I just got my first mac a few days ago (powebook g4). i am new to this whole mac os. What is classic mode and when or why would i want to use it. thanks for any help you can give.
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newbie mac user here i have a question about classic
- Thread starter mfogel2002
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classic is away to run os9 and earlier peograms without rebooting into os 9 or if your comp is supported by 9 if there is a piece of software that was discontinued 9not made for osx0 you can use classic to run it 
I just switched to my first Mac about 3-4 months ago and just this week I reinstalled OS X and I didn't install classic. It's pretty worthless if you are a new user. The main purpose of it is to run old programs that don't support / weren't written for OS X. Its roughly the same to the compatibility mode Microsoft built into Windows XP to run older Windows 95 programs that won't work in XP.
Don't worry about it really, you will probably never need to use it. If you need to use it it will start up automagically and do whatever needs doing and close when you are finished. Its pretty seemlessly integrated.
Don't worry about it really, you will probably never need to use it. If you need to use it it will start up automagically and do whatever needs doing and close when you are finished. Its pretty seemlessly integrated.
mfogel2002 said:
Unless you used Macs prior to this powerbook, you're not familiar with "Legacy" software. Programs that were written before OS X was released will only work on OS 9.2.2 or earlier operating systems. During the transition from OS 9 to OS X Apple wrote in support for these "Classic" or older programs into OS X so until 3rd party programmers caught up to Apple you could still use these older programs from within OS X. I'm sure at some point (I'm not familiar with 'Tiger' yet) Apple will stop writing support for the "Legacy" programs, and we'll have to use only current versions of software written for OS X and later.
Celeron said:
the main difference is the Classic actually works
but yeah, its mainly for people who have been using macs for a long time (before OSX), and still have a couple programs that require OS9.
with the G5, there is no way to boot into OS9/Classic, so its slowly fading away....................
JeDiBoYTJ said:
Minor clarification:
The G5 cannot boot into OS 9, but it can run apps in Classic mode, which is part of OS X.
Another minor point:
Booting into OS 9 will run all the OS 9 apps. Classic mode, though, runs most OS 9 apps, but not all of them. At least it won't by default on my G5.
Usually apps that require direct hardware support seem to be limited in Classic. Oregon trail will run, but without sound. Episode 1 Racer won't install, but will play if installed in OS9 then booted into X.
I say there's no need for Classic today, but someone would contradict me. Maybe they think Oregon Trail is the greatest thing ever, I don't know. But I do know that as a new switcher you probably won't need OS9 at all. I switch in the beginning of 03 and even then I had a hard time finding Classic apps that weren't already made for OSX (only one was VGS, a PS1 emulator).
I say there's no need for Classic today, but someone would contradict me. Maybe they think Oregon Trail is the greatest thing ever, I don't know. But I do know that as a new switcher you probably won't need OS9 at all. I switch in the beginning of 03 and even then I had a hard time finding Classic apps that weren't already made for OSX (only one was VGS, a PS1 emulator).
If you own a lot of Windows software then sometimes on your application CDs you will find Mac OS 9 versions on the CD. I found about a dozen apps from my entire Windows CD collection that had Mac software back in the days when I never considered owning a Mac.
Also you can find OS 9 software from the bargain bins of computer retailers that sell Windows / Mac combo CDs. If you are really lucky, the manufacture will provide a free update to OS X for that app from their website.
Also you can find OS 9 software from the bargain bins of computer retailers that sell Windows / Mac combo CDs. If you are really lucky, the manufacture will provide a free update to OS X for that app from their website.
Typically, don't bother with running games in "classic" mode, if they're remotely recent, they'll usually run horribly.