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http://www.insanely-great.com/news.php?id=1665
Do the New iMacs Boot into OS 9?
By Remy Davison, Insanely Great Mac
February 8th 2003
New PowerBooks, Power Macs included in list, but not consumer desktops and portables.
Rumors of Mac OS 9's death may be greatly exaggerated. Despite Apple's announcement
that January 2003 Macs would boot into OS X only, there have been exceptions, such as
the superseded Power Mac G4s.
And the new iMac.
In a mildly-confusing KBase document, (attrib. MacGeneration) Apple details the Macs
which boot only into OS X:
� PowerBook (12-inch)
� PowerBook (17-inch)
� Power Mac G4 (FW 800)
Notice anything missing? The iMacs, eMacs and iBooks, that's what. Is this because of
Education demands?
Confusing because Apple appeared to indicate that only Pros using Quark - and the
last-gen Power Macs, plus Ed clients would be the only ones who would be able to
purchase Macs which would boot into OS 9.
Analysis: Apple's approach now approach appears to be something like "Pros now.
Consumers later." Right?
We may be reading too much into this, but is Apple implying consumers aren't quite
ready to move wholeheartedly to X yet? After all, it's consumers who buy iBook, the
mainstay in Apple's line-up.
I've said it before, and I'll say it again: the general Mac user doesn't really know a
lot about OS X. They're not against it, but they're comfortable - very comfortable -
in OS 9. If I do boot up their new iMac (usually a CRT) or iBook, they like the look
of X, but see it as yet-another-thing-to-learn. And it doesn't perform like a bat out
of hell on G3 hardware anyway.
I still have trouble explaining the complexities of moving stuff from older Macs
(PowerBook 1400s, beige Power Macs) to beautiful, shiny new Mac hardware. That the new
stuff doesn't have a floppy (and it costs to get one). And that the old keyboard won't
connect (without an adapter). And that I can't use IRTalk to transfer their files.
Then there's a whole new OS. Which is missing bits. Like where's Telnet? Well, I could
tell them to type "ssh" in the Terminal, but I know I'll be greeted with a blank stare.
Yes, it's difficult moving people to a different OS. Even X, which in many ways
replicates a number of OS 9 features. But it will happen. Eventually. There are still
another 20 million users to convert to X, remember.
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