Member Avatar for ambitiouskriss

Is anyone running Ruby on Rails on an Imac G4 or G5? Im on a tight budget right now and dont wanna spend more than I have to. Are either of these models working for anyone? If youre not using them, could I still use either one of these models?

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Short answer: you can get Rails working on a G4/G5, but it’s usually more effort than it’s worth for modern Rails development. ’s “try it” instinct is right — these machines can teach you Rails basics or run legacy apps — but expect the toolchain to be old, native gems to be fiddly, and overall performance to be poor for anything heavier than small apps.

If buying new hardware isn’t an option, three practical paths work better than trying to make a modern full-featured dev box out of the iMac:

  • Use the iMac as a thin client/terminal and do the heavy lifting on a remote machine (VPS, cloud VM, or another PC). That keeps the iMac useful while avoiding local build problems. Example: 

    ssh youruser@remoteserver
# run rails commands remotely; check versions with `ruby -v` and `rails -v`

  • If you want the environment local, install a PowerPC-friendly OS/build tools and compile Ruby and any native gems yourself. Use a package manager (MacPorts/Fink or a community PowerPC Linux image), install developer tools, and prefer SQLite for day‑to‑day development to avoid running a heavy DB locally.

  • If you need a comfortable, current Rails workflow, consider a very low-cost Intel-based machine (used/refurbished) or a small cloud dev instance — far less time lost fighting toolchain and compatibility issues.

Practical tips if you keep the iMac: add as much RAM as it accepts, replace the HDD with an SSD if possible, install the platform’s developer tools before compiling gems, and expect to debug missing headers when native extensions fail. For learning and maintenance of old projects the G4/G5 is fine; for active modern Rails work, use it as a terminal or budget-replace it.

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Member Avatar for Taywin

An easy way is to try it out. What RoR version you want to install? If the newest version (3.2), you may need many more software (gems) to go with. You will need Ruby v.1.9.3 and a database software (PostgreSql or MySql). If your computer does not support any that required in running one, you could try to down version of RoR to 2.3.x which requires Ruby v.1.8.7 instead but still the same database software. However, this version will require much less associated software (gems) than version 3.x. Do not go lower than RoR version 2.3.x because they are outdated and will be much more difficult to find tutorial/support whenever you have questions.

One thing to remember, the syntax of RoR version 2.x and 3.x are somewhat different in certain functionalities. The syntax of RoR version 1.2.x and 2.x aren't that much different.

Edited by Taywin
Member Avatar for ambitiouskriss

I may be better off just getting a newer Mac. I dont want to have to worry about RoR versions and gems. I wonder how far down the Mac model line I can go in order to not have to be concerned with installing more gems and using specific versions. Do you know by chance?

Member Avatar for Taywin

I am sorry, I don't know the answer for that. The reason is that I don't know much about Mac. I would love to get one but right now I am using Linux. :(

Member Avatar for ambitiouskriss

Well thank you. You still helped a lot.

Member Avatar for ambitiouskriss

Taywin I was just wondering how long youve been using Ruby on Rails.

Member Avatar for Taywin

I started working with it since late 2007. I started with version 1.2.6. Currently, my work is using 2.3.x but have my own hobbies (projects) using 3.x.

Edited by Taywin
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