What the heck is OS 9?

mr.steevo · Nov 4th, 2005, 10:57 PM

Hi,

Well here I am using OS 9.1 on the toilet seat. A buddy of mine just brought over the toilet seat iBook which has been used for about a month. His dad bought it to do some writing and after a month decided not to continue. The iBook was boxed up and not taken out until now. OS 9 is so different from OS X that I don't have a clue how to work it.

Are there any websites that I can read about this OS? I am trying to figure out what model iBook this is but there isn't an "About this Mac" option to click on. I am totally lost, and I now understand why there were so many complaints about OS X being so different from 9. Once I get a feeling for this 'book I would like to see about upgrading it for my buddy to use. Basically he just wants to do email, a bit of surfing, and use Word. I just called Westworld and was informed that Apple stopped making the Airport card for these kind of machines last month!

Also, I need to know what is the latest and greatest web browser that I can load on OS 9 as Internet Explorer 4.5 is pretty sketchy.

Thanks!

s.

comprehab · Nov 4th, 2005, 11:09 PM

There is an about this Mac style option in OS 9, if i remember correctly, it is still in the top left, but called system profiler (or something like that).
As for the airport cards..you can sometimes find them in the ehmac classifieds for $100.00 or so, on ebay for around $120.00 and if you want to go through a reseller, you are looking at $150.00+ usually. They are worth more than gold, and the price for them is always on the rise.

rubeole · Nov 4th, 2005, 11:57 PM

http://www.os9forever.com/

gwillikers · Nov 5th, 2005, 03:23 AM

Check this site out, it has a bunch of stuff for pre-OS X users. It's really quite well done.

Lawrence · Nov 5th, 2005, 06:10 AM

Technically speaking about OS 9:
http://developer.apple.com/technotes/tn/tn1176.html

Internet Explorer 5.1.7 for Mac OS 8.1 to 9.x :
http://www.microsoft.com/mac/downloa...gnosysreq=True

Heart · Nov 5th, 2005, 07:28 AM

Old airport cards are now very hard to find via resellers, and prices for them have gone up. $150 to $200.

mr.steevo · Nov 5th, 2005, 11:30 AM

Hi,

Upgraded Explorer to 5.1.7 and now I can use the web. 4 just wasn't working. Are there security concerns with Explorer and is there another web browser that is better?

Also figured out what kind of machine this is. iBook 366, 512 L2 cache, 64 mb RAM, 6GB HD(!), NO Airport, NO FireWire and NO DVD. That last part sucks. If this guys dad had just waited a few months he would have gotten a much better machine.

I am wondering if I should update to OS 9.2? Is it better or wonky? I can't remember which part of 9 was problematic, but I seem to recall that one wasn't worth doing while the other one was. If anyone is sure about this please let me know.

Finally, I was thinking of putting 10.2 or 10.3 on this, but without FireWire or DVD I can't see how to do it. I need to dig up my brother's old Jag disk and see if it is CD or DVD. I may just up the RAM to 576 through CanadaRAM and see about a larger HD later on.

I appreciate the knowledge on this board and would welcome any tips or thoughts.

s.

singingcrow · Nov 5th, 2005, 11:34 AM

I have 9.2 and have never had any problems with it. As with the Explorer upgrade, you might appreciate it.

comprehab · Nov 5th, 2005, 12:00 PM

I used to run OS X on an iMac G3 350...so don't expect tooo much if you upgrade to X (when you add the ram ofcourse); but it will run and be useable. I used it for surfing/ichat/ and occasionally opened Word and did alright.

Trevor... · Nov 5th, 2005, 01:27 PM

If that is an original Toilet Seat iBook, you probably don't want to put Mac OS X on it because the Rage LT graphics will be 100% unaccelerated.

It will be painfull to use,