Report: 68% of Mac users running Snow Leopard

I actually just bought a new MacBook Pro with Snow Leopard on it. My old MacBook however? Still running Leopard. Why? Well, mainly because I knew I would be getting a new computer soon (although "soon" kept dragging on into the future) and saw no point, and also, the physical casing on the MacBook was compromised to make it impossible to insert or eject a disc. My wife mainly uses the MacBook now, and to my knowledge, she doesn't really see a difference either way. But I do find myself enjoying Snow Leopard more (or is it just the shiny new computer? I'm not sure. ;-) )

I still use OS 9 simply because everything I own has to be retro. Old cars, old computers, old music, old video games. It's a nice simple life.

Do you still use a Global Village 33k modem to contact to AOL dialup? How does Netscape 4 handle CSS and JavaScript?

Which one of my Macs are you talking about? My 1998 iMac which runs 9.2? My 2000 iMac (lamp) that runs 10.5. My (year??) 800mhz G4 PowerBook with 10.6 Leopard, my 2006 iMac & 2010 Mac Mini that run Snow Leopard?

I actually play or use all of them each month. Mostly I use my iPad One though.

This is a spooky coincidence, me finding TUAW discussing legacy OS's.

I was recalling my days on System 6 recently and wondered how we ever did graphics on such a system but sure enough we did.

I remember upgrading to System 7 and how utterly awful it was. We must have lost a tone of work in those days.

OS8 was a dream and in my opinion probably the best OS prior to X.

I'm quite happy to see the back of those days now though. OSX is more than reliable for me and when I did have to jump on OS9 a couple of years ago, it was positively painful.

Haven't read all the comments, but how does one get a dev preview of Lion? I suppose you need to be a paid developer on Apple's dev network?

Is Lion really that amazing? The only feature that looked interesting is the systemwide version control and no saving.

OS9, wow, at least, um, they can run IE5.5 for mac! haha.. shame.

I have a client that runs OS 9 and won't upgrade, they are constently running into problems particularly if a machine dies. They recently tried to install a printer that the local "expert" gauranteed would work on any mac of any age... When it would work one of them opened up the case and fried the airport card... In sort their insistence on stay with OS 9 is my nightmare.

I've been running Snow Leopard on my Core Duo Macbook since it came out and I've loved every minute of it. If Lion maintains the same or similar upgrade price, I'm game- otherwise I might wait until my current one takes an unfortunate fall.

As for other OSes, I do run XP on Bootcamp for the occasional dabbling I do in Windows only apps (fewer and fewer these days) although I now have a hand-me-down PC that I use (although the MB is much faster and actually has 3D graphics capability).

I still have an old iMac running OS9, but the only thing I use it for is to play Total Annihilation (now obsolete due to Wine, but you can't beat native).

Some days, I wish that I still had my old SE with System 7...

I run Snow Leopard on my 2009 Mac Mini, my daughter has SL on her 2010 iMac, and spouse has Tiger on the G4 iMac (which is still performing well, all things considered). Recently retired her G3 iMac with Panther, which the G4 has replaced.
Oh, and I also use Windows XP Pro on my Pentium4 minitower.

I actually do use Mac OS 9 for about half of my computing for quite a few reasons. First is probably because I personally feel that the height of Apple's hardware design was in 1998-2003. I have a 117 MHz PowerBook 1400 (1997), 266 MHz PowerBook G3 (1998) and a 1 GHz Titanium PowerBook G4 (2002) that all refuse to die. The 1400 still runs 7.6.1 and 8.6 off of a CompactFlash adapter (poor man's SSD), the G3 runs 9.2.2 exclusively while the G4 quad boots 9.2.2, 10.4.11, 10.5.8 and Debian 5. I have other Macs stretching back to a 512k, though these are the ones I use most often.

Second, an extension of the above, is that since 2003, Apple products seem to be taking a gradual downward path in reliability. For example, I know a friend who had to take their Core Duo MacBook to the Genius Bar no less than five times for various issues.

Third is because my LaserWriter Select 360 still needs a LocalTalk port. The PBG3 gets the honor of running as print server. 16,300 pages and still going strong!

Fourth is because of synchronization and development with my Newton MessagePads can be a bit problematic with OS X.

Fifth is simply personal preference. In my opinion, OS X does a better job as a server while OS 9 does better as a general productivity OS. The ADB ports on my OS 9 Macs also handle the connection to my Apple Extended Keyboard II, argued by many to be the best keyboard of all time.

All this said, my MessagePad 2100 would be my main computer if it weren't for the lack of a good browser. There are a couple, but they tend to be either slow or limited.