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olePigeon · Oct 27, 2006, 02:55 PM

If/when I get an Intel Mac, it'll be OS X only. Then, suddenly, my PowerBook is absolutely useless. Unlike my older beige G3 which can run OS 8 through 9, I can still use it to play all my old Mac games and quirky software.

My PowerBook... well, I can't run my old software on it, and I can't run any of the new software on it.

If I could install Classic on it, that'd be another story.

I know they won't, but it'd sure be nice if they released a firmware patch so the PPC Macs that could otherwise run Classic without the limiting firmware, could run Classic again.

kick52 · Oct 27, 2006, 02:57 PM

they should do, but they wont because its too backwards.

Dark Helmet · Oct 27, 2006, 02:58 PM

You're nuts.

Oneota · Oct 27, 2006, 03:10 PM

Man, just *think* how fast that sucker would boot OS 9, though. You'd barely even be able to see the Extensions March (anyone remember that? I kinda miss it...)!

krillbee · Oct 27, 2006, 03:12 PM

ok, what if you had a sawtooth g4, with an overdrive processor and tons of ram in it? wouldnt that be pretty blazing fast?

Dark Helmet · Oct 27, 2006, 03:25 PM

Originally Posted by Oneota

Man, just *think* how fast that sucker would boot OS 9, though. You'd barely even be able to see the Extensions March (anyone remember that? I kinda miss it...)!

Oh god I hated just because of conflicts.

Salty · Oct 27, 2006, 03:30 PM

That would require them going back and updating OS 9. Not gonna happen.

mitchell_pgh · Oct 27, 2006, 04:01 PM

Wait... why is your "PowerBook [become] absolutely useless?" It will still run OS X.

OS 9 is dead to me!

The Godfather · Oct 27, 2006, 04:57 PM

You can, with Sheepshaver.
The Mac Robotics Blog: Old school tricks gone forever. Or not?

turtle777 · Oct 27, 2006, 04:59 PM

Would that be even possible w/o an OS 9 update ? Don't think so.

-t

olePigeon · Oct 27, 2006, 05:42 PM

Originally Posted by mitchell_pgh

Wait... why is your "PowerBook [become] absolutely useless?" It will still run OS X.

OS 9 is dead to me!

Everything is moving to the new Intel processors. My PowerBook is useless because nothing will be updated for the newer software, and I can't run any vintage software.

goMac · Oct 27, 2006, 05:43 PM

It's not just a firmware patch. Requires an OS 9 update and driver updates for OS 9. ATI isn't going to want to update their OS 9 graphics drivers, and Apple's OS 9 team was already disbanded.

mac128k-1984 · Oct 27, 2006, 05:52 PM

There's a product I think its called sheep sheerer that allows intel macs to run classic. I haven't tried it but I've come across the websites.

goMac · Oct 27, 2006, 05:56 PM

Originally Posted by mac128k-1984

There's a product I think its called sheep sheerer that allows intel macs to run classic. I haven't tried it but I've come across the websites.

It's called SheepShaver and it's an emulator, so you still have to go grab a ROM from a Classic machine. And it doesn't have hardware accelerated graphics or anything. It's kinda glitchy.

The other problem i had with it was it couldn't run anything higher than 9.0.4.

Millennium · Oct 27, 2006, 07:50 PM

Originally Posted by goMac

It's not just a firmware patch. Requires an OS 9 update and driver updates for OS 9. ATI isn't going to want to update their OS 9 graphics drivers, and Apple's OS 9 team was already disbanded.

Just like GoMac said: it's not as simple as a firmware update (in whatever way a firmware update could be called 'simple'). Although OS9 was not as tightly tied to the hardware it ran on as, say, System 7, it was still much more tied to the hardware than OSX is. Getting OS9 to boot on newer machines would require significant updates to OS9 itself, and no one at Apple has done much with the OS9 code in years.

goMac · Oct 27, 2006, 07:52 PM

Originally Posted by Millennium

Just like GoMac said: it's not as simple as a firmware update (in whatever way a firmware update could be called 'simple'). Although OS9 was not as tightly tied to the hardware it ran on as, say, System 7, it was still much more tied to the hardware than OSX is. Getting OS9 to boot on newer machines would require significant updates to OS9 itself, and no one at Apple has done much with the OS9 code in years.

I wonder how big of a mess it would be to get OS 9 running on a G5...

Mastrap · Oct 27, 2006, 09:04 PM

Originally Posted by olePigeon

My PowerBook is useless because nothing will be updated for the newer software, and I can't run any vintage software.

So your Powerbook will stop working? The software it is running today will stop functioning? I don't think so. Your Powerbook will have the same functionality it has today.

alex_kac · Oct 28, 2006, 12:11 AM

And with the exception of some new apps, I expect PPC apps to be updated for awhile. I have two MacIntels and one G5 iMac. I update my G5 imac just as much as I do my Macintels.

IceEnclosure · Oct 28, 2006, 04:51 AM

Get a Digital Audio G4 and upgrade the card to 1.7GHz or whatever. Or the newer version even, Quicksilver? MDD?

hayesk · Oct 28, 2006, 08:49 AM

PPC apps are not going away soon. The work to make an app Intel-native is basically the same as making it universal - i.e. PPC & Intel. The only exceptions are CPU-intensive plugins that may have hand-tooled Intel assembly code.

I have a feeling this is why Adobe's Soundbooth is Intel-only. They probably tool a lot of filters from Cool-Edit which was a Wintel app.

Cadaver · Oct 28, 2006, 08:54 PM

Classic. Ick.
I went from MacOS 8.6 to Windows 2000 to MacOS X. MacOS 9 was so unstable for me it was virtually unusable.