Migrating OS 9 --> OS X: Which machine should I buy?

mwmw
Posted:
in General Discussion edited January 2014
I'm still using a PB G3 Firewire Pismo 400MHz with OS 9, never made the jump to X.



What Mac I'll get next depends in part on whether I'll be able to still use all my OS 9 apps (lots of them).



iBooks, eMacs and 15" PBs can still be booted in OS9, whereas the new machines (iMacs, PB 12" and 17", PMs) can't be booted in OS 9 anymore.



So here are my questions:

- Is it true that you can still run OS 9 apps in X, even on the new machines?

- Do OS 9 apps run slower/faster/same in OS X?

- If you can still run OS 9 apps under X, what is the advantage of being able to still boot in OS 9?



I'm leaning towards either iBook (800 MHz combo drive, $1399 - can boot in OS 9) or iMac (1GHz 17" , $1799 - can't boot in OS 9).



(Of course I'd like to buy a full-featured PB if I had the money :-)



thanks in advance for the advice



martin

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 8
    kraig911kraig911 Posts: 912member
    I still run Quark 4, and Adobe Distiller all the time on my 1ghz powerbook all the time at work. I also use Filemaker v3 to log into some clients servers all the time! and that works all the time without a hitch. Classic for the most part is fine. The only real problems I get is font issues because when I start classic it tries to load the same fonts in my extensis suitcase, and so I get violations or whatever it calls them. Other than that tho I think classic is great. Personally I'd get the new 12" powerbook and just use classic for everything, reason being its a great price/per performance.
  • Reply 2 of 8
    mwmw Posts: 31member
    thanks for the info, kraig911...

    If I understand correctly, "Classic" is an environment in which you run OS 9 apps when you have booted up OS X.

    Does this 'Classic" environment work regardless of whether your machine is able to boot in OS 9 or not?



    (Your 15" 1GHz Powerbook still can boot in OS 9, whereas the machine you recommend, the new PB 12", cannot...)



    What would the advantages be of having a machine that can still boot OS 9?
  • Reply 3 of 8
    emaneman Posts: 7,204member
    Classic will work no matter what. The new Macs still have Classic on them, they just can't boot in OS 9.
  • Reply 4 of 8
    scott2scott2 Posts: 39member
    Not all third party applications run in Classic. Ones that come to mind are some music apps using OMS, Poser and Ray Dream.



    In addition some hardware is not (yet?) supported in OS X therefore unusable in Classic : some SCSI equipment, scanners, etc.



    I not as good in Classic as I am in OS9, but it seems that Classic is much more limited in what is accessible and what you can do with it.



    In conclusion, Classic supports the major apps, but everything else is questionable. In your case, with a large library of OS 9 apps, I suggest getting a Mac that can boot into OS 9.



    There is a version of one of the new power macs that is bootable in OS9 if that is your fancy.
  • Reply 5 of 8
    agent69agent69 Posts: 88member
    [quote]Originally posted by Scott2:

    <strong>I not as good in Classic as I am in OS9, but it seems that Classic is much more limited in what is accessible and what you can do with it.</strong><hr></blockquote>



    Classic is a virtual MacOS 9 machine layer that does work fairly well for most classic applications. Troublemakers are usally poorly coded apps, apps that cheat and bypass proper system calls, apps that try to touch hardware directly, or apps that make use of really obscure functionality.



    What apps are you looking to run that don't have Mac OS X compatable versions?
  • Reply 6 of 8
    mwmw Posts: 31member
    First: Thanks for all the input so far...



    [quote]Originally posted by Agent69:

    <strong>



    Classic is a virtual MacOS 9 machine layer that does work fairly well for most classic applications. Troublemakers are usally poorly coded apps, apps that cheat and bypass proper system calls, apps that try to touch hardware directly, or apps that make use of really obscure functionality.



    What apps are you looking to run that don't have Mac OS X compatable versions?</strong><hr></blockquote>



    ...well, I have a shitload of apps that I have accumulated over the years, and I just wouldn't be able to buy all of the OS X version in order to achieve the same functionality that I have now...



    A lot of them I don't use very often, but it would be nice to know that they work when I do want to use them... (Quark XPress, Dreamweaver, some older versions of Illustrator and Freehand, Final Cut Pro 2, etc., among them and a slew of utils)

    Then there are the ones I use all the time, such as OzTex, Alpha, Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Acrobat and Distiller, Entourage (&lt;- best mail client for IMAP servers using Maildir, and if you are using programs such as MailMerge, imho), GraphicConverter, Photoshop... The rest of the ones I can think of are freeware and are hopefully available for X. In the case of Matlab I'm actually looking forward to going to X, since the last Mac version released was 5.2, and I'll be able to run the Unix version 6.5 under X.



    Besides being able to run poorly coded apps and accessing certain peripherals, are there any other advantages of being able to boot in OS 9?



    next-mac-wise, I still think it will be either the iBook 800 MHz combo drive or the new 17" 1GHz iMac, unless someone can convince me that the G4 proc (as in "new 12" PB) is sooooo much better than the iBook G3 ;-)

    I had a dual 500 MHz G4 tower at my last job, and while it was certainly faster than my G3 400 MHz Pismo PB, it didn't annihilate it in most tasks (except in Final Cut, iMovie and seriously large graphics files, of course)
  • Reply 7 of 8
    rampancyrampancy Posts: 363member
    As pointed out before, Classic should run pretty much anything that 9 should. If it runs in 9, I'd say there's about a 80-90% chance that it should run fine in Classic. If you have a friend who's running OS X, ask if you can try out some of your critical apps on his/her machine.



    Aside from being able to use poorly coded apps and peripherals, you may see a speed boost in some of your apps when run natively under 9. But of course, YMMV.



    One of the nice things about Classic is that since it's an application, if a Classic app dies or if the Classic Environment itself dies, there's no need to restart. Just kill it, reboot it, and get on with your life.



    My advice to you machine-wise is to act now. Around my area, the previous rev. of the PM G4's are flying off the shelves. The iBook and the TiBook are the only computers left in Apple's current product line that still natively boot into 9, but that will change very soon.
  • Reply 8 of 8
    mwmw Posts: 31member
    Thanks for your input, guys!



    After looking at some benchmarks and seeing how the G3 compares to the G4 and talking it over with a good friend of mine who migrated to X back when it first came out (and who's been doing some serious number crunching/visualization stuff on his Macs) I ordered the iMAc 1Ghz 17" yesterday!!!

    Complete with free 512MByte DDR RAM upgrade, free printer, free USB floppy (even though I haven't touched a floppy disk in a while), (almost) free shipping. Gotta love those rebates! The machine should be here no later than Friday.

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