> >Date: Mon, 12 Apr 2004 16:55:35 -0700 (PDT) >From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >Subject: [1st]what OS version to use? >Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > >Hey folks- > >Just got a PowerMac 6300 and I'm wondering what OS to install onto it. >I would like to be running OS 8 or 9. I think 9.1 or 9.2 is the newest it >will support. > >I have heard that anything before 8.6 isn't worth running. What would you >folks recommend? 8.0, 8.1, 8.6, 9.1 or 9.2? 9.0, even? I don't have >much experience with the newer OSes (I'm a compact Mac guy, myself), but >I'd like to be running the least-buggy that I can get. And I'd like >something newer than OS 7.x. > >Thanks, > Nat > > >------------ >Nat Hall >[EMAIL PROTECTED] >------------ >
Adding to the recent discussion of OS 7 vs later systems, I'd like to tell why I like OS 7.6.1 better. 1. Computer graphics are executed much faster under OS 7.6.1 than under any later OS. To be specific, when I start a Power Mac in any version of OS 8, the test program called Let1kWindows Bloom takes 1.75 times longer to execute than if I boot up in OS 7.6.1. Under OS 9.1, there is a slight improvement in speed, but the test still takes about 1.5 or 1.6 times longer to execute under OS 9.1 than under OS 7.6.1. 2. The 7.6.1 Finder suits me better than later ones. Here are three reasons: 1). Transfer of a group of selected items from one window to another is much easier in OS 7.6.1 because the highlighting of selected items is retained when the destination window is brought to the front by a mouse click at the top, right side, or bottom. This does not work in any later OS. 2). An OS 7.6.1 window in list mode does not scroll vertically as I move items from another window into the top or bottom folder of the destination window. Under OS 8 or 9.1, the list scrolls while I am trying to drop the items into the top or bottom folder of the list and they often get placed into the wrong destination. I am therefore obliged to be very finicky under OS 8 or 9.1, which means those OSs are annoying to use. 3). The default option is to open folders after a short dwell on the icon. This is something a lot of people love, allowing them to drill down to inner folders without moving the mouse, but I always found this behavior unnerving. Fortunately, I can turn this option off anytime I need to run OS 8 or 9. 3. When I give a command to OS 8 (any version), it makes no visible response at first, making me think (if I am on a slow computer) that it didn't get the command. I'm tempted to repeat the command, which can then screw things up. OS 9, like OS 7, is much better at showing some immediate response to a command. 4. Under OS 7.6.1, BBEdit Lite 3.5.1 (which I use a lot) has a feature that is very useful to me. When saving an excerpt from a web page to a new file, I can generate the name of the new file by dumping a long extract from the text into the box that appears when I choose "Save As...", and then edit the string in that same box down to the maximum of 31 characters. Under later OSs (also later versions of BBEdit Lite), I cannot do this because only the first 31 characters of the selected string are dumped into the box. 5. I really dislike Sherlock 2 for finding a local file by name or date or whatever; I much prefer the OS 7.6 Find File (available by the keystroke Cmd-F). The only new feature of Sherlock for local files, Find by Content, is one I rarely need because I am careful to give informative titles to the files I create. [Fortunately, OS 7.6.1 "Find File" can be made available by Cmd-F under OS 9.1 -- provided that "Find File" and "Find File Extension" have been copied from the 7.6.1 System Folder into the new System Folder AND "Sherlock 2" is moved out of "Applications (Mac OS 9)".] 6. True, some programs require OS 8.6 or later. At present there are only four that I need to consider: TurboTax, Toast Titanium 5.1.3, Retrospect Express 4.3, and software to run my USB scanner. However, I run OS 7.6.1 on an upgraded Performa 6115CD, which has no FireWire or USB capabilities, so TurboTax is the only one of these four I need to worry about. Just for such eventualities, I keep an OS 9.1 partition on the Performa's external hard drive. Melvyn Halbert -- 1st-PowerMacs is sponsored by <http://lowendmac.com/> and... Small Dog Electronics http://www.smalldog.com | Refurbished Drives | -- Sonnet & PowerLogix Upgrades - start at $169 | & CDRWs on Sale! | Support Low End Mac <http://lowendmac.com/lists/support.html> 1st PowerMacs list info: <http://lowendmac.com/lists/1st-powermacs.shtml> --> AOL users, remove "mailto:"; Send list messages to: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For digest mode, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subscription questions: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> List archive: <http://mail.maclaunch.com/lists/1st-powermacs/> --------------------------------------------------------------- >The Think Different Store http://www.ThinkDifferentStore.com ---------------------------------------------------------------
