Panther, Classic & more

mattarinomattarino
Posted:
in macOS edited January 2014
I actually just received a call from an Apple rep because I have had a Powerbook priced out in my profile (waiting for Panther to purchase).



He informed me that if I purchase the PB before Oct 21, I would get Panther for $20 shipped to me on the afternoon of the 24th. After that, there is no guarantee when Panther will ship installed on the systems, so I could very well have to pay the full Panther price of $129. I told him it didn't make sense, and he agreed, but said it's the way they're doing it.



I asked several more questions regarding the new OS, including compatability with Classic. He told me that I would have to purchase OS 9 in addition. (Go to http://www.apple.com/macosx/upgrade/ then click the bottom right link in the box that says "Mac OS 9.2 Upgrade Program".) This, he said, is the only way to run classic from within X.3.



So, after purchasing the PB, I would need to buy Panther for $20, plus OS9 (to run classic), for a total of an additional $40.



The guy was nice, but now I'm so confused and irritated!

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 9
    709709 Posts: 2,016member
    I noticed that to, but on Panther's tech specs page it says:



    "Classic technology supports most of your current Mac OS 9 applications" under 'Easy Transition'.



    Hmm. Confusing.
  • Reply 2 of 9
    xoolxool Posts: 2,460member
    Jaguar, which would come preinstalled on the PB, includes a copy of OS 9 insatlled on the boot drive. My G5 for example also had an Application (Mac OS 9) and a OS 9 System Folder, but it can obviously not boot natively in to 9.



    If you applied a Panther Update to a Jaguar install, you'd still be able to use the existing Classic installation.
  • Reply 3 of 9
    musicaltonemusicaltone Posts: 189member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Xool

    JIf you applied a Panther Update to a Jaguar install, you'd still be able to use the existing Classic installation.



    Ah, I was wondering about that. I have 10.2.8 on a TiBook, which came with OS9 preinstalled.



    So when I upgrade to Panther I will still be able to dual boot into either OS9 or OSX? Or does Panther only alow you to use classic access?
  • Reply 4 of 9
    lucaluca Posts: 3,833member
    Classic works exactly the same in 10.2 and 10.3. You can still dual-boot your machine if your machine supports the feature. In fact, you can even triple-boot your machine if you put Jaguar on one partition, Panther on a second partition, and 9.2.2 somewhere in there. All you need is an OS 9.2.2 system folder and you're good to go. The only issue that would crop up with classic and Panther would be whether Apple will continue to include OS 9 on new machines. It's possible that once Panther is out and new machines ship with it, you won't get an OS 9 system folder anymore. However, I think that is unlikely because they're not losing anything by including Classic. With computers that can boot OS 9, it might slow adoption rates of OS X, but Apple's basically including Classic for compatability only and they're not longer making any efforts to support it. Apple doesn't lose anything by including OS 9 on their computers because I doubt many people are buying OS 9 anyway.



    Oh and the $20 upgrade price isn't just shipping and handling, I think they're also counting the price of pressing the disc and of course adding a hefty profit margin on top of that.
  • Reply 5 of 9
    musicaltonemusicaltone Posts: 189member
    I havnt used OS9 since buying my PB back in March. Would I be able to delete it during the Panther install and use Classic mode in Panther to run any OS9 apps that I may need to run in future, or is that the same thing?
  • Reply 6 of 9
    ghost_user_nameghost_user_name Posts: 22,667member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by musicaltone

    I havnt used OS9 since buying my PB back in March. Would I be able to delete it during the Panther install and use Classic mode in Panther to run any OS9 apps that I may need to run in future, or is that the same thing?







    I will only insult this guy in answering his question...



    \



    anyone up for it?
  • Reply 7 of 9
    thunderpoitthunderpoit Posts: 709member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by musicaltone

    I havnt used OS9 since buying my PB back in March. Would I be able to delete it during the Panther install and use Classic mode in Panther to run any OS9 apps that I may need to run in future, or is that the same thing?





    bottom line is you need the os 9 system folder to be on your hard drive to use classic. if you delete it, no classic for you. i dont believe you are able to boot into os 9 at all, as last time i checked, since jan all macs have been x only
  • Reply 8 of 9
    lucaluca Posts: 3,833member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by ThunderPoit

    bottom line is you need the os 9 system folder to be on your hard drive to use classic. if you delete it, no classic for you. i dont believe you are able to boot into os 9 at all, as last time i checked, since jan all macs have been x only



    All correct, except a number of Macs have been able to boot into OS 9 since January.



    PowerBook Titanium 867 MHz/1 GHz

    iMac 800 MHz

    PowerMac G4 1.25 GHz non-FW800

    iBook

    eMac 700 MHz, 800 MHz, non-Superdrive 1 GHz



    Currently, Apple has three iBooks, four PowerBooks, two iMacs, three eMacs, one PowerMac G4, and three PowerMac G5s, for a total of sixteen diffferent computers. Six of those can boot into OS 9. So there's still little while to go before OS 9 is out the window. However, all the computers ship with an OS 9 system folder for use with Classic mode.
  • Reply 9 of 9
    musicaltonemusicaltone Posts: 189member
    Thanks for the info. Looks like I would be best just to follow the Panther install instructions and let that sort things out for me.



    Yes, my Ti 1Ghz SD boots into OS9 at present.
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