[Warning - rant likely!]
On Tue, Mar 27, 2001 at 10:15:00AM +0100, Robert Shiels wrote:
> >
> I have an original bondi-blue iMac, running MACOS9 at the moment, with 32Mb
> RAM. I was in an Apple shop at the weekend and found that a 128Mb upgrade
> and OSX will only set me back about 200gbp. I was assured that all my OS9
> applications will still work (my wife uses Clarisworks for WP, and the kids
> play their games), does anyone know if this is the case.
>
In theory yes, all software that runs under OS9.1 should run under Classic
(Mac OS X's emulation layer), however practice may prove to be something else.
Hardware support for third party devices is patch under Classic, as an example
Adobe advise that Photoshop users will NOT be able to use scanners etc. to
acquire images under Classic. Reboot into OS9.1 if you need to do that.
Unfortunately they is currently no definative list, so it's really a case of
trial and error to see what works.
As for the install, the current wisdom is to completely wipe the disk, do a
clean install of OS9.1 from the cd provided, install all your Classic
applications and make sure they work and check for third-party extensions
and control panels and if they're not needed, disable them as they are likely
to cause Classic not to load. Once you are happy that everything is as you
want it, install Mac OS X and then see what works. Worst case if you just
reboot back into OS9.1 and work out how to remove OS X.
> And also, will I be able to install perl,apache,mysql and other *nix
> goodness on it too - I've never gotten to grips with macperl really.
>
Perl comes pre-installed (5.6.0 for those interested), apache I think come
installed but not enabled (I haven't had a chance to check and don't really
need it on my powerbook), if it doesn't there are plenty of guides on the net
on how to install it (start at http://www.stepwise.com). I'm not sure if
anyone has ported mysql yet, I know I've seen a port of postgressql though.
Again check out Stepwise and maybe also Darwinfo (http://www.darwinfo.com).
The one thing I must say, is be prepared for things to be very different to
any *nix-like operating system you've used before, unless you've had prior
experience of NextStep/OpenStep. Mac OS X does stuff in a very different way
to say Linux of FreeBSD and will take some getting used to. The lack of
documentation on some of the key components (NetInfo for example) is a big
hinderence to making progress.
I think Mac OS X _will_ be a good OS, but right now I feel it still has some
growing to do. I'm perservering with making it my day to day OS on my laptop
but I will be recommending to all of my customers that unless they have a
pressing need to migrate that they should stay put and wait until at least the
summer when Apple are proposing to ship machines with it pre-installed to
see what improvements have been made.
In your case Robert, I'd recommend getting the memorey upgrade whilst prices
are good but that you stay with OS9 (preferably 9.1) until later in the year.
Neil.
--
Neil C. Ford
Managing Director, Yet Another Computer Solutions Company Limited
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
