No Classic on Intel Macs
John Gruber, one of my favorite Mac web writers (right behind C.K.) has discovered something in Apple's Universal Binary Programming Guidelines that may worry some people. Intel Macs will not support Classic in any way, shape, or form.This doesn't worry me because as soon as I got my first copy of OS X (the beta) I uninstalled Classic. I had seen the future and I didn't want to look back. However, some people with legacy apps should really get on the ball and upgrade your apps (if you can).
Is anyone out there still depending on Classic for mission critical apps?
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Harald Wagener said 4:19PM on 6-16-2005
A lot of creative/advertising/print stuff is still done in Quark XPress 4, and in an environment where You have this of part of a larger workflow, it's not just upgrading to a newer version of Quark or even changing horses and switching to InDesign. There is still a market for machines that boot into OS9, I've heard.
So, for some people, Classic isn't even an option, and dropping it might put them into MS' arms since a re-design of the complete workflow often is done in parallel to hoomogenizing a company's IT outfit.
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bt said 4:19PM on 6-16-2005
Sadly, yes. Outlook and Quark.
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Harry Richman said 4:19PM on 6-16-2005
Not a critical app, and in fact I use it less then once on month now, but a damn fun game, that I doubt will ever be updated, much less likely for Intel-os x, Sim Cinema Deluxe, I have all the original files from my Performa in the 90's.
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PJ Holden said 4:19PM on 6-16-2005
I use it to scan my original comic art on a Mustek A3 scanner - it doesn't have a mac os x driver - I'd buy a new A3 but the Mustek is about 90 and the alternatives are close to 1000.
-pj
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David said 4:19PM on 6-16-2005
I work for an Apple reseller and the first thing I can say is that most people don't buy Macs because they run Motorola or IBM chips. I've never had a customer ask me, "Is this the IBM or the Moto version?" What they care about is the Mac OS and the ease of use.
Second, I'm not sure that next June many of us will care about Classic. Over the last three years what I've seen is this: When Apple switched from booting into 9 to booting into X a significant number of my customers wanted reassurance that they could boot into 9 as 'usual.' By the time Panther was released more than half of my customers were already using OS X as their main OS. And right now I get very few questions about Classic.
That's not to say Classic isn't totally a non-issue. I have two customers who recently asked me to find two-four reliable OS 9 booting machines because they are running proprietary software that won't run in Classic and will need another 18-36 months to transition to OS X 100%.
A year from now I'm just not certain that a lack of Classic will be a big deal. And if Steve wasn't blowing smoke, this year won't see a dearth of new machines so for those who find Classic critical will still have opportunities to buy new machines.
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Blair Robinson said 4:19PM on 6-16-2005
I wouldn't be surprised if some third party were to create an emulator. Even if it could only emulate at 10% the speed of the processor, that would still likely be as fast as they would have ever run on native OS9 machines. Even so the amount of people using clasic now is miniscule, and they'll have two more years before NEW machines won't run it, and many more after that where there current machine still will.
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Ben said 4:19PM on 6-16-2005
bt: I guess you know you could get your hands on Quark for OS X (probably version 7 by the time you'd get an Intel-based Mac) and you could switch to Entourage or the Apple suite.
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Erick Erickson said 4:19PM on 6-16-2005
Yes, very mission critical: Old shareware games like Rescue and Galactica. How will I play them on an Intel machine! Guess I'll have to pull the old beige G3 Tower out of the closet.
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Tim O. said 4:19PM on 6-16-2005
no, I don't even have it installed.
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stretchdog said 4:19PM on 6-16-2005
Games! Games!! Games!!!
The only reason to keep classic!
I have a ton of Ambrosia SW shareware that I reg'd back in the 90s that I still love playing today! It's still the only reason that I keep Classic around! Although I still have those same computers that I played them on originally... I suppose I could go "true classic" but my PB is just so much faster!!!
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Dan said 4:19PM on 6-16-2005
Working around some researchers I know a few of them are still running OS9 for some specific software that was custom made. Not sure it'll be a big problem though.
And to bt, I was using classic for Outlook too for a while. I tried switching to Mail in Panther but it didn't work out so well. Once we upgraded to Tiger I tried Mail again and it worked much better. The big pain, though, was that the Outlook rules I set up were still working but Mail for some reason wouldn't check all the folders. So I had to recreate all the rules for Mail and turn them off in Outlook. Annoying, but it's a one time thing...
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Don Douglas said 4:19PM on 6-16-2005
I use FrameMaker still. Our office uses FrameMaker for documentation. Swiching to anything else will not be an option due to the small budget, and the number of people using WinTel machines. Its the only reason I have Classic on my iBook at all.
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Piko said 4:19PM on 6-16-2005
I don't even have OS9 installed. Jobs has always said that OS9 support will eventually go bye-bye. The writing is on the wall. You've got until the end of 2007 to find a reasonable replacement for whatever it is in Classic that you still use.
Apple has long held that they're greatest strength is that they are quick to adopt new and standardized technology AND have never been afraid to sluff off the old stuff (floppy drive, ADB, RS-422 etc).
Piko
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Don Douglas said 4:19PM on 6-16-2005
I use FrameMaker still. Our office uses FrameMaker for documentation. Swiching to anything else will not be an option due to the small budget, and the number of people using WinTel machines. Its the only reason I have Classic on my iBook at all.
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Diego said 4:19PM on 6-16-2005
Fontographer
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rev_matt said 4:19PM on 6-16-2005
Tons of kids games that still run in classic mode...
There is already a dearth of kids titles for Mac, I certainly understand why K-12 schools have largely abandoned the platform.
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Michael Str? said 4:19PM on 6-16-2005
Hi Scott!
Maybe you should read your story submissions more often. This is the third or so time you didn't notice me offering you a scoop on something. I gave you this information about 12 hours ago, via your "Send us news tips" link.
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Kevin said 4:19PM on 6-16-2005
Classic will be around for a long time. I remember a program called MacMAME. It let you play lots of old arcade games, and was basically an emulator. I don't know if its still made, but I imagine it is.
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Steven said 4:19PM on 6-16-2005
One word: TypeStyler!
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Christophe Andres said 4:19PM on 6-16-2005
I still use Classic because I develop on the Palm and until PalmSource delivers PODS on Mac OS X, I have my old Metrowerks for Palm. But by the time I have a Mac with Intel I doubt that I'll still be using it. So this is really a non-issue
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