Earlier today, I restored a Macbook 4,1 I received alongside my iMac G3 that had a completely wiped hard drive. At first, I wasn't certain what exactly the model was, but upon booting into OS X for the first time (and after the headache of setting up a bootable installation disk on my usb flash drive) I was able to check the system information and find out it's a 4,1 with 2.4GHz and 2GB of RAM from around early 2008. I have another Macbook from a similar time period I can swap the RAM with to bump this one up to 3 or 4GB (the other one i have is, if i recall correctly, a mid or late 2007 model and regardless, it's been having some odd power issues).

From what i remember, the current state of software available on 10.7 is not ideal, being in a weird state between late PowerPC that receives a good amount of support but without the Rosetta support to attempt to run them, and before any of the longest-lasting compatibility requirements for most software running on Intel Macs today. Because of this, I'm considering upgrading it to 10.8 Mountain Lion, but I also feel like in the unlikely off chance (again, very unlikely, given this computer both needs a nice cleaning and also some level of retrobrite) I give this away to someone or use it in a trade with someone I don't want to leave them "trapped" with an operating system they won't like. I'm also admittedly somewhat worried I won't end up liking Mountain Lion compared to Lion, and I don't want to kick myself in the future for switching OS to something less ideal.

With that in mind, which version of OS X do u prefer more? I'd be very interested to hear.

I have SL, Lion and ElementaryOS on my MacBook.

I have Snow Leopard on my 4,1 for sentimental reasons :cool: . I also dual-boot to 64-bit Ubuntu.

I think 10.7.5 is the latest release officially supported (though you may be able to finesse something later).

I have upgraded to 4GB of RAM (though 6GB may work) and a 250GB SATA SSD.

>> speakers said:

I have Snow Leopard on my 4,1 for sentimental reasons . I also dual-boot to 64-bit Ubuntu. I think 10.7.5 is the latest release officially supported (though you may be able to finesse something later). I have upgraded to 4GB of RAM (though 6GB may work) and a 250GB SATA SSD. Click to expand...

Eos is built on Ubuntu. I am newer to Eos but like it due to its similarity to macos. I have used Ubuntu on some other C2D 08 & 09 macbooks I have with great success and DD it on an A1078 09 MBP. Interestingly, Eos was not as easy an install requiring some command line work as Ubuntu which was as easy & straight forward an install as macos is but Ubuntu did not install with supported accellerated GPU and wifi which I had to negotiate over ethernet where as Eos installed these components flawlessly and on under-spec, older 07 macbook 4,1 hardware.

One peculiarity of Eos is that out of the gate it came with numlock enabled rendering the right side of my kb useless. Ubuntu I can go to KB preferences and disable numlock but this is not an option on Eos, so I had to change capslock to numlock function until I was able to install numlockx via terminal. Anyways, all is well now and my Eos install is living happily alongside Lion and Snowleopard. I still think Lion is my fav out of the three but I am very happy so far with Eos and can see this becoming a common OS across my early Intel and win10/11 x86 boxes. I bet it absolutely slays/crushes it on beefier spec boxes.

10.7.5 is the latest version that Intel machines with the Intel Crestline (GMA X3100) onboard graphics chip, like yours, can run. I would personally downgrade to 10.6.8 on it. Mainly because it makes a decent machine that can run both Intel and PPC programs. I used to have exactly the same machine. Was my first Intel Mac. What I would do is combine your 2007 A1181 with your 2008 A1181, then find a later MacBook or MBP that can run at least 10.9.5. Mavericks is about the minimum OS X version you can run and still do most things on the internet. My current daily driver is a late 2011 A1286 that usually runs 10.9.5, but can dual boot into 10.13.6 for phone synching purposes.

>> Volvo242GT said:

10.7.5 is the latest version that Intel machines with the Intel Crestline (GMA X3100) onboard graphics chip, like yours, can run. I would personally downgrade to 10.6.8 on it. Mainly because it makes a decent machine that can run both Intel and PPC programs. I used to have exactly the same machine. Was my first Intel Mac. What I would do is combine your 2007 A1181 with your 2008 A1181, then find a later MacBook or MBP that can run at least 10.9.5. Mavericks is about the minimum OS X version you can run and still do most things on the internet. My current daily driver is a late 2011 A1286 that usually runs 10.9.5, but can dual boot into 10.13.6 for phone synching purposes. Click to expand...

I'm definitely going to consider this option. Funnily enough, I had initially meant to install OS X 10.6 using an install disc I got from the free rack at Free Geek, but I realised as I was doing the install process it was made for iMacs (I still don't know how I missed that) and the machine refused to accept the disc, at least until the machine had a full OS installed.

>> 6507 said:

I'm definitely going to consider this option. Funnily enough, I had initially meant to install OS X 10.6 using an install disc I got from the free rack at Free Geek, but I realised as I was doing the install process it was made for iMacs (I still don't know how I missed that) and the machine refused to accept the disc, at least until the machine had a full OS installed. Click to expand...

Well then that settles it. You need to buy an 10.6 era iMac now :D

>> 6507 said:

I'm definitely going to consider this option. Funnily enough, I had initially meant to install OS X 10.6 using an install disc I got from the free rack at Free Geek, but I realised as I was doing the install process it was made for iMacs (I still don't know how I missed that) and the machine refused to accept the disc, at least until the machine had a full OS installed. Click to expand...

Here you go, courtesy of the Macintosh Garden...


Burn that to a DVD, or Mount it using Disk Utility, and you can install it.

>> Volvo242GT said:

Here you go, courtesy of the Macintosh Garden... http://macintoshgarden.org/sites/macintoshgarden.org/files/apps/MAC_OS_X_10-6-3_SNOW_LEOPARD.ISO Burn that to a DVD, or Mount it using Disk Utility, and you can install it. Click to expand...

Thank you so much!

>> 6507 said:

Thank you so much! Click to expand...

Sure, not a problem. [+1]