Apple Offers Settlement for G3/OS X Class Action Rage


Facing a class action lawsuit alleging that Apple did not fully support its early G3 hardware, Cupertino has offered a settlement which would see OS X buyers refunded $129, c|net News reports.

"If you are completely dissatisfied [with Mac OS X], you can return it and get your money back," said Thomas Ferlauto, from the law firm dealing with the case. "If you want to keep OS X, but are kind of annoyed that you don't have full support, you can get [a $25] coupon."

The class action alleged that Apple had not fully optimized OS
X for all G3 hardware, making OS X an unviable proposition for these Macs.

Apple's offer does not mean the company accepts any wrongdoing; on the contrary, it "continues to vigorously deny all of the material allegations", although Apple indicated it would prefer to settle the matter out of court.

Affected Macs, for which graphics drivers were either not written or implemented, include the 64-bit ATI Rage processors, found on models including the original Bondi and fruity iMacs, the original iBooks (tangerine, blueberry and graphite SE), some Power Mac G3s, and the Wallstreet and Lombard PowerBook G3s.

Analysis: Poor recompense for lousy driver support. Graphics speed on my Lombard was improved with 10.1.5, but only by using a kludge which enabled card support by modifying the k.ext file. While some people might be happy with OS X support in the early G3s, the fact is it could have been a lot better. And for cash-strapped labs and schools, spending a lot of money on upgrades is simply not an option.