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What is now called "Classic OS" including any system 9.X or earlier while having a friendly user interface did have some serious problems just beneath the surface. With increase demands by video, animation, audio and other "digital hub" tasks the Macintosh OS was at it's limit. Previous attempts, by Apple, to create a new operating system ended in failure and than came Steve Jobs and his company NeXT and it's UNIX-based OS called NeXTSTEP. What is now OS X is a blend of a new interface design Aqua based on a UNIX microkernal ( Mach 3 and FreeBSD 3.2) which gives a Mac user for the first time an industrial-strenght OS with the following advantages:
- Protective Memory - If one program crashes, the remaining programs can keep running without restarting.
- Preemptive Multitasking - The OS determines which program needs more system resources dynamically, which means while running multiple _programs you should notice fewer slowdowns.
- Advance Virtual Memory - In 9.X and earlier operating systems memory was manually assigned to your various programs and were not shared by-other programs even if the other program didn't even need the memory. The result is for a given Mac more programs can run with vastly improved pperformance. |
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| Preparing your current Mac to Run OSX involves many steps dependent on rather you use your Mac for Home use or in a professional setting. Besides owning a rather recent Mac, issues of memory, Hard Drive space and the compatibility of your current software and hardware are important to research before an OSX install. Setting priorities up in your work flow is vital if the transition to OS X is successful. In a couple of years from now this transition period will seem like a bad dream for some, but for others an opportunity to explore completely new areas of creativity. Because OSX roots are based in UNIX certain previous ways of organizing your information on your system, even for current projects, demand better organization than before. Since OS9.X Apple has been hinting at this by installing an Applications (OS9) and Documents folder on the default install of OS9.X. This is in preparation for a future install of OSX, but how many current OS 9.X users actually install their programs into this one folder? By following some well defined steps to organization of your system today, will greatly improve your OSX experience in the future. |
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| Before upgrading to OSX it is wise to create a list of all your vital software and hardware and see if they are/will be compatible with OSX either as they are or with some sort of upgrade. While it is possible to run a good deal of legacy software either in "Classic" emulation mode or by rebooting into a pure OS 9.X environment, neither solution is totally acceptable in the near future. Those of us who have been rebooting, or running in Classic mode for the last year or so, know how jarirng this can be to your creative flow. Menus are different, location of vital system preferences and printing requestors are completely different in the two different OS's. While it is true you can exist in this hybrid world of 2 OS's for now, upgrading as many of your key applications to Carbon versions that run fine under OS9.X and OSX should begin even before you install OSX. Many SCSI/Serial devices, including scanners and some earlier digital cameras will probably never work under OSX or even under "Classic" emulation. So if you don't want to be rebooting all the time to say scan something with your SCSI scanner than plan on buying a newer OSX, compatible scanner soon. Same is true for many earlier digital cameras that depended on a serial connection, but at least you can just obtain an inexpensive Media reader that has an USB interface to replace the direct camera connection. |
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Installing OSX is perhaps the easy part if you prepared your Mac properly. Having the latest 9.X version recommended by Apple at the time, installed either on it's own partion or the same drive partion is important for Classic emulation to work properly so checking Apple's web site for latest info and/or running the Software Update Control Panel under 9.X will help you have a successful install. Even the latest Boxed OSX version which includes a OS 9.X version can be out of date. It is Very Important to copy all of your local network and internet settings manually BEFORE installing OSX becuase these do not carry over during the installation process.The actual installation should be painless, just follow the onscreen instructions and keep those network/internet settings nearby. As soon as you boot into OSX you will want to take a trip to the System Prefereces Panel and check the Software Update Pane for any updates to OSX, as this OS is still a work in progress with frequent updates being posted by Apple.
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Troubleshooting OSX is very different than any earlier Mac OS. All of the various disc utilities and antivirius programs designed for previous Mac OS's WILL NOT WORK and in many cases actually makes things worst. Checking online for upgrades and compatibility issues FIRST is so important because OSX Unix core organizes key system files very diffirently than before. Backing up your OSX system files is radically different and as we are writing this OSX utilities are being released that can properly copy those hidden UNIX files for a successful Repair/Backup of your system. Checking Apple's OSX web site for the latest OSX related information will at least keep you informed about OSX evolution. There are many OSX books coming to bookstore shelves, I strongly urge you aquaint your self with the individual book before buying as they range from the novice to an UNIX programmer level. Also there are several good OSX related web sites with extremely useful information, Some of these are:
http://www.aquafiles.com/
http://www.macosxhints.com/
http://www.OSXFAQ.com/
http://www.macfixit.com/index.shtml
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