Apple Has Confirmed: Certian macs to boot into 9 in '03

http://maccentral.macworld.com/news/0212/13.boot.php
Apple today confirmed that several of its current Macintosh configurations would be able to boot into Mac OS 9 until June 2003. While speculation was that Apple would be making such a move to accommodate customers of QuarkXPress, which is currently only available in an OS 9 version, Apple also pointed to its education customers as a reason for the move.

"We are pleased to report that education customers are rapidly adopting Mac OS X, and are now ordering over 50 percent of their Macs with Mac OS X as the default OS," Apple said in a statement given to MacCentral today. "Apple expects this percentage to climb to over 75 percent by the start of the next education buying season this April."

Apple said that certain models of the current product line would be made available to educators until June of 2003 to help the transition of educational institutions.

"To accommodate the last 25 percent who still wish to buy their Macs with OS 9 installed as the default OS, Apple will continue to offer our Education customers some configurations of the current eMac, iBook, and CRT iMac product lines that will boot into Mac OS 9 until June 2003," the statement says.

Apple will also be offering its design professionals that use Quark the option to buy a Mac that will boot into OS 9.

"Apple's professional customers are rapidly adopting Mac OS X, with more than 80 percent now choosing Mac OS X as their default OS," Apple's statement to MacCentral reads. "This past September, Apple announced that starting in January 2003 all new Mac models will only boot into Mac OS X, while retaining the ability to run most Mac OS 9 applications using Mac OS X's 'Classic' software. To accommodate a minority of our pro customers still running Mac OS 9 applications such as QuarkXPress, Apple will continue to offer a 1.25 GHz dual processor Power Mac that will boot into Mac OS 9 until June 30, 2003."

The statements today from Apple do not totally go against Steve Jobs' announcement at Apple Expo Paris that all new Macs would only boot into Mac OS X in 2003. In his keynote address Jobs said that all new Macs built in 2003 would boot into OS X only -- Apple's statements today say they will offer certain configurations of their current product to customers that still want the OS 9 booting option.

Originally posted by irmongoose


Apple doesn't want to hurt its customers, but they have to do this in order for developers to realise that OS 9 is DEAD, and that it is time to move on to OS X. By not allowing machines to boot into 9, they are trying to persuade the developers into making OS X versions of their software. This is a necessary step in the conversion to X, and if Apple doesn't do this, we will have to keep OS 9 lagging behind while we move onto OS 11, 12 and so on.

Apple is moving to the future, and if developers haven't got on the bandwagon by this time, it pretty much means they won't, unless Apple does something about it. If new machines can't use their software, nobody buys their software, and then they don't make anymore money. So what do they have to do? Move to OS X. It's just the only way that is going to work.

irmongoose

Click to expand...

I completely agree with you irmongoose, and the developers do need to get on the ball, but that is was doesnt make sense here, why in the world would Apple keep OS 9 machines just for a company like Quark who has yet to get on the ball, they are lagging way behind with a OS X version of Xpress and this is only going to help them slack more.....

Come on, Developers! Developers! Developers!