So I hear there's a way to make newer Macs run OS 9 AND OS X?

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I hear there's a way to do this and/or places that can do this for a fee? Anyone know if this is true? Because I'm about to need a new Powerbook (my Pismo's ooold) but I don't want to stop using much of my trusty OS 9 software, much of which was never updated to OS X versions.

― Jay Vee (Manon_70), Thursday, 30 September 2004 18:06 (twenty-one years ago)

Isn't this what Classic mode is all about?

― jaymc (jaymc), Thursday, 30 September 2004 18:08 (twenty-one years ago)

Newer Macs don't have Classic Mode, do they? I thought that was the point.

― Alba (Alba), Thursday, 30 September 2004 18:09 (twenty-one years ago)

oh no

― Little Lord Travolta (nordicskilla), Thursday, 30 September 2004 18:09 (twenty-one years ago)

I have a very new powerbook. it runs classic.

― Little Lord Travolta (nordicskilla), Thursday, 30 September 2004 18:10 (twenty-one years ago)

How about buying a used one that does?

― Alba (Alba), Thursday, 30 September 2004 18:10 (twenty-one years ago)

Oh, OK. I thought Apple were dropping it. Can you have Classic Mode without having OS9 proper?

― Alba (Alba), Thursday, 30 September 2004 18:10 (twenty-one years ago)

Do they not have Classic mode or is it that they can't boot up into System 9? I thought the newer ones that couldn't boot into System 9 still had Classic. But I could be wrong.

― Casuistry (Chris P), Thursday, 30 September 2004 18:11 (twenty-one years ago)

I should have been clearer: I would need to be able to start up in 9 or X.

― Jay Vee (Manon_70), Thursday, 30 September 2004 18:11 (twenty-one years ago)

How about buying a used one that does?

Because if I could get a new, 17" 1.5 Ghz PWBK to run both OS's that would be ideal. I'm trying to bypass the 2nd hand route, y'see.

― Jay Vee (Manon_70), Thursday, 30 September 2004 18:13 (twenty-one years ago)

I have the iMac G4 and you can start up in 9, but to do that you have to start up in 10 first and then change settings.

― why do old people and old users of ILX such bastardos (deangulberry), Thursday, 30 September 2004 18:13 (twenty-one years ago)

It seems weird that Apple carrying on including classic mode (which must require most of the OS9 software, but stop making them dual-bootable). Why have they done that - surely disk space can't be the issue?

Some apps, like Quark, don't run properly in Classic, do they? You have to boot from OS9 properly.

― Alba (Alba), Thursday, 30 September 2004 18:15 (twenty-one years ago)

(x post) Really? What do you mean by "change settings", though?

― Jay Vee (Manon_70), Thursday, 30 September 2004 18:15 (twenty-one years ago)

I can't remember exactly, sorry. If you search "starting up in os 9" or something similar on apple, I'm sure you'll find the same info that I did.

― why do old people and old users of ILX such bastardos (deangulberry), Thursday, 30 September 2004 18:20 (twenty-one years ago)

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106698

After starting up into Mac OS X, follow these steps:

1. Choose System Preferences from the Apple Menu.
2. Click Startup Disk.
3. Click the Mac OS 9 System Folder.
4. Click Restart, then Save and Restart when prompted to save your change.

― why do old people and old users of ILX such bastardos (deangulberry), Thursday, 30 September 2004 18:31 (twenty-one years ago)

Because they'd have to update OS 9 to handle the new hardware, I reckon.

― Casuistry (Chris P), Thursday, 30 September 2004 18:32 (twenty-one years ago)

I can't think of Classic Mode as an OS9 emulator. I don't know if this is accurate or not. I don't understand why an emulator wouldn't also be affected by new hardware, but I expect there is a reason.

The first time I changed my startup disk to OS9, I was scared I wouldn't be able to find how to change it back, but it wasn't very hard.

― Alba (Alba), Thursday, 30 September 2004 18:59 (twenty-one years ago)

I can't think = I kind of think

My brain seems to be increasingly prone to making near-homophonic mistakes these days. I should maybe be worried.

― Alba (Alba), Thursday, 30 September 2004 19:00 (twenty-one years ago)

Classic Mode is an OS 9 emulator. You can tell that it's faking it because certain programs that work fine in OS 9 don't at all in Classic. It was written with modern computers in mind, surely, and Apple is more likely to update Classic than to release System 9.2.3 (or whatever it would be).

― Casuistry (Chris P), Thursday, 30 September 2004 19:18 (twenty-one years ago)

Yes, it all makes sense now.

― Alba (Alba), Thursday, 30 September 2004 19:20 (twenty-one years ago)

Classic Mode is not an OS 9 emulator its an OS 9 application enviroment. It shares the same level as the Cocoa (full OS X objective-C environment), Carbon (OS 9 style apps slightly rewritten, and the place where C and C++ apps reside) and Java application environments.

http://developer.apple.com/macosx/architecture/index.html

Classic is not shown on that diagram but it still exists and will at least into Tiger but probably not beyond.

― Ed (dali), Friday, 1 October 2004 07:38 (twenty-one years ago)

Not that I needed to, but I just looked at the startup disk bit of System Prefs and I only have the OSX folder and network available. It's a G5, about 6 months old, running 10.3.5. Hmm.

― beanz (beanz), Friday, 1 October 2004 08:00 (twenty-one years ago)

Classic isn't installed as standard on the latest Macs. i belive oyu can still install it from the system DVD/CDs. I haven't needed it for years though.

― Ed (dali), Friday, 1 October 2004 09:59 (twenty-one years ago)

I don't have Panther yet, but Jaguar had both OS9 and OSX.

If I install Panther, will it remove my System 9 startup disk?

― redfez, Friday, 1 October 2004 10:18 (twenty-one years ago)

― Ed (dali), Friday, 1 October 2004 10:30 (twenty-one years ago)

So it doesn't reformat the whole drive to suit its new standards. That's good. If it were Microsoft it probably would.

Will it make my System 9 buggy? I imagine Panther comes with it's OS 9 emulator-thing on a special separate chunk of CD/DVD, but I am hoping it would skip installation if it found a pre-existing OS 9 already on the drive. I'd hate to have 2 OS 9's or something stupid like that.

― redfez, Friday, 1 October 2004 10:39 (twenty-one years ago)

Depends on which upgrade you choose. A clen install will wipe the drive. A straight upgrade is a bit of a kludge and leaves some untidyness. Archive and install is the best compromise if you don't have a spare disk lying around to copy all of your stuff to.

― Ed (dali), Friday, 1 October 2004 10:42 (twenty-one years ago)

I think what I would do is completely erase/reformat my drive and install OS 9 followed by OS X (Panther). Then reinstall all my software.

Does this sound like a good plan to you?

― redfez, Friday, 1 October 2004 10:52 (twenty-one years ago)

yes

― Ed (dali), Friday, 1 October 2004 12:32 (twenty-one years ago)

you may also want to partition your hard disk to coral your swap file. (NB put swapfile on first partition)

http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20040716153639236&query=swap+partition

― Ed (dali), Friday, 1 October 2004 12:35 (twenty-one years ago)

Thanks, Ed. Maybe now I'll buy Panther... right in time for the release of Tiger!

I partitioned my hard disk once (the first time) to separate OS 9 from OS X, but it didn't seem to work that great, it wasn't supported by Apple and everyone I know thought it was a nuissance idea. So, I reverted back to everything on one partition some months later. I really do not know what the advantage of partitioning them was, I just read it was a good idea.

― redfez, Friday, 1 October 2004 16:11 (twenty-one years ago)

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