Major Newbie Needs Direction

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blackgunsblackguns
Posted:
in Mac Software edited January 2014
I'm an absolute Newbie with the Mac. We bought an iMac for our son and have a ton of software for it (educational stuff that all says it works with various Win versions and Mac). None of it seems to work.



Keep getting "...not supported on this system" type errors.



For starters am I even in the right forum? If I am I hope I'm in the right area of the forum?



I'm open to any sort of help. Even if it's a "get lost" you need to find another forum.



Any ideas as to where to start would be much appreciated. I've also scoured the Apple web-site to no avail.



Clicking on the little Blue Apple tells me I have Mac OS X v10.4.10, 2Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo, 1GB 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM. Model iMac5,1.



Ed

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 8
    mr. memr. me Posts: 3,221member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by BlackGuns View Post


    I'm an absolute Newbie with the Mac. We bought an iMac for our son and have a ton of software for it (educational stuff that all says it works with various Win versions and Mac). None of it seems to work.



    ...



    It sounds like two things may be going on. First, some titles ship with Mac and Windows versions in the same box, but many have completely separate packaging. Make sure that you did not buy the Windows versions of your software. Second, "Mac" is no longer enough information. In the case of your purchase, Mac may mean MacOS 9 and not MacOS X 10.4. Your new Intel-based Mac cannot run MacOS 9 software [without an emulator]. The latter is not usually a problem unless you buy your software from a brick-and-mortar store that specializes in Windows software.
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  • Reply 2 of 8
    kickahakickaha Posts: 8,760member
    If you let us know which software packages you're trying to run, that would help. My guess? You're trying to run MacOS 9 software.



    (History lesson...) MacOS 9 was developed for Macs running on PowerPC CPUs. MacOS X machines that also use PowerPC CPUs can run MacOS 9 applications by hosting the entire MacOS 9 OS as a single 'application', called Classic. The MacOS 9 apps then run on top of this Classic environment, and all is good.



    When Apple moved to the Intel CPUs, these machines can no longer run PowerPC applications natively. Instead, Apple created Rosetta, a translation system that converts PowerPC applications to Intel applications on the fly, so people who had invested in applications didn't have to buy new versions. It works really, really well. Most people never even know (and shouldn't have to to know) that this is going on. Unfortunately, one thing that *doesn't* run is Classic. Which means that those MacOS 9 applications have nothing to run on.

    (End history lesson...)



    If you were trying to run a Windows application, the Mac wouldn't know, out of the box, what the heck it was, and it would likely just say "No application can be found to open this document." or something similar. The fact that it gives you a message indicating that it *knows* it's an application tells me that it is a Mac app. The fact that it can't run it, tells me it's an old MacOS 9 application.



    Just a guess though.
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  • Reply 3 of 8
    blackgunsblackguns Posts: 3member
    Mr. Me and Kickaha,



    Thanks for the info. You gave me exactly the starting point I needed. I'm off to Wikipedia...



    Thanks again,



    Ed
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  • Reply 4 of 8
    blackgunsblackguns Posts: 3member
    OK. I'm starting to soak some of this up.



    Question - Is it possible to run older Mac OS 9 s/w on Tiger? Will an emulator work? Does one already come with the sytem I bought? How would I find it?



    Ed
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  • Reply 5 of 8
    kickahakickaha Posts: 8,760member
    Only if you have a PowerPC machine. If it's an Intel machine (which you do), then no, there's no simple way to do this. It doesn't matter what version of the OS you're running, it's a hardware issue.



    Rosetta *is* the emulator that ships with the machine. It just can't provide emulation at the level that MacOS 9 needs. So, no MacOS 9 running though Classic -> no place for MacOS 9 apps to run.
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  • Reply 6 of 8
    mr. memr. me Posts: 3,221member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by BlackGuns View Post


    OK. I'm starting to soak some of this up.



    Question - Is it possible to run older Mac OS 9 s/w on Tiger? Will an emulator work? Does one already come with the sytem I bought? How would I find it?



    Ed



    It's possible in the Classic environment, which is not included on Intel-based Macs. The emulator required to run MacOS 9 software on Intel-based Macs is called SheepShaver. However, SheepShaver also requires that you acquire a copy of MacOS 9 and a Mac OS ROM file.
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  • Reply 7 of 8
    dave k.dave k. Posts: 1,306member
    Since already purchased the software, you have the option to run it in Windows via Boot Camp or one of virtualization products (e.g., Parallels, Fusion, etc.).
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  • Reply 8 of 8
    dutch peardutch pear Posts: 588member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Dave K. View Post


    Since already purchased the software, you have the option to run it in Windows via Boot Camp or one of virtualization products (e.g., Parallels, Fusion, etc.).



    I'd second that option: if you can't get hold of a recent version of the software that runs in osX (or it is too exepnsive), the easiest solution would be to use parallels to run a windows VM and run the windows version.

    I use parallels for some work-related windows only software and it works great!



    Edit: oh, if you decide on this option, you will need more memory than the 1 GB you have now for a smooth experience. 2 GB will be fine.
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