On 6/8/2016 11:54 AM, wrote:
On Wed, 8 Jun 2016 12:40:12 -0400, John Albert
wrote:

OS9 is the old "Classic" Mac OS.
Not sure if the g3 you have will run OS X, and even if it can, it will
only be an older version of "X" that will run on it.

A site that may be of use to you:
http://lowendmac.com/

This URL has a lot of useful info. Thanks for the link.

You said "OS9 is the old "Classic" Mac OS".
Being that I have no experience with Mac computers at all, I am trying
to get some idea of comparison of the Mac operating systems to those of
the PC. Based on the year, I'd take a wild guess that OS9 is simular to
Windows XP. (Just a guess), or is it more like Windows 98 or 2000, or
Vista, or Win7, or ????

No. It's a very different "look and feel".

Probably the most noticeable (other than the root-weave "wallpaper")
aspect is that each "window" (application) does NOT have the typical
user-interface cruft along the top (menu bar, icons, etc.).

E.g., in the windows world, a fair portion of the screen real-estate is
consumed (wasted) with these application-specific user interface adornments.
So, if you have three Firefox windows on your desktop, you have three
copies of the "File Edit View History..." menu bar, three copies of the
tabs local to that window instance, three copies of the address bar, three
copies of the bookmark bar, etc.

Even though only ONE of those will actually be "active" and "useable" at
any given moment (i.e., whichever window happens to have the focus -- if
*any*!).

In MacOS, the window with the current focus presents its menu across the
top of the screen. So, if you move the focus to different windows
(regardless of where they are located on the screen), the top "line"
of the display keeps changing to reflect the menu bar that *would* have
been present in that window (*if* it had been a PC).

The graphics tend to be a lot cruder -- more like the DOS GEM interface.

And, the machine will feel sluggish (typically Macs were purchased
"underpowered" to save $$).

Another worthwhile feature (that proved difficult to implement in the
heads of users) is the concept of a "file type" NOT being part of
the file's NAME (e.g., "MyCorrespondence.txt") but, rather, a resource
associated with the file instance.

So, you could have a file named "MyStuff.doc" that is processed via a
spreadsheet program, not a "text editor" (e.g., MSWord). And, another
file called "MyOtherStuff.doc" that is processed by a photoeditor!
(In the Windows world, the "extension" is treated as an indication of
the file's "type". So, "MyFile" has "no" type information associated
with it; "MyFile.txt" is typically considered to be "ASCII text"
handled by the Notepad.exe application (and "YourFile.txt" will ALSO
be handled by Notepad -- regardless of what you actually put inside the
file!)

I know this is like comparing apples to oranges (no pun intended on the
"apples"), but on a level of power and usefulness there must be some
sort of comparison.

One thing I did notice is that the RAM in this computer seems really
small at 256mb (Four 64mb strips). But from what I've read, the Mac
computers dont seem to need as much RAM as does PC computers.

A fair bit of user interface code that windows puts in RAM (loaded off disk)
resides in the system ROMs. E.g., remove the disk from your system and
you'll still get a GUI-ish display with which you can interact. Remove
the disk from your PC and you'll get a couple of lines of *text*, no
mouse support, etc.

Yes, I do have an ethernet port, but at this point I am not yet sure how
to use it to go online. Until I get a mouse and keyboard, I cant do much
of anything except boot it up and shut it off.

I am curious whether I can download Mac software on a PC, then install
it to the Mac, using a USB flash drive??? Can a Mac even read a standard
flash drive (usually formatted to Fat 32).

Thanks for the help!

Download protocols (FTP, HTTP, etc.) dont care about the content that's
being downloaded. OTOH, the various resources and other "forks" in
MacOS applications need to be handled appropriately as they don't
magically come along for the ride (i.e., you may have to redefine certain
handler aspects after installing the apps)

You might, instead, want to look into a newer Mac -- OSX based.