It’s been a long (and initially bumpy) road from OS 9 to OS X. When I first started using OS X, Classic was practically a necessity. There was a clear lack of a good web browser and I regularly ran IE for OS 9 in Classic. There were a number of other applications that I also had no good OS X equivalents for (Office for one). As the days turned into weeks, months, and years, I soon figured out that not only did I not have a reason to boot into OS 9 anymore, I wasn’t using Classic either.
By the time the Intel Macs rolled around, I couldn’t think of a single piece of OS 9 software I still needed or wanted to run. Apple, via knowledgebase article, has announced that the days of Classic and all that’s left of OS 9, is now dead.
Classic applications do not work on Intel processor-based Macs or with Mac OS X 10.5.
Upgrade your Mac OS 9 applications to Mac OS X versions. Check with an application’s manufacturer for more information.
This doesn’t bother me a bit. Are any of you still using applications in Classic?
I find that SheepShaver works very well for most of my OS9 needs on on MacBook Pro. The only thing is it doesn't seem to do QuickTime movies - or, at least, it doesn't do QT movies in Myst.
I find that SheepShaver works very well for most of my OS9 needs on on MacBook Pro. The only thing is it doesn't seem to do is QuickTime movies - or, at least, it doesn't do QT movies in Myst.
I still use Marathon from time to time, but my daughter has outgrown the last of the kiddie software that was Classic only.
Wow, I didn't know that Classic would no longer be supported in Leopard. I am one of those "stragglers" still using Classic applications.
I am a physician, who has a large (>30,000 document) library of scientific journal articles that I use as references for clinical and research purposes. Most articles published before 1999 (post-1999 are pdfs available from the journal publishers) were scanned in OmniPage, an application that hasn't been supported (in a current Mac version) by its present owner, Nuance. There is an OSX version, OmniPageX, but it lacks features and utility that were present in the original. To save physical space, I threw out the original articles after scanning them.
Does anyone have any suggestions how to readily convert these files into a format that is usable on Leopard? I can convert OmniPage files into tiff files, then combine them into pdfs using Acrobat Professional, but that is a bit tedious, AND it precludes the possibility of optical character recognition after conversion.
The primary reason I haven't purchased an Intel Mac was because I knew they weren't going to support Classic applications, but I didn't know this would happen to my G5s running Leopard. My Leopard update has been postponed until I can figure out a work-around.
Any help would be appreciated.
I was prepared to be upset, but then I remembered that I only have one PowerPC mac left. I can't say that I've missed Classic so far on the Intel macs.
As a "switcher" ( 1 year with mini and mbp) I have no idea what Classic is, but I can infer from the reading above what it does for OS9 app users. I hope it doesn't bother a lot of the folks out there that the group like me is growing so huge.
Excuse me, no web browser? OmniWeb predated OS X. I never relied on classic all that much (I think I used it a couple times only to decide it wasn't worth it).
I own an old Rocket eBook and the software for loading and formatting books only runs in Classic. My husband loves Shanghai and we haven't found anything quite like it available in OS X. Most of the OS X versions are way too complex and overdone. Except for these two applications, we don't use Classic at all anymore.
We still use PageMaker to output files for our customers stuck in the past. The InDesign conversion is not an option as it leaves a lot to be desired.
I've still a single mission-critical application I must run in Classic: Textures, a very nice Mac implementation of the TeX typesetting system. There is an OS X beta for Textures, but it is not completely functional: it doesn't work with the format I use to obtain end-of-line word hyphenation with italian rules, and, since I live in Italy, I must typeset many documents in italian. Ok, there are many other implementations of TeX for Mac OS X, but, as I said, Textures is a very nice one, and most of the others are rather crude unix ports, which create and fill folders in the part of the HD the Finder normally cannot see. This is a sufficient reason to postpone the upgrade to Leopard.
That said, when I'll upgrade I'll miss many other old little applications, some funny games, that run only in Classic. But this is just a sentimental thing, with no practical consequences: after all, I never parted with any of the 10+ Macs I've been using since 1988 and I've still a choice of machines to run those old apps on, when I'll get into a nostalgic mood.
Yeah, well, it's not really a surprise that Classic is on its way out. I have a 2001 iMac (the last of the CRT models) and other than a somewhat dim screen, it just keeps working and working (well, it's on its second hard drive and FOURTH CD drive, but it's been on 24/7 for six years now). I got a whole bunch of really great multimedia software with it (Apple was getting rid of their OS 9 software in cheap for-education packages) like Final Cut Pro 2, Cinema 4D v.6, Photoshop Elements, etc. The old software still works great for my basic use, and would be expensive to upgrade, so yeah, I will be sorry to see it go. On the other hand I just bought a new 24" iMac (just missed the free upgrade to 10.5), so I am getting used to the new bells & whistles now. Hmm, that old iMac screen looks SO small and dark. I'll keep booting up OS 9.2 and 10.3 until it dies, though.
To add onto what Stuart said above, I have OmniPageX, and it really isn't OS X compatible in my book, since you need Classic to install it. Once installed, it runs just fine under OS X.
Are there any other OCR packages for Leopard that don't cost a fortune? It's not that I'm cheap, I just don't perform OCR all that much. I guess I'll replace it with one of the windows packages running under boot camp.
I have quite a number of Classic apps (mostly games) which I want to be able to run for an indefinite amount of time yet. I somehow missed the fact that Leopard won't support Classic any more, good thing I didn't order the family pack as at least one of my PowerPC machines will stay on Tiger forever it seems.
For Stuart,
Can you not install a Windows version of OmniPage under Parallels or something similar? The Windows version may well have compatibility extending back that far or perhaps you could install an older version (Even using an older version Windows if OS/OmniPage compatability were an issue).
HOW ON EARTH do you use a Classic app natively on an Intel Mac???
I just learned of this poorly documented "feature" of Leopard ... after just completing the Leopard installation on my PowerMac G5. I chose the PowerMac G5 because it was still able to run Classic applications (unlike the Intel-based Macs). I have been with Apple since the introduction of the original Mac in 1984. I have a database of 5,000 contacts and other reference information that I have developed over decades of use. Because it is driven by an old, unsupported software package, it makes a perfect place to store password clues and other information that hackers would not waste time attacking. Now it appears that the only way I will be able to access this file is to load Mac OS 10.4 (Tiger) onto a second hard disk drive, and then boot up from that disk when I need information from that file. Not exactly the integrated software I was expecting from Apple.
I understand software "moves on", but I think Apple could have been a little more open with its customers when it decided to drop support for Classic. I didn't complain when Classic was not available on Intel-based Macs ... if people needed Classic applications, they could just run with G4's or G5's. But I am very unhappy Apple decided to so quietly eliminate Classic in their latest and greatest operating system.
Funny, I will NOT buy Leopard.
That's because I have lots of OS 9 Games, so I need it.
I also have a PowerBook G3 and the only way for DVD Playback is OS 8.6 or OS 9. The Lombard PowerBook was sold with an Apple DVD Drive in 1999 and OS X sold on 2000 NEVER Supported that DVD Drive, nor the ATI Rage Pro LT card inside that PowerBook.
Amazing.
Anyway, almost nobody pays for Apple Software in Argentina (you can buy copies of Apple software almost everywhere for a few bucks). Macs are very expesnive here and that's the reason (the cheaper Mini Mac costs more than 1000 US Dollars)