Does OS X actually need OS 9 ?

adam11 · December 13, 2001 4:45PM

Having seen the thread about making your own OS X.1 install disk from the 10.1 updater I noticed a post that said you might even be able to get rid of OS 9 from the new disk..

i have alsway wondered if you could just install OS X and not have OS 9 at all ? Does OS X use it for just the classic environment.... or are they more fundamentally joined at the hip ? Once I have Office for X (english version not available here in tokyo yet and no-one is shipping it OS from the states yet) and a couple of missing Adaobe programes, i want to get rid of OS 9/classic as soon as possible.

Is it possible ? Can you run jsut OS X.1...... and if so how would you install it ? If you already have OS 9 installed (no partition) is it possible to eventally purge it from your HD ?

Cheers

Adam

hmurchison · December 13, 2001 4:59PM

That's an interesting question. Apple may want to change the installer in future version to forgo on installing any components that are strictly for OS9. I would think that a Compatability Box application should need to be installed if there is no use for it but who knows<shrug>

noahj · December 13, 2001 5:08PM

OS X does not need 9 for anything but the classic layer. Without 9 you are limited to Carbon and Cocoa apps. Nice in that you do not accidentally launch classic if an applicaiton is tied to the classic version of stuffit by accident (for example).

Hope that helps.

ghost_user_name · December 13, 2001 6:12PM

[quote]Originally posted by Adam11:

<strong>Is it possible ? Can you run jsut OS X.1...... and if so how would you install it ? If you already have OS 9 installed (no partition) is it possible to eventally purge it from your HD ?</strong><hr></blockquote>

Of course! As NoahJ said, OS9 is only used for the Classic environment. You can install OSX fine without OS9... I can't imagine why you would think you'd need OS9 to install OSX. You can simply boot from the install disc by holding 'C' when you reboot your computer.

If you decide you don't want OS9 any more, simply drag the old System Folder to the trash. Done.

chromos · December 13, 2001 7:04PM

There's one specific reason that requires me to keep OS 9 around: to override the behavior of the function keys in OS X.

By default F1-F5 are set aside for brightness and sound control, yes. But in OS 9, you can alter that behavior so that you have to press Option-Fkey in order to use those controls. In OS X there's no such option.

By disabling the default behavior, I can use one click app switching using a utility like HotApp. Press F1, switch to Finder. Press F3, switch to iTunes. Press F5, switch to OmniWeb. I'm patiently waiting for hot function keys in OS X, but until then, OS 9 has to stay.

PS. I have to do a full boot into OS 9 for the setting to stick... using the Keyboard control panel in Classic doesn't work.

chromos · December 13, 2001 7:08PM

PPS The stupid Quicken 2002 updater launches Classic in order to update. Lame.

b.i.l · December 14, 2001 2:39PM

While I can understand the desire to do away with OS9/classic completely, I think that doing so would be a mistake, even if you never need to run classic apps.

Being able to boot back into 9 is many times invaluable... without OS9 installed you can't:

- Run most if any firmware updates for various hardware.

- Deal with files that OSX doesn't want you messing with.

- Do hacks like replacing the dock poof.

- Determine whether problems are caused by hardware or OSX (I recently made sure my iMic was OK by checking it in 9 when it didn't work right in X)

- Check files for OS9 compatiblity (I needed to open IE web archive files on a OS9 machine. If I copied them to a Zip disk from OSX, they wouldn't open on this other machine. When I copied them while booted into 9 they worked fine.)

- Other stuff I can't think of now.

Basically OS9 is an extremely useful tool for managing OSX.

adam11 · December 14, 2001 4:17PM

Thanks - as usual very helpful. I guess that the thing which plays on my mind the most is that at least if OS 10.1.x dies for any reason I can always boot to OS 9 , get on the net to AI forums, and ask you guys for help!.... other than that I hope to see my use of it (and classic) dissappear by mid 2002.

Cheers

adam

hekal · December 14, 2001 5:11PM

I considered blasting Classic away completely but until the new version of Spaceward Ho! comes out (carbon) I am keeping it.

Yahoo REALLY needs to update messenger.

koldolme · December 15, 2001 8:01AM

I only have OSX installed.........

code master · December 15, 2001 10:23AM

Carbonized Ho! is coming out?? Sweet! I haven't played that in ages!

I've got classic mainly so that I can play games 9or boot back into 9 to play games)

new · December 15, 2001 10:51AM

I deleted 9 on my ibook2 but can't get rid of the "classic" button in the system prefrences... I also want OSX to stop trying to launch OS 9 anytime i do OS 9 related things. ( like trying to launch a classic app. by mistake) anyone?

torifile · December 15, 2001 11:07AM

[quote]Originally posted by New:

<strong>I deleted 9 on my ibook2 but can't get rid of the "classic" button in the system prefrences... I also want OSX to stop trying to launch OS 9 anytime i do OS 9 related things. ( like trying to launch a classic app. by mistake) anyone?</strong><hr></blockquote>

<a href="http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20010422094944759"; target="_blank">link</a>

There are a couple suggestions there for how to keep it from happeing accidentally. I just hit the stop button. I have classic only because of dreamweaver and fireworks. Once those are here, see ya classic. Well, probably not. I'll just leave it there but never use it...

Does OS X actually need OS 9 ?

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