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Newbie ? about OS 9.2 (from an OS X user)
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mjrussell
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Join Date: May 2004
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May 12, 2004, 10:52 AM
 
I've spent about 2 years with my TiBook running OS X exclusively. Recently, I've been doing some work with a design group that uses only OS 9.2. I can find my way around that environment without too much trouble. What is troubling, though, is that at certain points the OS becomes unusable. For example, when going to the print dialog in Quark XPress when a large document is open, we can't do anything but wait, sometimes for up to 15-20 minutes, and 30-40 min while the print job is built. I've experienced this on the fasted machine they have: 1.25 GHz G4, 768 MB RAM. This is an extreme case, but I've seen the same behavior with any program that's busy: You can't do anything else until that one program is done.

On my OSX machine, if an app is busy, I just switch to another one and keep working. Is something wrong with their systems, or is this really how OS 9 operates?

Thanks,
Michael
     
bradoesch
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Join Date: Jun 2000
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May 12, 2004, 04:18 PM
 
OS 9 uses
cooperative multitasking
, which works exactly how you described it. There's nothing wrong, that was the technology of the time for a consumer OS. Remember, OS 9 is simply an upgraded version of the original Mac OS.

More modern operating systems (OS X, Windows 95 and later) use pre-emptive multitasking, which is what you're used to.
     
bowwowman
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Location: If I tellz ya, then I gotsta killz ya !
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May 23, 2004, 02:11 PM
 
Originally posted by mjrussell:
I've spent about 2 years with my TiBook running OS X exclusively. Recently, I've been doing some work with a design group that uses only OS 9.2. I can find my way around that environment without too much trouble. What is troubling, though, is that at certain points the OS becomes unusable. For example, when going to the print dialog in Quark XPress when a large document is open, we can't do anything but wait, sometimes for up to 15-20 minutes, and 30-40 min while the print job is built. I've experienced this on the fasted machine they have: 1.25 GHz G4, 768 MB RAM. This is an extreme case, but I've seen the same behavior with any program that's busy: You can't do anything else until that one program is done.

On my OSX machine, if an app is busy, I just switch to another one and keep working. Is something wrong with their systems, or is this really how OS 9 operates?

Thanks,
Michael
While the info about multitasking is 100% correct, you might want to check this:

Some print driver components, even though they are in the extensions folder, are actually small applications, and sometimes increasing the memory allocation (just like any OS 9 app) to them will help speed up the printing processs.

I found this to be the case a long time ago after I bought my first Epson Printer....and not very well known at the time.
Personally I find it hilarious that you have the hots for my gramma. Especially seeins how she is 3x your age, and makes your Brittney-Spears-wannabe 30-something wife look like a rag doll who went thru WWIII with a burning stick of dynamite up her a** :)
     
lookmark
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Join Date: May 2001
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May 24, 2004, 11:04 PM
 
Sigh. I'm about to work for a company for two months whose Art Dept. is still thoroughly lodged in OS 9. Amazing place to be (in design terms), but not quite up-to-date technically.

I'm about to reacquainted with *many* OS 9 behaviors I've been glad to forget about.
     
   
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