iMac mouse question

Factual Questions
1

A friend of mine gave me a purple iMac. I thought that it needed a new OS, but it just has an older one and could use an update. My friend and his wife were getting ready to go to another couple’s house for dinner, so they didn’t have time to look for the mouse. My friend said that I should get a PC mouse instead, since he didn’t like the Apple mouse.

Huh? A PC mouse will work on an iMac? Since they were getting ready to leave, I couldn’t ask them about it.

What’s up? Can I get a PC mouse and use it on an iMac? Will the right-click work?

2

Any USB mouse ought to work on an iMac; to be sure, it’s wise to check the packaging for compatibility. I’m especially fond of Logitech products with their MouseKey software, which allows programmability of several buttons. OS X apparently supports scroll wheels, although Apple still does not produce mouses that have them.

3

Any USB mouse will work with a Macintosh, and if it’s running OS X, the right mouse button and scroll wheel will work automatically. If you have OS 9, however, you’ll need some software, generally provided by the manufacturer, to make the right mouse button and scroll wheel work.

4

Johnny I have several extra mouses from past Macs if you e-mail me an address I’ll send you one.
Mary

5

I like them too, and recently got a wheelmouse for my iMac. However, it came in a box advertising transparent plug and play, without any driver software. The cursor moved nicely as soon as I plugged it in, but the buttons only worked after I downloaded the driver from logitech.com.

6

It’s not OS X. I don’t know what OS it has, but OS 9 doesn’t sound familiar either. I’m not ‘Mac literate’ (yet) so all I know is that the iMac is purple, is said to be slow, and could stand some more RAM. I think it might have PhotoShop on it. If it does, then that will be useful.

It’s a deal! My friend may have found the original mouse by the time I talk to him again, but I could use one of your extras in case he doesn’t. :slight_smile:

7

Could the OS be Jaguar or Panther? These are both recent versions of OSX. It’s possible that it is still running System 8, but that’s a pretty old OS, at least 5 years if I’m not mistaken.

Anyway, if you’re used to multiple button mice, you probably won’t like the original iMac mouse even if your friend can find it. It is often called the “hockey puck” because it is circular, and takes some getting used to, at the very least.

8

Try it before you replace it.

Lots of people, such as myself, liked the iMac “hockey puck” mouse. It isn’t as universally despised as some people think.

9

Johnny LA: You’ve probably got OS 8.6 or OS 9. Either should support a two-button mouse (with downloaded drivers). I used an iMac with OS 8.6 and then OS 9 and I never used the one-button mouse on either. Got a lot of Photoshop work done too. :wink:

To find out what OS it is running, click the top left of the screen, to the Apple logo, and choose “About this Computer.” A windows will pop up, telling you which OS the Mac is running, and also tell you how much RAM you have (actual vs. virtual).

10

If somebody gave him a purple imac, I doubt it’s on Jaguar or Panther! It’s possible, but not likely.
Yosemite is right, he probably has OS 8.6 or OS 9.

Here’s some info to start with:
http://apple.weblogsinc.com/entry/9142716625183572/

If you have any specific questions, feel free to e-mail me. My husband could easily be a ‘mac genius’ as he has been working on them since the beginning.

11

I started up the iMac tonight. It’s running on 8.6.

So… What now? There doesn’t seem to be anything on it. I tried opening something with ‘script’ in the name (looked like a word processing program – Survivor was starting, so I didn’t spend a lot of time) and it wouldn’t open because some file or another wasn’t on the startup disc. (I assume that’s a virtual disc, and not a CD-ROM.) I tried opening Explorer, though the machine is not connected, and it failed for the same reason.

12

Easiest thing to do would be to wipe it and install a nice, fresh copy of Panther (MacOS X 10.3) on it. All the fun of a modern operating system and a bevy of bundled apps that actually let you do something.

Of course, that depends on whether you want to spend $$$ for a copy of the OS (I see someone is selling a used copy on Amazon for $70), and how much RAM you’ve got. If you have 256MB or less, you definitely need to goose that a tad, too…

On the other hand, if you just want to explore what you have now, open the hard drive on the desktop, then open the folder called “Applications.” Assuming the last user didn’t move things around, whatever apps the iMac has should all be in there.

13

Before you install Panther, you need to know how much RAM you have.

To find out about your RAM, once again go to the top left corner (where the Apple icon is, right at the top) and click and click on “About this computer.” Right under the information about what OS you are running, it should list actual memory (and it’ll also list virtual memory, which isn’t what you want to know right now). If you’ve got this model of iMac, for instance, you can only go up to a max of 256 megs, and that’s really the minimum for OS X. It’ll run, but pokey. Plus, you’d have to pay to have the RAM upgraded. For the cost of upgrading the RAM (parts and labor, unless you want to crack open the case yourself), you could almost buy a used Blue and White (Code Name: Yosemite :D) G3 tower on eBay, I think.

Frankly, unless you have enough RAM, I think you’d be better off using OS 9.1 or OS 9.2. You’ll run pretty snappy in OS 9.

To find out how much hard drive you have, click (highlight) the “Macintosh HD” icon (or whatever it’s called—it’ll probably be a square disk-like icon) and go to “File >> Get Info” (or better yet, press the Apple key + i). That will tell you how much hard drive you’ve got total, and how much free space you’ve got.

There’s a lot you can get done on a Mac running OS 9. I know there’s an older version of Final Cut Pro available for it, of course versions of Photoshop, plenty of Internet software, Microsoft Office, etc. I’m sure some of us Mac Dopers can help you with obtaining Classic freeware or shareware, or else pass along some Classic software that we don’t use anymore since porting over to OS X.

To further identify your particular model of iMac, check out this page. Also, check out Apple Discussions. They are a very friendly bunch of folks there. I’ve been seeing a big influx of first-time Mac people (coming from all-PC) in the Mac Mini area, and they all comment about how helpful and welcoming everyone is.