The beige G3 will run much better with MacOS 8.6-9.2 than with any version of X. You could set it up as, say, a machine for running old versions of Adobe products (note that some of the Adobe products are happiest under 9.x), most of which can be had for very little cost. A beige G3 will run something like Photoshop 5 very well, and be nice and snappy doing so, too.
MSOffice 2001 is feature-rich and MUCH more stable than Office 2008 in OSX.
Another option with the beige is to put ASIP on there and it becomes a very useful bridge machine between current and older machines. And it is very useful with old printers — you can even print to a localtalk printer from a current machine through ASIP.
The G3 iMacs I have personally always loathed, but if they turn your crank, you could probably squeeze a reasonably recent version of Ubuntu and associated software packages on there if what you want is something to to give you a reason to keep the machine. The beauty of such an arrangement is that you can then play with the installation without fear of buggering up your "main" machine, allowing you to learn a new system or acquire new skills and knowledge.
My $.02.
MSOffice 2001 is feature-rich and MUCH more stable than Office 2008 in OSX.
Another option with the beige is to put ASIP on there and it becomes a very useful bridge machine between current and older machines. And it is very useful with old printers — you can even print to a localtalk printer from a current machine through ASIP.
The G3 iMacs I have personally always loathed, but if they turn your crank, you could probably squeeze a reasonably recent version of Ubuntu and associated software packages on there if what you want is something to to give you a reason to keep the machine. The beauty of such an arrangement is that you can then play with the installation without fear of buggering up your "main" machine, allowing you to learn a new system or acquire new skills and knowledge.
My $.02.