RIP, Classic Mac OS: 1984 - 2007

It's not a huge surprise, but Apple's gone ahead and posted a note confirming that Leopard will not support Classic, even on PowerPC machines. Of course, Intel Macs have never been able to run Classic anyway, so only like Hypercard user groups and the three printshops still running QuarkXPress 4 will be affected by this. But this does mark the end of the road for the venerable and oft maligned OS, which ushered in the mainstream GUI era with the 128K Mac in 1984 and remained the default boot on all new Macs until OS X 10.1.2 was released 18 years later in 2002 -- prompting Steve to stage a melodramatic mock funeral for OS 9 at that year's WWDC. Still, the old warhorse managed to hang around for another five years, and we're a little sad to finally see it go. Check a vid of Steve's funeral after the break.

[rwfu666 @ Oct 25th 2007 5:18PM]

I may not be a mac-fan, but respect where it's deserved.
RIP Mac OS, it was fun

[Andir3.0 @ Oct 25th 2007 7:01PM]

OMG!! They are taking out backwards compatibility??!! Are they crazy? That's it. I can no longer take it. Screw Apple. They don't understand what the customer wants.

Oh, sorry, I thought we were talking about a console for a second.

[CUBSWILLWIN @ Oct 25th 2007 8:06PM]

You know whats so strange? I have never used a mac and I have barely touched but I feel sad. I feel very sad for some odd apparent reason.

[R. C. @ Oct 25th 2007 8:37PM]

That was my first computer I ever used. RIP.

[ethana2 @ Oct 25th 2007 10:33PM]

Do we have a Mac OS classic binary compatability layer for Linux? If anyone still likes this old OS, that's the way to go.

So will it be when Apple drops PPC altogether.

[emulatorz @ Oct 26th 2007 7:47AM]

It's Ok. We don't use 'em anymore

http://emulatorz.notlong.com

[bombastinator @ Oct 25th 2007 5:22PM]

Just for the record, you do know that that screenshot is os6 not os9, correct?

[Matt @ Oct 25th 2007 5:34PM]

Just for the record, you do know that you're a dumbass, right?

[bombastinator @ Oct 25th 2007 5:46PM]

Oooohh... Feeling like a real mister grumpy pants today huh?. Have a cookie, I'm sure it will cheer you right up! :)

[bombastinator @ Oct 25th 2007 6:02PM]

Actually let me redact that a bit. It should be noted generally I think that Most of what is computer oriented these days comes out of southern California which most people by now have lately noticed is on fire.

I can well understand why tempers of those in the area may be a bit short, and I think I should retract a bit of the snarkiness in the previous posts.

[JeffM @ Oct 25th 2007 7:23PM]

Northern or Southern California?

Not sure where all of the software dev is for Apple but a good amount of R&D is done in the Silicon Valley which is hundreds of miles from Los Angles and San Diego.

[swisswuff @ Oct 25th 2007 8:30PM]

the screenshot may be os 6, but could be a previous one as well

it is definitely not 7 or higher

(using macs since 1986)

[Geoffrey Sperl @ Oct 25th 2007 9:20PM]

You mean "System 6" not "OS 6".

The Mac OS wasn't "Mac OS" until "Mac OS 8" came along. Prior to that it was always just "System."

And I think that's System 5 running on a 128 or 512 because there's no MultiFinder running in the upper right and there's no hard drive icon on the desktop.

[Clark Cox @ Oct 26th 2007 4:14AM]

"And I think that's System 5 running on a 128 or 512 because there's no MultiFinder running in the upper right and there's no hard drive icon on the desktop."

All that means is that MultiFinder wasn't enabled (it was an optional feature until System 7) and that the machine had no mounted hard drive (you could get machines for years without hard drives; not just the 128k or the 512k). It could very well be a Plus, SE, II or some other Mac

[rv @ Oct 25th 2007 5:22PM]

Yes it deserves to die, and I hope it burns in hell!

[prokanda @ Oct 25th 2007 5:59PM]

awesome.

[Bruce @ Oct 25th 2007 7:45PM]

Dude, that is so Samuel L Jackson. But I won't front... that shit was HELLA funny! I HAD to crack up at that. I was like... finally, someone said a movie line that actually fits with what is being talked about and that suited what you said. Funny shit dude! FUNNY SHIT!

[Bruce @ Oct 25th 2007 7:49PM]

Ohh, btw... forgot to add I told everyone in the house, and we all cracked up at what you said too. Too funny dude. (yea you might think it's corney, but it's really funny shit!)

[david @ Oct 26th 2007 12:19AM]

@prokanda I just wasted five minutes of my life reading every post you have made here. You are one of the kings of haterade here. Lighten up, stop hating, get laid. go to X17 and give your hate to a worthwhile cause like britney spears.

[Hax Or @ Oct 26th 2007 10:45AM]

david's taking over as king of trolls?

[Philometalist @ Oct 25th 2007 5:30PM]

Classic can run on intel macs. And it will continue to do so.

"Sheepsaver"

[ark_v2 @ Oct 25th 2007 5:33PM]

Lord, that video was ridiculous.

[Faisal @ Oct 25th 2007 5:35PM]

"Of course, Intel Macs have never been able to run Classic anyway, so only like Hypercard user groups and the three printshops still running QuarkXPress 4 and will be affected by this, but it marks the end of the road for the venerable OS, which ushered in the mainstream GUI era with the 128K Mac in 1984 and remained the default boot OS on all new Macs until OS X 10.1.2 was released 18 years later in 2002 -- prompting Steve to stage a melodramatic mock funeral for OS 9 at that year's WWDC."

Hate to be the grammar nerd, but isn't this sentence a little bit long?

[Henrietta @ Oct 25th 2007 6:06PM]

You wish you were a grammar nerd. There is nothing grammatically incorrect about a long sentence.

[Dave Skaggs @ Oct 25th 2007 6:22PM]

Grammatically incorrect - no. Stylistically incorrect - yes. Longer sentences typically cause the reader to reread the sentence to fully understand what was just said.

[Zach @ Oct 25th 2007 6:28PM]

True, but there is something wrong with throwing extra conjunctions into sentences.

"QuarkXPress 4 and will be affected by this"

[Dave Skaggs @ Oct 25th 2007 6:34PM]

True. I'll admit I did not check the sentence for grammar, just responded to the issue it was long.

[Bobs @ Oct 26th 2007 4:43AM]

oh, you have no idea. wanna see whare you can be banned and ridiculed for spelling there, wrong? go to www.facepunchstudios.com, its a garry's mod help forum, ruled under the mighty ban hammer of the grammer hitler himself, i kid you not

[LJKelley @ Oct 25th 2007 5:35PM]

Before OS X, Mac OS was the worst... I remember having to use some version of it in school. The computers would always freeze and eat my floppy... Much worse than my Windows 98 back in the day.

[Shane @ Oct 25th 2007 7:31PM]

Never learned the paperclip trick for ejecting stuck floppies and CDs, eh?

[Alexander @ Oct 25th 2007 7:52PM]

The fact that you had to use one was always a bit of a backwards step for me. Not only that, when it broke it was like 50 bucks to get another one. And it required you to take the whole damn mac apart to get at it. And they changed the connector every new hardware version, so if you had one from another mac--good luck with that, buddy.

[riv @ Oct 25th 2007 5:36PM]

Some software that runs on classic still doesn't exist as far as I know for the newer versions of the OS.

AliasPro users, can I get a hell yeah?

[kcar @ Oct 25th 2007 7:30PM]

"Some software that runs on classic still doesn't exist as far as I know for the newer versions of the OS."

Whose fault is that? For the love of God, if software developers haven't created OS X-compatible updates or modern competitors in the last five years, maybe the original apps have outlived their usefulness or profitability.

The tools and documentation are there for developers to just Carbonize these old apps if they want to play it safe. Making these apps Universal Binary isn't much more of a pain.

OS 9 was OK in its day but it's time to let it go. I respect the Sheepshaver project that will try to put OS 9 emulation into newer Macs, but I'm not sure that it's any more than an intellectual exercise or a museum-like preservation of access to legacy apps and docs.

[Fubar @ Oct 25th 2007 10:05PM]

AliasPro nothing, I want my SuperTetris!

[Byron @ Nov 5th 2007 3:11PM]

I just wanna play a couple oldie-but-goodie games, but my Intel iMac won't let me....
*sniff*

[MR @ Oct 25th 2007 5:41PM]

Good riddance.

The reason why the Macs are good now is because of OSX. The old MacOS can just vaporize for all I care.

[Evan Brom @ Oct 25th 2007 5:47PM]

And this is why no enterprise will use MAC every few years a new and non backwards compatible system and OS. 68k to ppc not intel x86. legacy enterprise apps exist and always will.

[Jeremy @ Oct 25th 2007 8:06PM]

Evan, are you insane?. "Every few years a new and non backwards compatible system and os..." Did you read the article? Last time I checked, 23 years of backwards compatibility is a pretty long time.

[Mikey @ Oct 25th 2007 5:58PM]

Even with Windows XP I have to run emulators to make it so I can run programs from 3.1.1 & 95...

[Philometalist @ Oct 25th 2007 6:28PM]

Firstly, how is Apple's constant and consistent effort to innovate their products a bad thing? Every single company on the face of this planet does exactly that everyday because it is the nature of staying in competative business.

Secondly, since when are Macs NOT backwards compatible? Last time I checked they are leading the way in software emulation and in providing a truly versatile platform that has consistently been eating away at the not exactly thriving WinPC market.

Lastly, you do realize that even my old PowerMac G3 233mhz can run 10.4 while a comparable PC would be hard pressed to even boot WinXP never-mind Vista.

Please, do a bit more research before you make such comments Evan.

[Taylor @ Oct 26th 2007 4:11AM]

Classic Mac OS apps are pretty hard to find nowadays, anyway.

Except for QuarkXpress, that's still pretty popular since the OS X versions of it sucked.

[hez @ Oct 25th 2007 6:47PM]

For those of us who actually used the original systems, RIP is appropriate.
To wish the old OS harm, etc is really not right... Back then Macs still were intuitive machines with an elegant interface, especially when compared to any WIn OS at the time. Cheers!

[Dave @ Oct 25th 2007 6:00PM]

*sniff*

[Todd @ Oct 25th 2007 6:03PM]

With Leopards release may be time to think back to the Next cube ( Mach kernel ) too:

"By 1987, NeXT's first factory was completed in Fremont, California; it was capable of producing 150,000 machines per year.[14] Prototype workstations were shown to standing ovations on October 12, 1988, and several magazines reviewed the system — all concentrating on the hardware. By 1989, the machines were in testing, and NeXT started selling limited numbers to universities with a beta version of the OS installed. When asked if he was upset that the computer's debut was delayed by several months, Jobs responded, "Late? This computer is five years ahead of its time!"

source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NeXT

[Isindil @ Oct 25th 2007 6:22PM]

Hmm, is it possible to install Classic on an iBook G3 without having any kind of Mac OS X at all?

[bewlaybrutha @ Oct 25th 2007 6:37PM]

Yes, you use bootcamp and it's called Windows XP

[Jon @ Oct 25th 2007 6:46PM]

Sure, just find an OS 9 install disc and you're ready to go.

[RedBull Runner @ Oct 25th 2007 7:02PM]

Isindil, Don't mind the trolls. like Jon said... Just grab an OS9 disk and you should be good to go.

On the other hand... I wonder if this means that apple will finally release os8-9 on their FTP for free like they had with older versions. I've got a few systems I would like to put to use... Like the Performa 6320CD with the TV tuner card.

That thing honestly has better quality TV than most current PC tv tuners.

[Alevino @ Oct 25th 2007 6:08PM]

Gone lately!!!
Must be followed by insane funboys!!!

Computers are just machines;
Softwares are just merchandise
not a Religion!!!


"If you want to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first create the universe."
Carl Sagan

[michas_pi @ Oct 25th 2007 6:09PM]

While this is not a deal-breaker, it is certainly a minor disappointment. I still run a lot of Classic applications like Dorling-Kingsley educational programs and an old copy of Photoshop that I prefer over CS2/CS3.

Oh well, I can always run them in Q!