Chapter 3. Mac OS 9, Mac OS X,and Classic
Mac OS X is way ahead of its time. When Apple developed this hybrid operating system, they knew it would take a while for application developers to Carbonize their applications to run on Mac OS X. Rather than locking out older software entirely, Apple made it possible to run both Mac OS 9 and Mac OS X on the same system, and took it a step further by building a Mac OS 9 virtual machine into Mac OS X, called The Classic Environment, or just Classic.
This chapter covers some of the changes between Mac OS 9 and Mac OS X, and introduces you to Classic.
Changes to Mac OS X from Mac OS 9
There are many noticeable changes in the user interface from earlier versions of the Mac OS to Mac OS X, while others may not be so apparent. Two of the biggest changes from Mac OS 9 to Mac OS X can be found in the Apple menu and the Control Panels.
The Apple Menu
The Apple menu, displayed as an apple symbol (
) in the menu bar, is completely different. For Mac OS 9 users, the thing that will probably impact you most is that you can no longer store aliases for files, folders, or applications here. Here’s what you’ll find in Mac OS X’s Apple menu:
- About This Mac
This option pops open a window that supplies you with information about your Mac. Aside from telling you that you’re running Mac OS X on your computer, the window shows you which version of Mac OS X is installed, ...
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