iMac G3 and Safari 4.x.x

I have a 2001 Apple iMac G3 Indigo Power PC 450 MHz in the small bedroom for use as a ‘guest computer’ and for telecommuting. My main computer is a PowerBook G4.

Today on the PowerBook I decided to buy a song from iTunes. I got a pop-up window saying that I had to upgrade Safari to use the iTunes Store. I don’t know what version of Safari I had before – 4-point-something – and now I have 4.0.3. (Hm. Seems lower than what I had. Whatever.)

I’ve been slacking on using the iMac for telecommuting. Much easier to listen to the news when I’m on the couch using the PowerBook. So the iMac hadn’t been started in a while. I decided I’d turn it on and try out iTunes. I was informed that I needed to upgrade Safari.

Here’s the thing: I have Safari 3.9.4 on the iMac, and there is no update when I click Software Update. I’ve assumed that no higher revision would work on the G3. But then I thought that iTunes would not be asking me to upgrade to a newer version of Safari unless the G3 processor could run it.

So what’s the deal? If I install the Safari 4.0.3 upgrade, will my iMac work? Or is the new software incompatible with the G3 processor?

For these questions, try Apple’s site. Safari 4.x runs on 10.5.7 or 10.4.11 and on G3, G4, G5 or Intel processors. You don’t say what OS version you have, but I’m guessing it’s earlier than 10.4.11 if you have no updates available.

I am always and forever mixing up the OS and the browser.

The PowerBook has OS X 10.4.11.

The iMac has OS X 10.3.9.

The Safari browser on the PowerBook is as stated.

The Safari browser on the iMac is 1.3.2.

I think what happened is that I was confusing the OS with Safari. I think that I cannot go past 10.3.9 on the G3, but since the browser isn’t the OS I should be able to upgrade it safely.

Whoops. Missed that part.