What was the Last Mac to boot in OS9?

[evil_santa]

I have been asked for advice by a graphic designer to help upgrade his Mac system, He has a PM 8600 with some upgrades. Photoshop 6, ATM 4.6, Quark 4.1 & Freehand 9. He also has a Linotype Jade scanner (linocolor easy), Apple LaserWrite 4/600ps & CRT monitors

I think his budget will run to a basic G5 tower, but he can not afford to upgrade all the software as well.

My suggestion is that he gets the last machine that could boot in os9 and then upgrade his software at a later date then switch to osX.

So what was the last Mac to boot in os9? Any other suggestion welcome.


Thanks
eSanta

 

[doucy2]

Powermac G4 MDD (Mirrored Door Drives)
rev A FW400 -- Without FW800

 

[Sun Baked]

i believe the last one was the agp edition power mac g4
anyone correct me if i am wrong

PowerMac G4 MDD rev A -- the one without FW800.

Apple released the PM MDD rev. B with FW800 killing OS 9 -- then went back to the rev. A machines, which they kept around as the OS 9 Legacy machines.

Of course the last actual consumer machine sold in the regular AppleStore happened to be the eMac G4 -- but that machine turned into pot luck on which SDR machines actually shipped with OS 9 bootablility at the end. Some were capable, some weren't.

If a G4 has DDR memory it won't boot os 9, if a PM has FW 800 -- won't boot OS 9. If it's an SDR eMac, there is no clear cutoff.

 

[doucy2]

thanks for the clearification
i knew it was a powermac g4 of some kind (took my best educated guess)


if yoor friend wants a powermac g4 that can handle all his apps in os9 send him my way i have a upgraded g4 that i may be willing to part with

 

[wordmunger]

He might be better off getting a mac mini and upgrading some of his software. Some of that runs fine in classic mode. (One thing I don't know -- does the mini run clasic mode?)

 

[Bear]

The absolute last machine to support OS 9 booting was the PowerMac G4 MDD (2003).

When Apple came out with the PowerMac G4 FW800 model which could only boot OS X, they also had the MDD 2003 which was essentially the MDD introduced in 2002. (But fewer configurations.)

 

[Lacero]

The Power Mac G4 Dual 1.42 GHz MDD, I believe.

 

[Sun Baked]

The Power Mac G4 Dual 1.42 GHz MDD, I believe.

That was a Rev. B machine with FW800.

 

[iGary]

The Power Mac G4 Dual 1.42 GHz MDD, I believe.

I got my PowerMac 1.25 single in October of 2003 - it was the last of Apple to have OS9 installed. The duals had been discontinued at that time.

 

[evil_santa]

thanks for the replies, would the Scanner & Printer run under osX, I know another designer who had a load of trouble with a Linotype Hell, I think he has a os 9 machine just for scanning.

 

[Bear]

thanks for the replies, would the Scanner & Printer run under osX, I know another designer who had a load of trouble with a Linotype Hell, I think he has a os 9 machine just for scanning.

I don't know the answer to that, but might I suggest your friend will want to keep his old system for a while to handle things that need OS 9 and won't run in classic mode?

 

[Sun Baked]

thanks for the replies, would the Scanner & Printer run under osX, I know another designer who had a load of trouble with a Linotype Hell, I think he has a os 9 machine just for scanning.

The Linotype scanner may run under

http://www.hamrick.com/vuescan/vuescan.htm#linotype

or the SilverFast software

http://www.silverfast.com/product/en.html

Since it is probably a SCSI scanner, a new SCSI card will be needed, and probably a new one again later when switching to a G5.

But unless he has the OS X version of Quark ... it may be a pain.

The Apple LaserWriter would need a AppleTalk-to-Ethernet Bridge.

Basically, this was the pain of switching to OS X, and some of the newer machines.

Edit: Basically a pain to test the scanner out on your G5, since you have to test/debug SCSI cards and software.

 

[Eric5h5]

I think his budget will run to a basic G5 tower, but he can not afford to upgrade all the software as well.

Why doesn't he just get the G5 tower and run Classic for the OS 9 applications? Then upgrade them later one at a time, maybe.

--Eric