Best OS for Portable 5120?

[pocketscience]

I had 6.0.8 on my 5120 and it was all good, except a few apps that wanted 7.x

So upgraded to 7.1 last night and it's horribly slow - still usable, but compared to 6.0.8 it's a pig.

Has anyone experimented with the "best" OS for the Portable?


Cheers,

 

[Patrick]

i think you answered it with 6 being the best.

If you have at least 4MB of ram on the portable. system 7 should be .. usable. How much memory do you have? (i think technically system 7 should be happy with 2.5)

 

[Volvo242GT]

On a 68000-based machine, System 6 is the way to go. 7 is just too pokey, even on those machines with the 16 MHz 68000 chip (Portable series, and PB100). I actually downgraded my previous SE from 7.1 to 6.0.8. Yes, 7.1 did run under 2.5MB of RAM, even though, on a 68000 machine, Apple recommends 4MB.

So, I'd leave it at 6.0.8, then, for those programs that require 7, run them on a newer machine. If you need something portable, then use something like a PB 140.

 

[pocketscience]

RAM isn't an issue - I currently have 4MB in it, but I have I believe the full collection of available cards. I was actually trying to get AirTalk working on it and was having zero luck with 6.0.8 so thought I'd try 7.1 to see if that helped. It didn't. Guess I'll go back to 6.0.8, and return to sneakerNet for file transfers..

Cheers,

 

[Volvo242GT]

^Ah, ok. Maybe a Mac that can use 7.5 or 7.6 without being too slow would work as a bridge for AirTalk, allowing your Portable and other 68000 Macs to connect via LocalTalk. Open Transport seems to be a bit more reliable for networking purposes than the older MacTCP technology.

 

[ScutBoy]

Agreed - the difference between 6 and 7 on the Portable is noticeable, even if you have "enough" RAM.