[Sarpedon]

Can some one tell me why people are saying the new 1.25 iMac can't boot in OS 9? What has changed from previous iMacs? I have a 700mhz FP iMac and I installed OS 9.2.2 not problems so what's the give? It's still a G4 after all.

Is it because it does not ship with OS 9 or is something else going on inside?

[Eriamjh]

"All new Macs shipped in 2003 will only boot OSX" - Steve Jobs, sometime in 2002.

OS9 development at Apple has ended, except to support "Classic" within OSX. It boils down to the fact that every new piece of hardware, be it a processor, or RAM, or USB2.0, requires a new piece of the OS to support it. Apple is not going to write any new modules or extensions for OS9 so thusly it is not supported.

If someone were to figure out how to "hack" the new iMacs to boot OS9, many new hardware features would not be supported.

If you like OS9, don't buy new Mac hardware. OSX isn't the future. It is the present.

All Macs ship with OS9 installed as "Classic" and will continue to do so for several years. If you have software that doesn't work in Classic, you should prepare to make the move to OSX by updating or replacing said software. Otherwise, keep that old Mac around for running your old software.

[Sarpedon]

Thanks Eriamjh.

I'll just have to live with it I guess.

It's not that any of the software I have only functions in OS 9 its just that some of it works better in OS 9. And I wanted to know a little more before I bought a new machine.

For most of the work I do I use OS X and I like it so much more stable than OS 9.

Thanks again.

[OldManMac]

What is this OS 9 you speak of?

[Sarpedon]

"What is this OS 9 you speak of?"

Children! There sending us children now! Oh God! What hope is there?

Fear not little one sit down and I'll tell you a tale.

Long long ago there lived an old operating system called OS 9. He was old and tired but his mind was quick and almost stable most of the time. He was the last of his tribe, the last of a long line of OSs but his time had come.

One day he turned on and found he was not alone. A new, young, different OS sat upon the desk top and eyed him with contempt.

"Hay dude. I'm OS X and my best friend Unix so your stuffed. Nik-off."

OS 9 looked in wonder at the translucent blue slides, transparent windows, at the dock and the blue apple and was ashamed. He was just too 2D for this new world.

Broken hearted, replaced, out moded, he withdrew into the wasteland of cyberspace were the solar wind howl and old OSs wonder through time visited only my old 333 iMac and G3 towers owners and other strange old and withered computer people.

He is there still.