What is the last Mac built that I can boot up in OS 9 and OS X

Hi, Paulfhannan -

The last models built that can boot to some version of OS 9 are -

• G4 desktop models - the G4 MDD (Mirrored Drive Door) models which do not have a Firewire 800 port.

• iMac - the original iMac (Flat panel) model released in 2002.

• eMac - eMac (ATI Graphics) models without a Superdrive, released in 2003.

• PowerBook - PowerBook (1GHz/867MHz) released in 2002.

• iBook - the last iBook G3 model, designated the (Early 2003) model.

It should be noted that all of the above machines can boot to OS 9 using only the model-specific version of OS 9.2.2 that came with them when they were new; none can boot to an install from a retail OS 9 Install CD of any version.

All later models are not OS 9 bootable.

Later models which can use OS 9 as Classic (but not as a bootable OS) include all those earlier than the Intel-processor machines, but require the use of OSX 10.4.x or earlier; Intel-processor machines and OSX 10.5 (Leopard) do not support Classic.

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There's more info available on which models can or can not use OS 9, and which versions of OS 9, as a boot OS in this Apple Kbase article -
Article #HT1835 - Mac OS 8, 9: Compatibility With Macs

Hi, Paulfhannan -

Are you saying my G4 iBook has the ability of running Classic?

Yes, provided it is not running OSX 10.5.x; your follow-up post indictaes it is running OSX 10.4.x, so it should be able to use Classic.

Note that Classic is not the same as booting to OS 9 - in the Classic mode, OS 9 is used by OSX as an application, in order to provide an environment in which many OS 9-only programs can be run.

Not all OS 9-only programs fare well in Classic - those that require direct access to the hardware, such as is the case with many games, may not work well, if at all, in Classic.

Although Classsic may not have come pre-installed on your iBook G4, you can install Classic on your machine using its original disk set (but not using a retail disk set for any version of OSX).

You can also copy a working OS 9.2.x System Folder from another machine, place it on your hard drive, and use it for Classic. The source machine should be an OS 9-bootable machine if at all possible (the versions of Classic that come with machines which are not OS 9 bootable are reduced-set variants, ones which may or may not work satisfactorily on your machine). This copying can be done using a simple Finder copy (drag and drop) process - it is not necessary to use a cloning utility in order to replicate OS 9.

do I need to do a clean install

The OS 9 term "Clean Install" sets aside the current OS 9 System Folder and installs a "clean" System Folder anew from the CD. Its name has been deemed too confusing, and its functional equivalent in Mac OS X is now called "Archive and Install". "Clean Install" only ever installed the System Folder from scratch -- duplicate Applications that were newer were not replaced.

If you do not already have an OS 9 System Folder, your question is moot. Just Install.

Mac OS X and OS 9 have a special relationship. They can both coexist on the same Hard drive. Installing one does not do anything to the other.

I see from Adobe's website that there is a free download of PageMill for Windows. You might want to get hold of this if you are sticking with that app - then, if / when you upgrade to an Intel Mac in the future you will be able to run the Windows version.

In my experience, relying on Classic or OS 9 for a single application is a situation that needs to be resolved, as it means shackling your entire computing experience to an increasingly outdated and hard-to-maintain environment. I would seriously recommend trying to find an alternative to PageMill if you can - or is there an OS X version of it?

Adobe Pagemill as a webpage editor is quite a mixed blessing. Sometimes it forces its assumption of what web standards it knows about on your own HTML code. This in turn can cause images to be sized incorrectly depending on your web browser. If you need a webpage editor consider http://www.barebones.com/ Textwrangler or BBEdit, and learn how to code HTML from http://www.webmonkey.com/ and http://www.anybrowser.org/

Additionally, for other migration to Mac OS X software, see my FAQ*:

http://www.macmaps.com/macosxnative.html

- * Links to my pages may give me compensation.

Software restore does not work that way. Its disc is not bootable. You must have a working Mac OS X in place on your Hard drive. You execute a script from the CD that allows you restore only the additional items from the restore discs. This article has several branches to related articles depending on which discs you have, and what you already have installed:

HT2281- Using Restore Discs with Mac OS X 10.2 through 10.3.3

One approach (which I hope you do not need to take) is to install your original Mac OS X version, run the restore to add all the additional items you want such as OS 9, then install 10.4 again.

There is another way, but I am not sure if it will work for you. You download the script referenced in the following article, and if all conditions are met this script is used instead of the script shipped on the CD to allow you to use an older restore into a running Mac OS X 10.4.

HT2475- Mac OS X 10.4: Restoring applications from a Mac OS X 10.2 Software Restore disc

Paulfhannan wrote:
I only have the need to use one app. on OS9, Adobe PageMill.

Wow. I hope you plan to migrate your Web pages away from the obsolete HTML coding standards PageMill adhered to. It was fine in its time but...

If you merely want to edit the pages, you don't need PageMill and don't need to go to the trouble of finding a Mac for it. I think you can just open up your old web page files in a text editor and go for it. Sure, PageMill had a few proprietary tags that only it knows what to do with, but you don't want to be using those in 2009 anyway.

If you move your old web sites to a current OS X Mac, you could use one of the many nice Web building apps available now, like PageSpinner or Coda, both of which are quite affordable like PageMill and produce current code including CSS support. And apps like Coda have much nicer and more powerful interfaces than PageMill ever did.

It's not that I don't like PageMill, I used to enjoy using it myself, But HTML files can be opened with so many programs, and HTML apps have advanced so far since the days of PageMill over ten years ago, that you're really going to hold yourself back if you stick with PageMill: You'll be using a no-longer-recommended HTML app, on an old Mac you have to fight to get working, and your code will be obsolete. Instead, I say modernize the old Web pages with current tools.

I've migrated all my pages to BBEdit a long time ago. It is very easy. Their Textwrangler can be used as well. Visit http://www.barebones.com/ to learn more about their software.

My G5 iMac came pre-installed with OS 9 (classic).

Yes, but it can't boot Mac OS 9. This limits certain drivers that may be run from that machine in Mac OS 9.