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Was OS 9 ever free?

Nermal

Nermal

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Original poster
Staff member
Dec 7, 2002
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New Zealand
I'm just curious about something. I recently 'restored' my iMac G3. I used the original Software Restore CD to install OS 8.6 onto a fresh drive, then I used my retail OS 10.3 CDs to set up a dual-boot with OS X.

When I tried to run Classic, it just casually told me to update my System Folder to OS 9.1 or later. As far as I recall, you had to buy OS 9. It just seems a bit on the nose to say "thank you for buying OS X, now go and buy OS 9". Is that really what happened back in the day or have I missed something?
 
Nermal said:
I'm just curious about something. I recently 'restored' my iMac G3. I used the original Software Restore CD to install OS 8.6 onto a fresh drive, then I used my retail OS 10.3 CDs to set up a dual-boot with OS X.

When I tried to run Classic, it just casually told me to update my System Folder to OS 9.1 or later. As far as I recall, you had to buy OS 9. It just seems a bit on the nose to say "thank you for buying OS X, now go and buy OS 9". Is that really what happened back in the day or have I missed something?
Click to expand...
You are missing the fact that most people had OS9 installed on their drives already when they went out and got OS X. Up until 10.4, it still functioned as Classic or as a separately bootable system. It's only when you had to do a wipe of the drive and reinstall or got an entirely new system without OS9, that any of this became apparent.

For the record, everything from System 1 to System 7.5.5 7.5.1 is freeware. Apple released it all at some point on the website. Everything from System 7.6.1 7.5.5 to current is still copyright. Apple did not stop charging for the OS until Lion was launched. And you had to be on Snow Leopard to get it at the time, which meant buying SL.
 
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Thanks. There's a bit of history there that I wasn't familiar with. But (there's always a "but" :))...

eyoungren said:
You are missing the fact that most people had OS9 installed on their drives already when they went out and got OS X.
Click to expand...
Was that actually true at the time? Looking at Wikipedia, it was ~18 months between the release of OS 9 and OS X. Were people really upgrading their paid OS that often? I seem to recall that 9 was seen as a bit lacklustre at the time, with some people saying it was really "8.7" with a lick of paint. When OS X went to yearly updates with Lion, people began to complain that they were coming out too quickly, and that was when the updates were cheap.

In short, I wonder how many people skipped 9 and went straight to X... only to find that they needed to get 9 if they wanted to run Classic (without rebooting).

eyoungren said:
For the record, everything from System 1 to System 7.5.1 is freeware. Apple released it all at some point on the website. Everything from System 7.5.5 to current is still copyright.
Click to expand...
Isn't 7.5.5 a free upgrade from 7.5.x? So I think 7.6 was the first paid one?

I'm just curious about how this all worked. It's a bit moot now :)
 
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Nermal said:
[…] It just seems a bit on the nose to say "thank you for buying OS X, now go and buy OS 9" […]
Click to expand...
Retail copies of Mac OS X v10.0 and v10.1 also included a retail Mac OS 9 install disc. (Jaguar, Panther and Tiger didn’t.)

Additionally, every PowerPC Mac shipped after the release of Mac OS X also came with a full copy of a Mac OS 9 System Folder to boot natively and/or use with Classic.

And you can still download an image of a full Mac OS 9.2.2 System Folder straight from Apple's servers. So, even if you switched from, say, Mac OS 8.6 to Jaguar, Panther or Tiger and wanted to run Classic, there were ways to obtain the necessary bits free of charge — even though Mac OS 9 was never “officially” free. ;)

eyoungren said:
Apple did not stop charging for the OS until Lion was launched. And you had to be on Snow Leopard to get it at the time, which meant buying SL.
Click to expand...
Lion and Mountain Lion weren't free. Mavericks was the first version to be released free of charge.
 
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Nermal said:
Was that actually true at the time? Looking at Wikipedia, it was ~18 months between the release of OS 9 and OS X. Were people really upgrading their paid OS that often? I seem to recall that 9 was seen as a bit lacklustre at the time, with some people saying it was really "8.7" with a lick of paint. When OS X went to yearly updates with Lion, people began to complain that they were coming out too quickly, and that was when the updates were cheap.

In short, I wonder how many people skipped 9 and went straight to X... only to find that they needed to get 9 if they wanted to run Classic (without rebooting).
Click to expand...
It was true with three of my first employers (in my current occupation). OS9 on a G4 was the last system I used in 1999 before moving to Arizona. My first job here was with a G4 running…OS9. My third job here had a G4 with…OS9.

So perhaps consumers were unwilling to upgrade, IDK, but the businesses I worked for did.

Nermal said:
Isn't 7.5.5 a free upgrade from 7.5.x? So I think 7.6 was the first paid one?

I'm just curious about how this all worked. It's a bit moot now :)
Click to expand...
You're right. I get 7.5.1 and 7.6.1 mixed up. I have a IIci on 7.5.5.
 
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Nermal said:
So I think 7.6 was the first paid one?
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According to Wikipedia, System 5.0 was the first major version to be sold in retail (in addition to being available for free download). System 7.1 was the first paid minor update.
 
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Amethyst1 said:
According to Wikipedia, System 5.0 was the first major version to be sold in retail (in addition to being available for free download) and 7.1 was the first paid minor update.
Click to expand...
Yes, I have a copy of that. It came in a similar box with manuals to the Retail 6.x release. System 4.x and earlier were OEM releases that came with hardware. My SEs came with the shortlived System 4.0.
 
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I had a Dual G4 1GHZ Quicksilver Machine. OS9 9.01 Came on it.

I also had a Blue and White G3. SCSI. Came with 8.6.

Hated the G3. So Dam Slow

LOVED my Quicksilver. Got a lot of Audio restoration accomplished on that machine and lots of audio mixes.

A REAL WORKHORSE. the fan burned out but got a fancy chrome one to replace it. Ran cooler and SO RELIABLE!
 
eyoungren said:
Apple did not stop charging for the OS until Lion was launched. And you had to be on Snow Leopard to get it at the time, which meant buying SL.
Click to expand...
I don't know about you but I bought Lion and Mountain Lion from the Mac App Store.
 
I also bought both Lion and Mountain Lion, back in the day.
Even though both are available for free now, from the Apple Support page, I can still download both of those again from the Purchased tab in the App Store. (and did that last month, just to check if there was any difference, compared to the Support downloads (no difference :cool: )
 
Amethyst1 said:
Retail copies of Mac OS X v10.0 and v10.1 also included a retail Mac OS 9 install disc. (Jaguar, Panther and Tiger didn’t.)
Click to expand...
Ah! That's probably one of the missing pieces of the puzzle. I never bought 10.0 or 10.1 so wasn't aware of that. So in that case, yes, most people probably did have OS 9 at the time then and would have been unlikely to end up in my 'predicament'.
 
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iHorseHead said:
I don't know about you but I bought Lion and Mountain Lion from the Mac App Store.
Click to expand...
I was on Lion for all of about 30 minutes. That was only to upgrade to ML, 2010, on a work Mac. I do not recall my boss paying for it. Mavericks was really where I came in when it comes to Intel Macs - it's what I used the longest at work.

I didn't start using Snow Leopard until about 2014 on my own Intel Mac.
 
Nermal said:
I'm just curious about something. I recently 'restored' my iMac G3. I used the original Software Restore CD to install OS 8.6 onto a fresh drive, then I used my retail OS 10.3 CDs to set up a dual-boot with OS X.

When I tried to run Classic, it just casually told me to update my System Folder to OS 9.1 or later. As far as I recall, you had to buy OS 9. It just seems a bit on the nose to say "thank you for buying OS X, now go and buy OS 9". Is that really what happened back in the day or have I missed something?
Click to expand...
MacOS 9 was not included with the Mac OS X retail copies. It was only bundled with the Macs.
 
eyoungren said:
I was on Lion for all of about 30 minutes. That was only to upgrade to ML, 2010, on a work Mac. I do not recall my boss paying for it. Mavericks was really where I came in when it comes to Intel Macs - it's what I used the longest at work.

I didn't start using Snow Leopard until about 2014 on my own Intel Mac.
Click to expand...
Lion was available for £20/$30 as a download or £55/$69 if you wanted to upgrade directly from Leopard and needed it on a USB stick because you didn't have the App Store (came with 10.6.8?) to buy it from.

OS-X-Lion-USB-BUY.png


There is still a link to the paid-for download on the UK Apple Store.

OS X Lion 10.7 - Apple (UK)

Apple Store Search Results
www.apple.com
 
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Nermal said:
Was that actually true at the time? Looking at Wikipedia, it was ~18 months between the release of OS 9 and OS X. Were people really upgrading their paid OS that often? I seem to recall that 9 was seen as a bit lacklustre at the time, with some people saying it was really "8.7" with a lick of paint. When OS X went to yearly updates with Lion, people began to complain that they were coming out too quickly, and that was when the updates were cheap.

In short, I wonder how many people skipped 9 and went straight to X... only to find that they needed to get 9 if they wanted to run Classic (without rebooting).
Click to expand...
I can’t speak for that era too much. In 2001 I was 5. Lol.
However, I’ve collected quite a bit of PPC Macs over the years. Most of them that still had a hard drive have all had Mac OS 9.x installed on them. Including both of my Bondi iMacs.
I think the only ones that didn’t were my Beige machines and PB1400.
What’s funny to me is the majority of them had 9.0, or 9.1, but not 9.2.2.

I do know that Mac OS X 10.0-10.1 and even 10.2 were lacking quite a bit of features so a lot of people still used OS 9.
 
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eyoungren said:
I was on Lion for all of about 30 minutes. That was only to upgrade to ML, 2010, on a work Mac. I do not recall my boss paying for it. Mavericks was really where I came in when it comes to Intel Macs - it's what I used the longest at work.

I didn't start using Snow Leopard until about 2014 on my own Intel Mac.
Click to expand...

Meanwhile, I started using Snow Leopard on Friday, 4 September 2009 — when I bought a replacement MacBook Pro from an Apple store — and I haven’t stopped using Snow Leopard. :D

At the time — that day in September — I remember being kind of miffed how how same model MacBook Pro a cohort of mine had bought just a week and change earlier (from the same Apple store) came bundled with 10.5.8, whereas mine was pre-installed with 10.6.0.

Seeing how this MBP was replacing my stolen MBP (which ran 10.5.7), I was hoping I’d have a bit of time to wait for minor Snow Leopard updates before moving up to it. So my adoption ended up being a trial-by-fire.


Anyway, as others have noted, 10.0 Cheetah and 10.1 Puma were not ready for prime time in so many ways, and a lot of the design agencies I worked with then were hesitant to move workstations away from OS 9, even as late as 2002. The few times one might see 10.0 or 10.1 in the wild were on the desks of office managers and account executives (who for some reason weren’t using Windows 2000 or XP on a PC).
 
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B S Magnet said:
Meanwhile, I started using Snow Leopard on Friday, 4 September 2009 — when I bought a replacement MacBook Pro from an Apple store — and I haven’t stopped using Snow Leopard. :D
Click to expand...
September 4, 2009 (sorry, American :))…ah that was about a week or two before my TiBook would die and the hunt for a replacement started. Between then and Christmas 2009 I got by with a PC I had lying around.

My daughter was 1 and my son was in first grade. There was about 3.5 years left before the G5 at work would also die and the boss got me a Mac Pro.
 
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