10.3 Rumor: No More Bootable Classic?

Posted:
in macOS edited January 2014
One rumor reported at some of the rumor sites (spymac, thinksecret, etc.) is that when OSX 10.3 is released, Apple will no longer support bootable OS9 -- from then on, it will only run as OSX Classic.



This release is codenamed "Pinot", suggesting a codename shift from big cats to fancy wines.



A plus is that it would simplify Classic support, since Apple no longer has to worry about making it work on new hardware. That would also press software companies to come up with OSX-native, or at least OSX-Classic-friendly, versions of their software.



A minus is that it will permanently break software that does not work properly in OSX Classic, because there will be no standalone OS9 to reboot to. According to the rumor sites, this includes some software that some print publishers use heavily.



It may also break some old games, some of which have bugs in OSX Classic. Examples:



Marathon 1 has a low framerate in Classic; however Marathons 2 and Infinity run OK. I think that the culprit is whatever blit-to-screen routine(s) that M1 uses, because that is both OS-dependent and a potentially-big consumer of CPU cycles.



RAVE, that old 3D-acceleration API, is still buggy. Myth II: Soulblighter does not recognize it at all, while Tomb Raiders I and II have rendering bugs in RAVE mode (the later ones use OpenGL, and work fine). I have no hint as to whether Jaguar (10.2) will fix these bugs; I have reported them, and even sent in some TR demos for testing, but I've yet to get any progress reports.

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