Do you still boot into OS 9?...comments

Here are selected comments being posted to my question about how often people still boot into OS 9:

I wrote:

I will throw out my experience here...I haven't booted into Mac OS 9.x since the beginning of this year. The only reason I booted into OS 9 back then was to copy a CD using Toast Lite, since I haven't yet sprung for the OS X version of Roxio Toast Titanium Pro...

I do occassionally still use Classic applications, but quite often I do this on one of my older Macs on the home network. My PowerBook 3400c is a Classic workhorse, sometimes Web server, and when I am working on some projects it is an integral piece in the puzzle of technologies I need to get my work done...

Andy Smith adds:

Ditto, Rob. I literally can not remember the last time I booted into 9. Even Classic use is rare, basically just for Adobe PageMaker. I bet is that I haven't booted into 9 in the past twelve months.

Mike Cohen:

I boot into 9 once every 2 weeks to scan & fax my time sheet. Although I can use my scanner (a CanoScan N650U) under classic, neither FaxSTF X or Cocoa eFax work reliably, so I have to use FaxSTF in 9.

Chris Chapman:

BOOT into 9? Never. Run Classic apps? All the time unfortunately. Simply due to not stepping up to the plate and purchasing native X versions of Photoshop and MS Office. I refuse to purchase another MS product - especially Office. icWord and Tex-Edit are saviors though.

John Busteed:

I have not booted into 9 this year. I used the classic version of DreamWeaver until MX came out. All the apps I use have X versions now. I would love to just strip 9 off my machine to free up the space...

I added:

Mike, I bet you will be one of those people who will be more than happy to see the better support for scanners and for scanner manufacturers to write OS X drivers later this month with the arrival of OS X 10.2. I don't use a scanner with my OS X machines (I do have an aging UMAX scanner hooked to an even older PowerComputing Mac clone from back in the day...), but I know that scanners and some other I/O devices have suffered under OS X until now...

CB:

How many folks choose to boot from where is totally beside the point! Given the technology, not facilitating (or worse, disabling) a boot from 9 is an uncalled-for hostile act, as it may strand resources of long time mac owners who have chosen to continue with Apple.

Geoff Allen:

Hmm... I think the last time I booted into 9 was before DVD Player for X came out, and that was just to see it work.

I bought my TiBook in April 2001, and it's been running X the whole time. I've only booted 9 once or twice, and never to do any work.

I added:

CB, a hostile act? I don't see things that way. Essentially, I haven't read anything about Apple banning the ability to boot from OS 9. All I have read is that Apple may not include complete OS 9.x installer disks with the Jaguar release. It makes sense to me since anyone wanting to use OS 9.x these days either should already have the disks or should have OS 9.x already installed on their machines...

Rick Hansen:

I dual boot every day at work, but mostly use X at home and on my iBook.

None of my programs at work have been upgraded, so 9.2 is needed and I basically find that the two OSes work well together. As the last Mac holdout in my department, I don't see any of my software being upgraded. I boot into 9.2 alone when I need to print to PDF.

At home, I only need 9.2 when I'm doing audio work with my digital card or using my audio editting software. At home and on the iBook, I've switched from MS Office to Appleworks.

My computers do specific jobs for me and the programs are more important to me than the OS.

Euan:

I only ever use OS9 on my work machine and that is only to access my Outlook Calendar.

Dan Knight (publisher of Low End Mac):

Almost every time I boot, it's into OS 9. Mac OS X is great in many ways, but some crucial utilties (such as Copy Agent, which I depend on) don't work, and some old programs (which have no OS X equivalent) are monumentally sluggish in X. I do try to boot into X regularly, but I'm still living in 9 when I need to be my most productive.

I followed up with:

For those who are still using OS 9 a lot, like you Dan, will the arrival of OS X 10.2, which seems to bring OS X finally up to par with OS 9, will the new operating system update make a difference?

I totally understand still using OS 9.x if you are in a work environment where it is the company that needs to update to new software versions for OS X, and I also understand Dan's case with specific software that cannot run efficiently or at all under Classic. But if you are not in one of these situations, outside of having hardware that is too old to support OS X, I can't see why anyone would be using OS 9 at this point.

One caveat here is that in my case, I really could remove Classic from my OS X machine and be able to do most of my work. I only keep Classic around because I need it to run an ancient version of Word 98 when I am working on some book projects and to run IE under Classic from time to time, since some Java based Web sites won't work with any OS X Web browsers...

Chris Janton adds:

I have booted into OS 9 three times since January. Twice to make sure new hardware would work. Once to "fiddle" with some files that OS X was having a hard time with.

At the office machine I have booted into OS 9 twice since OS X came out - both times for new hardware checks.

Matt writes:

My first OS X installation was on my Flat Panel iMac, which I got in late March. Since getting that computer, I have never booted into OS 9. I have launched Classic once.

I'm a goner--OS X all the way for me, haven't looked back.

Walter adds:

When i bought my mac I obtained a second drive that i was planning for booting to OS 9 on. I had not understood that I could run 9 apps in classic and not need to boot 9! After a month of dual booting i finnaly "got it" and have not booted to 9 in over 7 months. This week i plan to zap the second drive of all vestiges of Mac OS 9, and use it for a back-up drive. Ciao Ciao OS 9! Solo X from now on.

Marcus Huerta says:

I boot into OS 9 on my iBook to eek out a little more performance playing Warcraft 3 at some friends' house (8MB VRAM is actually not supported, but it works.) My G4 at home hasn't booted into OS 9 in ages, except when I was swapping hard drives around in an effort to retrieve some data for a friend and to flash a radeon card.

Anyway, OS X is it for me; 10.1 hums - on my iBook too. As for my UMAX scanner, well - it works via Classic - so no booting into OS 9 there either.

But Apple shouldn't disable OS 9 booting in future Macs, their own Mac firmware updaters only run in OS 9, after all.

nine user:

I only boot into X for web surfing and Watson. Everything else I use either works better in 9.22, or there is no working version for X. Also, to boot into X I have to shut off my pci expansion chassis since it causes kernel panic. As far as X - I HATE the dock, I want to kill the process or even better remove it from my systems. I never use spring loaded folders, but do use popup folders. I also want FinderPop and CopyAgent in X. Games also play horribly in X (ie. DiabloII or WarcraftIII). My main programs - After Effects, Commotion, Photoshop, Illustrator, Painter, and Premiere all work better in 9 or aren't yet available for X. If all I did was surf the web, write letters and listen to mp3's, I'd probably go with X.

Brett adds:

My experience is much the opposite of most of your commentators thus far, but I suppose that's because my use of Macs is purely personal. I teach at a community college that has only a small Mac installation, and that's solely OS 9.0.4 (because of budgetary and IT pressures). At home my Mac use is split between my trustworthy 68K Performa running 8.1 (for word processing, old games, and Quicken) and my new constant companion, an iceBook purchased last summer (for everything). It's been simply easier for me to keep in the classic Mac OS groove thus far with my daily apps of Claris/AppleWorks, Nisus Writer, Eudora, iMovie, and Ambrosia's Escape Velocity:Nova (as my game addiction) running and booting in OS 9. Now with the recent release of Eudora in OS X (and the wonderful ability to create PDFs from Print Preview), I am more frequently in OS X, but I still miss the speed and bells and whistles with which my OS 9 is accoutered. Jaguar (and more RAM than 128MB) may change my tune.

Rob McNair-Huff is a longtime Mac user and writer from the Pacific Northwest. In addition to writing about the Mac, and running this Web site, Mac Net Journal, he is the author of two books - Insiders' Guide to the Olympic Peninsula and Mountain Bike America: Washington - and he is working with his wife Natalie to write a third book this year called Birding Washington. If you have a need for Mac consulting, writing, Web design or photography help, check out Rob's business site: White Rabbit Publishing.
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