Shutdown

Posted on 21 Oct 2002 at 11:01

 

Gallery

So there you have it. All future Macs will have the ability to run Mac OS X and only OS X. Those who prefer Mac OS 9 are out in the cold. Forever.

Here I must declare an interest. OS 9 and I are like that (holds up entwined fingers). We go back a long way - to 1984 actually, when the very first commercially available Mac OS was numbered 3.2 (I think). There have been tweaks and rewrites since that time, but in all essential respects OS 9 closely resembles that early system. The Happy Mac start-up icon... the Desk Accessory menu... er, other stuff. I've been living with it for a long time and it's going to be hard to say goodbye.

So hard, in fact, that I don't think I will be saying goodbye just yet. For not only do I have a sentimental attachment to OS 9, I have a Mac of a vintage that makes it impossible to run OS X. But even if a miracle should happen and I somehow manage to acquire enough wedge to score a faster and glitzier machine, I still probably won't be acquiring one because I also happen to have a load of peripherals that attach via the SCSI or serial ports - yes, my Mac is that old - and as we all know, SCSI and serial are dead in the water as far as Macs are concerned. To behave like an obedient little consumer and move up to OS X would therefore mean buying a new Mac, a new scanner, a new tape backup, a new modem, a new Zip drive and a new MIDI interface. The word 'new' occurs far too often for comfort in that sentence, especially when the current crop of devices - including the Mac itself - are all working perfectly well.

What's more, I am still using versions of software that work with blissful efficiency under OS 9 but would, I suspect, fall over like Laurel and Hardy on Mandrax if I were to move on up. Cubase, for example. Yes, I know that Cubase SX is about to hit the streets, but it would cost money to upgrade and I don't see why I should pay it, especially as it reportedly doesn't work at all under anything earlier than OS X. As for the application I use the most - Word - like nearly all hacks I know I am still using version 5.1, which is now approaching 10 years old and is still the most faultlessly efficient piece of software Microsoft has ever created. I have tried later versions, but they are all loathsome. And I know in my bones that if I were to switch to OS X that something would go horribly wrong. I use a version of QuickKeys that is even older, and a version of QuickDex of similar ancient vintage. I like this stuff and these gadgets, they are stable, I understand them and I don't see why I should change.

You'll have read elsewhere in MacUser why Apple has pulled this piece of strong arm work. It's to Demonstrate Commitment and Please the Developers. By forcibly cutting off the air supply to those of us who live in the past, the company is obliging us to move ahead (translation: to buy a new Mac). And they'll get away with it because they've done it before. They deep-sixed SCSI and serial and got away with it. They deep-sixed the 680x0 processor and got away with it. They deep-sixed NuBus and got away with it. I even hear they're planning to deep-six USB in favour of USB 2.0 or whatever it's called - this being particularly galling for me and countless others who haven't even got around to USB 1.0. What used to be called 'legacy systems' are now thought of as 'encumbrance systems'.

Apple is not alone in this ruthless attitude. The British government is planning to cut off all analogue TV broadcasting around 2012 in order to force us to move to digital TV, in the same way they cut off leaded petrol in order to make us greener. David Blunkett is doing his best to abolish that weirdly old-fashioned concept called 'civil liberties'. Messrs Bush and Blair are doing their best to abolish that equally quaint notion called 'peace in our time'. The Countryside Alliance is doing its best to abolish the fox. And Edwina Currie has had some success in abolishing the legend that John Major tucks his shirt into his underpants.