Mac OS X: Classic or Dud?

One hater at a time.

System 7 was the last Mac OS I used (circa... 1996, maybe?) before going into a long dark night of nothing but Windows, several of those years not even owning a computer. When I came back, OS X was in full swing. I have no idea what OS 9 even looks like. (Maybe I'll search the amazing internet for screenshots!)

also, jeezy creezy stet. I will never complain again about our IT department or not having the most current software. (Note: this is a lie.)

funny, a few weeks ago I was reading a site that says System 6 is the last true and great Mac operating system.

Lots of System 6 folks thought that 7 was the apocalypse when it arrived, and perhaps not without justification. The instabilities most folks associate with Mac OS (classic) were properties of systems 7 through 9. E.g., I remember doing layout with Pagemaker on a Mac IIsi in 1986-7, and it never ever crashed or hung up. I don't recall what version of Mac OS system version it was, tho.

I don't know which UK newspapers other than the Guardian use OS X. I was at the G eight years ago when they finally abandoned green screen dumb terminals. 2000 might seem a long time ago now but believe me, even then, green screen felt a lot more WTF LOL than OS 9 does now.

i'm not so sure. i spend most of my working day creased up in mirth.

oh, no, hang on: that's agony and loathing.

I liked System 7 best of all. It looked good and had nearly everything I wanted in the Finder. It's a pity that it was of the age where you could really only use computers for actually doing stuff, not just pissing about. If it had a decent browser and iTunes, I'd be back on it in a shot.

(It was also pretty much as stable as System 6 was under MultiFinder. The crashes 7-9 saw were nearly all down to trying to do multi-tasking on a single-tasking OS with no memory protection.)

Does anybody know if you can run System 7 on a G4 Powerbook?? Yes I am insane.

Not without emulation, no.

I got a PB 550 (I think) off eBay to run it. Churned out essays with Word 5.1, but getting ILX up on Netscape was an exercise in pain.

I remember doing layout with Pagemaker on a Mac IIsi in 1986-7, and it never ever crashed or hung up. I don't recall what version of Mac OS system version it was, tho.

probably 6.5.x with multifinder

Word 5.1, how I miss it, easily the best edition of MS Word.

Still is on the Mac, but Word 2007 for PC is better, finally. Is first good version of PC Word, too.

haxor me just got leopard working on an old dual 450! (it's not perfect, but it runs well enough)

Not had the pleasure of word 2007 yet, although I think we are about to upgrade from 2000 here.

probably 6.5.x with multifinder

I would guess closer to system 3:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mac_OS#Graphical_timeline

IIsi had to be at least 4.0

(and if it had MultiFinder it was at least 5.0, which didn't last long before 6 came out)

I think that the Multifinder thing was a guess on Ed's part. But it was certainly a IIsi.

It also had a 21" monochrome Radius display that required a special card. Pops gave it to me in about 97 and I maxed out the RAM to like 24MB or something and put NetBSD on it.

IIsi had to be at least 4.0

Nope. The IIsi initially shipped with System 6.0.7 (which was really just 6.0.5 patched to run on the IIsi and the LC)

http://lowendmac.com/ii/macintosh-iisi.html

Obviously I'm confused about something. Pops DID give me a IIsi; maybe that's not what I used when I worked for him. I moved to Richmond in 1990, and for a year before that, I was washing dishes for a retirement home, so there's no way I was using a IIsi for layout.

oh yeh, sorry, it's the plain II that used 4.0

Bloody hell, the 10.5.3 updater is 420MB!

4:20

lol update is hueg

But it does say it fixes some issues with Active Directory binding. I haven't gotten full-on LDAPped-up yet, but do ya think that might also help fix the fact that there are hissy fits when mounting and unmounting NFS volumes?

Time will tell, I spose.

Question, and I don't want to ask on the I Hate thread: Is it wrong of me to feel deep within my soul that installing Symantec Norton Anti-Everything on my Mac at work is a stupid fucking thing to do? Am I wrong to suspect that this is another instance of our clueless IT department not understanding that this isn't Windows XP? Am I a bad person if I actually feel a bit insulted?

it was only 198MB for me but that is still pretty hoofing.

Is it wrong of me to feel deep within my soul that installing Symantec Norton Anti-Everything on my Mac at work is a stupid fucking thing to do?

no, it is a fucking stupid thing to do

I wouldn't install norton anti-everything. There was a good article on Ars a while back on the good open source alternatives to stuff like that for Windows, Linux and OS X. An AV-tool is a good thing if only because it'll stop you passing through any windows nasties.

Yeah because I spend sooo much time forwarding ppt files with pictures of Jesus to my grandma. Fuck this, I'm not an idiot.

Ran the update and haven't noticed any problems so far, at least.

The only problem I've had -- and this happened with the 5.2 update as well -- is that after the update, Time Machine will try to back up the whole system again, and that's dandy, but for some reason if your machine goes to sleep during that first big backup, Time Machine will get stuck and never stop "preparing" to update. Solution: turn off the energy saver and "put hard drive to sleep" features for a while.

I was mere suggesting that there might be something that would satisfy your support team and not add a layer of software that will treat you as a moron.

my brother - who's just got a macbook, his first mac - installed the last update and it somehow messed with his safari, so he's getting 'unable to load nib file' errors every time he tries to open it. And then expecting me to know what to do to fix it. urk.

xpost Yeah, I know -- there's a nice beardo smart guy that comes around, and I'll ask him what we should use instead. Something lightweight will be fine. There's just no reason for us to be installing this giant suite of "parental controls" and the like -- uh... the OS already does that, but Gee Thanks Symantec!

http://clamxav.com/
http://arstechnica.com/guides/tweaks/five-security-apps-linux-osx-windows.ars/2

here's a similar question: any reason to install antivirus software in a virtualized environment (say, a VMware install of Windows XP)? If I got something I can just wipe that virtual OS out by deleting it and resintall, right? I only have this for browser checks and slsk (which isn't working very well) anyway.

Yes you can but that is a pain. See the above Ars article for open source windows de crapping tools.

VMware or Parallels?

Changes week by week almost as they add new features. Parallels, I think has the edge right now being able to interleave windows apps into os x.

Also on the windows wiping thing, if your xp is legit then you will come up against the windows activation limit if you reinstall from scratch every time.

good point. I ran/run AVG for antivirus stuff on windows, has worked fine for me in the past.

I try really hard to not be biased toward or against Macs but there's one thing I can't for the life of me understand.

The hardware looks like this:
http://techpaedia.com/apple/wp-content/uploads/2006/08/MacBook.png
which is slick and stylish but fairly conserrvative white goods design.

But the OS looks like this:
http://www.cnet.com.au/story_media/339283264/leopard-osx_1.jpg

Which looks like it was designed by a well meaning 14 year old star trek nut with no self control.

It's got fake 3D icons with several inconsistent perspectives, those cliched semi-transparent reflections that are now laughed at when used on the web, the style of the strip across the top of the screen clashes with the strip on the bottom, and the background image is the sort of abstract tosh knocked up in a 1000 photoshop tutorials mixed with an old school 8bit starfield and it's mostly PURPLE.

Okay, a lot people might like the budget sci-fi look, but why are the hardware and the software so, so inconsistent?

i feel your pain

because it's a computer

http://image.alienware.com/images/compare_images/3col_m9750.jpg

http://static.howstuffworks.com/gif/windows-vista-7.jpg

yeah the stock desktop with leopard (that purple thing) is atrocious. it still comes up when I'm logged out, have to find some way for it to disappear. it looks like a bad video game

http://c64vsspectrum.com/spectrum48k_jpg.jpg

http://www.bogwarrior.com/tutorials/speccy/loadup_screen.gif

"because it's a computer" Huh?