ordered a cheap, out-of-date refurbed iBook for personal work (only $149--I think that's about 17p).

It's supposed to come with 10.3.9, but no other software. For the life of me, I can't figure out what applications are included in 10.3.9--is AppleWorks (or something) included? Is there a list anywhere online? I mainly need the computer for word processing and note-taking, maybe some list/minor database stuff to just keep of various things, and occasional web-based e-mail. But it'd be nice to know what's included, and what I should try to track down.

[geraldc]

Just download Staroffice for free, and it should handle all your needs.

[cometworm]

An iBook that came with 10.3 will come with AppleWorks (rubbish) but no other useful office-type apps. Get Staroffice (as above) or NeoOffice, which is a Mac port of OO.

[tiermat]

Unless the iBook has a meaty processor, avoid NeoOffice as it is Java based and eats memory and processor like it's going out of fashion.  Use OpenOffice or Star instead.

[cometworm]

To run OpenOffice on 10.3.9 you have to use X11, which I found to be a pain in the neck. Neo is mostly written in C++ and only a tiny bit in Java, so should run fine.

See here for explanation:
http://neowiki.neooffice.org/index.php/NeoOffice_and_Aqua

FWIW I use iWork now as it's a much, much better suite than either OO or MS Office ;-)

[scott]

Thanks, everybody.

StarOffice seems to be free in beta but require 10.4 or higher. The previous version doesn't seem to be freeware. Still, something that ran fairly smoothly and fast would be nice.

I'm not sure why this iBook has 10.3, since it's old enough to be an OS 9 machine (I think)--it's a G3/500 MHz.

I also ordered a combo drive, since this one just has a CD drive, but then found out that I have to pretty much disassemble the whole thing to switch the drives....*that* should keep me busy...

[SteveC]

Thanks, everybody.

I'm not sure why this iBook has 10.3, since it's old enough to be an OS 9 machine (I think)--it's a G3/500 MHz.

My 500MHz G3 iMac (blue and curvy) runs 10.4 quite happily.  It did come with 9.x on it, but I've quite happily upgraded it to 10.2, then 10.4.  It's only not the main machine because the screen's dying (and the new 20 inch one is just a bit quicker.  The old one sits in the corner being a mail server now.

S

[scott]

Well, that's good to know. I don't think I'll be taxing this machine too much, with just word processing, small database, and e-mail. But it'll be really nice to have a computer to take around with me--this'll be my first laptop.

[bikenerd]

Abiword works well as a wordprocessor.
Mac OS X has MySQL built in, if this'll do as a database.  It's quite nerdy to set up and run queries on, but you might be able to get a graphical client for it.