I am curious to know if being able to emulate mac os 9 from within mac os x slows down a system, even when os 9 is not running? Should this functionality be abandoned as there is no reason I can think of to use mac os 9? are there any reasons to need mac os 9 still?
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does os 9 compatibility slow mac os x down?
- Thread starter swingerofbirch
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As long as you don't have Classic actually running, no, it doesn't slow your computer down at all. A lot of people use Classic (Mac OS 9 emulation) if there's an application that a company has halted development on, and will only run under Mac OS 9. If you have no use for it, might as well uninstall it, as while it won't slow anything down, it does take up HD space.
Classic does not emulate MacOS 9. Classic is PPC code running on PPC hardware. It runs as an application. It is subject to the same contraints as other MacOS X applications. My recommendation is to leave your MacOS 9/Classic installation where it is. I find few things more annoying that people who remove MacOS 9 only to return here days later begging for help to reinstall it. As for nosen's comment about disk space, I'm with cluthz. My MacOS 9/Classic System folder is 292 MB on a 160 GB hard disk. By comparison, my Microsoft Office 2004 folder consumes 529 MB. If removing MacOS 9/Classic from your hard disk will make a significant change in your free space, then you need a larger hard disk.swingerofbirch said:
I remember the days when that was alot! I was reading a PC world magazine back in like 1995 and they compared Netscape's browser to IE's and they gave the advantage to Netscape's cause it 'only' took 94 megs... At that time i had a 1.2 gig hard drive. Funny stuffcluthz said:
kyle
My iPod mini has the same HD space as my 6 year old iMac bondi blue 
The iPod photo has the the same HD space as the Xserve G4 default hard drive module
The iPod photo has the the same HD space as the Xserve G4 default hard drive module
Classic may not be an emulator in the sense that it is running an operating system on a different hardware than it was written for, however, many hardware drivers are not visible to the same Mac OS 9 system folder in the Classic environment, which are when you are able to boot into Mac OS 9. As such Classic offers only a partial compatibility solution to those with old hardware and software dependent on specific older drivers. As for it being slower, stuff dependent on Quicktime playback in the Classic environment will run slower than booting into Mac OS 9. In addition since Mac OS X needs room for swap space, running X on anything less than 1 GB + installed RAM free is going to slow it down (i.e. 640 MB of RAM means 1.6 GB needs to be free on the hard disk). Additionally, permissions are not observed by Mac OS 9 programs when they load or save files, and as such whether you boot into Mac OS 9, or use the Classic environment, when you are ready to switch to Mac OS X native programs, it is best to shut down Classic and repair permissions through Applications -> Utilities -> Disk Utility -> select hard disk in Disk Utility -> click repair permissions.
Mac OS X 10.1.5 has a repair privileges utility which does the same thing for 10.1.5. For more info on all of these tips, see this FAQ:
http://www.macmaps.com/macosxnative.html
Mac OS X 10.1.5 has a repair privileges utility which does the same thing for 10.1.5. For more info on all of these tips, see this FAQ:
http://www.macmaps.com/macosxnative.html