Can you copy PowerPC apps to Intel ?
 

This may be unrelated, but I am upgrading from G5 Quad w/OS Tiger to Intel (probably Snow Leopard). Can you simply format a drive, install Snow Leopard, and then copy your applications etc to the new drive, or do you need to use installers?

Is Snow Leopard the same structure as Tiger, with library, preferences folders etc?

If you replace your G5 with an Intel Mac that has Snow Leopard installed, then you don't need to figure out where everything goes.
Let your Mac decide what needs to be copied from the old system. That's what the Migration assistant is designed to do.
When you first start your new Mac, you will see one of the first few screens ask if you want to transfer files and apps from another Mac - so just follow the on-screen directions. You will need a Firewire cable to connect the two Macs.

Hello,

i have a powerpc mac (imac g4 flat panel) and i would like to boot from a usb stick on it to reinstall mac os x leopard (10.5).

i know i have to do something in the open firmware but this part of the job i know how to do it. i wondered if i have to do a special format for the usb key or just copy the files from the iso to the usb stick.

i'll do it from a pc. is that possible ? do i have to do something special or just copy the files ?

You can use the migration assistant built into the Mac OS setup assistant to migrate from an old mac. It will instruct you in putting your old mac into target disk mode, and plugging the two in via firewire. You can choose whether to migrate just the user folder, or the applications, and settings as well.

This typically works well, as long as your old drive doesn't have formatting, permissions, or directory issues. It is recommended that you run Disk Utility's first aid: repair permissions, and repair disk. Also, if you have a copy of Disk Warrior, run this, as it will fix any directory issues that the OS uses to find files. Run both of these on the old computer's drive before attempting to use Migration Assistant, and the process will generally go smoother.

The issue with Snow Leopard (which is understandable, IMHO), is that they've finally cut support for some seriously old libraries. Which means, that you'll have to download Rosetta when prompted by the OS if you try to open an old third party application. The main OS applications are typically replaced by their snow leopard version if their is one. Rosetta tries to run the older applications, acting as a translator for the old libraries required for the software to run.

If you figure that they coded an operating system to run on two different processor types, using different machine languages (RISC on PPC, and SISC on Intel) for both 10.4, and 10.5... it is understandable that they're finally cutting support for ancient software libraries. During the same time period, Microsoft came out with Vista... *crickets chirping*

Any software developer using Apple's Xcode developer tools (and all / any major programmers should have been at least aware of this) was prompted to start converting their applications to use Cocoa (Objective C) libraries, instead of Carbon (the old OS9 throwback libraries, designed for minimal software rewriting as of Mac OS 10.0, Cheetah). They haven't officially cut support for a lot of that stuff until 10.6... 7 operating systems later. They gave application developers plenty of time to convert. A lot of the major ones didn't because they tend to want to do the minimal amount of rewriting, to make the most profit. Apple made it pretty clear that they would eventually cut support for the OS 9 libraries.

Snow Leopard was a bridge, to provide the end users some functionality while the developers worked on updating the code they should have updated years ago. For those end users using unsupported, unmaintained applications, it gives them time to find alternatives and incorporate them into their workflow.

Lion finally cut support for Rosetta, thus cutting support for 11 year old operating system libraries. I can't say I wish it hadn't happened. If I was actively developing software, I would have updated it long ago. If I was using software that hadn't been updated in that long, I would make sure to find newer equivalents. I am currently running Adobe CS3 in Lion, no problems... so it's not like you have to buy the current version of all software.

If Apple hadn't forced the whole system to change, we would still be running some updated version of OS 9. Sorry, but no thanks. I love OS X, and it really came into itself in 10.3. I love that we have a terminal, and that developers have more reasons to develop for the Mac. I wish some developers that were avid Mac OS Classic developers were still persevering with their efforts in OS X.

I think it's likely that most starting now will be able to continue into the future, as the market has grown. Hopefully, it will only continue, as more web standards take over and more day-to-day functions are performed through a browser. The less people are forced to use Windows, the better. If anyone has a truly rebellious spirit and doesn't wish to use a commercial OS, I heartily recommend researching the many different flavors (distros) of Linux. It has most of the benefits of a mac, without the hardware / license limitations.

Hope someone comes out with a step by step of this. From what I understand, Slax almost does the trick, but the boot script you have to use to make it bootable after unpacking the tar ball to a USB won't run in Lion. :/ Not sure if it will boot a mac after making it bootable, because you would have to hold down option to invoke the apple boot loader, then run the linux boot loader off the USB... will post if I am successful.