| Mac OS 9 | |
| Family: | Macintosh |
| Developer: | Apple Computer |
| Version Of: | classic Mac OS |
| Logo Size: | 64px |
| Source Model: | Closed source |
| First Release Date: | [1] [2] [3] |
| Working State: | Historic, not supported |
| Release Version: | 9.2.2 |
| Release Url: | https://support.apple.com/kb/DL1293?locale=en_US |
| Preceded By: | Mac OS 8 |
| Succeeded By: | |
| Supported Platforms: | PowerPC |
| Kernel Type: | Nanokernel |
| Ui: | Apple Platinum |
| License: | Proprietary |
| Tagline: | Your Internet co-pilot. |
| Support Status: | Historical, unsupported as of February 1, 2002 |
Mac OS 9 is the ninth and final major release of Apple's classic Mac OS operating system, which was succeeded by Mac OS X 10.0 in 2001, starting the Mac OS X family of operating systems. Introduced on October 23, 1999, it was promoted by Apple as "The Best Internet Operating System Ever",[4] highlighting Sherlock 2’s Internet search capabilities, integration with Apple's free online services known as iTools and improved Open Transport networking. While Mac OS 9 lacks protected memory and full pre-emptive multitasking,[5] lasting improvements include the introduction of an automated Software Update engine and support for multiple users.
Apple discontinued development of Mac OS 9 in late 2001, transitioning all future development to Mac OS X. The final updates to Mac OS 9 addressed compatibility issues with Mac OS X while running in the Classic Environment and compatibility with Carbon applications. At the 2002 Worldwide Developers Conference, Steve Jobs began his keynote address by staging a mock funeral for OS 9.[6]
Apple billed Mac OS 9 as including "50 new features" and heavily marketed its Sherlock 2 software, which introduced a "channels" feature for searching different online resources and introduced a QuickTime-like metallic appearance. Mac OS 9 also featured integrated support for Apple's suite of Internet services known as iTools (later re-branded as .Mac, then MobileMe, which was replaced by iCloud) and included improved TCP/IP functionality with Open Transport 2.5.
Other features new to Mac OS 9 include:[7]
PowerPC versions of Mac OS X prior to 10.5 include a compatibility layer called Classic, enabling users to run applications and hardware requiring Mac OS 9 from within OS X. This is achieved through running Mac OS 9 without access to its Finder inside OS X. This requires Mac OS 9 to be installed on the computer even though most computers that can run the Classic environment are not necessarily able to boot into Mac OS 9 natively. Some Mac OS 9 applications do not run well in Classic. They demonstrate screen redraw problems and lagging performance. In addition, some drivers and other software which directly interact with the hardware fail to work properly.
In May 2002, at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference in San Jose, California, Steve Jobs, accompanied by a coffin, held a mock funeral to announce that Apple had stopped the development of Mac OS 9. The final version of Mac OS 9 and the "classic" Mac OS was Mac OS 9.2.2, released in December 2001.
In June 2005, Jobs announced that the Macintosh platform would be transitioning to Intel x86 microprocessors. Developer documentation of the Rosetta PowerPC emulation layer revealed that applications written for Mac OS 8 or 9 would not run on x86-based Macs. The Classic Environment remains in the PowerPC version of 10.4; however, x86 versions of OS X do not support the Classic environment.
Mac OS 9 can be emulated by using SheepShaver, a PowerPC emulator available on multiple operating systems, including Intel-based Macs. However, SheepShaver cannot run Mac OS versions newer than 9.0.4, as there is no support for a memory management unit. The PearPC PowerPC emulator does not support Mac OS 9.[9] QEMU has experimental support for running Mac OS 9 using PowerPC G4 emulation.[10]
Up until 2004, Mac OS 9 continued to be preinstalled on some Macs despite its development being stopped in late 2001, with most Macs made before 2003 having Mac OS 9 preinstalled alongside Mac OS X. The final Macs that were able to boot into Mac OS 9 natively without resorting to the Classic environment were the 867 MHz—1.25 GHz "Mirrored Drive Doors" Power Mac G4 released in August 2002 (which was re-released in June 2003 due to a perceived demand for Mac OS 9 machines) and the 867 MHz—1 GHz "Antimony" titanium PowerBook G4 ("TiBook") released in November 2002.
Both the "Mirrored Drive Doors" Power Mac G4 and the "Antimony" titanium PowerBook G4 came preinstalled with both Mac OS 9 and Mac OS X in a dual-boot configuration (with Mac OS X being selected as the default). The "Mirrored Drive Doors" Power Mac G4 was one of the last Mac models overall to officially boot into Mac OS 9 while the "Antimony" titanium PowerBook G4 was the last PowerBook model able to run Mac OS 9 natively. While these final models of the Macs and PowerBooks have G4 processors with faster clock speeds of up to 1.25 GHz and 1 GHz respectively on some models, they were able to boot into Mac OS 9 natively without any issues.
The majority of G4 Macs released in 2003 onwards that have a 1 GHz or higher processor never had their "Mac OS ROM" boot files updated to allow those Macs to officially boot into Mac OS 9 natively outside of the Classic environment. All G5 Macs are unable to boot directly into Mac OS 9 at all because there was no support for PowerPC G5 processors on Mac OS 9 (Mac OS 9 only supports G3 and G4 processors as of Mac OS 9.2.2). Therefore, those Macs can only run Mac OS 9 under the Classic environment or other emulation software.
In recent years, unofficial patches for Mac OS 9 and the "Mac OS ROM" have been made to allow unsupported G4 Macs to boot into Mac OS 9 natively; however this is not officially supported by Apple.[11]
See main article: article.
Aside from Apple-branded hardware that is still maintained and operated, Mac OS 9 can be operated in other environments such as Windows and Unix.[12] The aforementioned SheepShaver software was initially not designed for use on x86 platforms and requires the use of an actual PowerPC processor present in the machine it was running on similar to a hypervisor. Support for x86 platforms was added later. Although it provides PowerPC processor support, it can only run up to Mac OS 9.0.4 because it does not emulate a memory management unit.
| Version | Release date | Changes | Codename | Computer | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9.0 | October 23, 1999 |
| Sonata | iMac G3 | 99 USD |
| 9.0.2 | February 2000(Shipped with Macs) |
| PowerBook (FireWire) | Only shipped with referred Macs | |
| 9.0.3 | March 2000(Shipped with Macs) | iMac/iMac DV/iMac DV SE | |||
| 9.0.4 | April 4, 2000 |
| Minuet | iMac G3 (slot loading) | Free Update |
| 9.1 | January 9, 2001 |
| Fortissimo | iBook 14 inch and 12 inch | |
| 9.2 | June 18, 2001(Shipped with Macs) |
| Moonlight | Power Mac G4 (QuickSilver) | Only shipped with referred Macs |
| 9.2.1 | August 21, 2001 |
| Limelight | iBook (Late 2001), PowerBook G4 (Gigabit Ethernet) | Free Update |
| 9.2.2 | December 5, 2001 |
| LU1 | eMac | |
Updates to Mac OS 9 include 9.0.4, 9.1, 9.2.1, and 9.2.2. Mac OS 9.0.4 was a collection of bug fixes primarily relating to USB and FireWire support. Mac OS 9.1 included integrated CD burning support in the Macintosh Finder and added a new Window menu in the Finder for switching between open windows. Mac OS 9.2 increased performance noticeably and improved Classic Environment support.
| Macintosh Model | 9.0[13] | 9.1 | 9.2.1 | 9.2.2 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Power Macintosh 6100 | rowspan="25" colspan="2" | |||
| Power Macintosh 7100 | ||||
| Power Macintosh 8100 | ||||
| PowerBook 2300 | rowspan="3" | |||
| PowerBook 2400c | ||||
| PowerBook 5300 | ||||
| PowerBook 1400 | Password Security unsupported | |||
| PowerBook 3400 | Hard disk driver must not be updated | |||
| Power Macintosh 5200 LC | rowspan="19" | |||
| Power Macintosh 5300 LC | ||||
| Power Macintosh 5500 | ||||
| Power Macintosh 4400 | ||||
| Power Macintosh 6200 | ||||
| Power Macintosh 6300 | ||||
| Power Macintosh 6400 | ||||
| Power Macintosh 6500 | ||||
| Power Macintosh 7200 | ||||
| Power Macintosh 7300 | ||||
| Power Macintosh 7500 | ||||
| Power Macintosh 8500 | ||||
| Power Macintosh 7600 | ||||
| Power Macintosh 8600 | ||||
| Power Macintosh 9600 | ||||
| Twentieth Anniversary Macintosh | ||||
| PowerBook G3 | ||||
| PowerBook G3 Series | rowspan="4" | |||
| PowerBook (FireWire) | Machine-specific version only | |||
| PowerBook G4 | Machine-specific version only | |||
| PowerBook G4 (Gigabit Ethernet) | Machine-specific version only | |||
| PowerBook G4 (DVI) | rowspan="2" : Machine-specific version only | |||
| PowerBook G4 (1 GHz/867 MHz) | ||||
| PowerBook G4 (12-inch) | rowspan="9" : Classic Environment only | |||
| PowerBook G4 (17-inch) | ||||
| PowerBook G4 (12-inch DVI) | ||||
| PowerBook G4 (12-inch 1.33 GHz) | ||||
| PowerBook G4 (12-inch 1.5 GHz) | ||||
| PowerBook G4 (15-inch FW 800) | ||||
| PowerBook G4 (15-inch 1.5/1.33 GHz) | ||||
| PowerBook G4 (17-inch 1.33 GHz) | ||||
| PowerBook G4 (17-inch 1.5 GHz) | ||||
| rowspan="9" | ||||
| iBook (FireWire) | Machine-specific version only | |||
| iBook (Dual USB) | rowspan="2" : Machine-specific version only | |||
| iBook (Late 2001) | ||||
| iBook (14.1 LCD) | rowspan="9" : Classic Environment only | |||
| iBook (16 VRAM) | ||||
| iBook (Opaque 16 VRAM) | ||||
| iBook (32 VRAM) | ||||
| iBook (14.1 LCD 32 VRAM) | ||||
| iBook (Early 2003) | Machine-specific version only | |||
| iBook G4 | rowspan="3" : Classic Environment only | |||
| iBook G4 (14-inch) | ||||
| iBook G4 (Early 2004) | ||||
| Power Macintosh G3 All-In-One | rowspan="6" colspan="4" | |||
| Power Macintosh G3 | ||||
| Power Macintosh G3 (Blue and White) | ||||
| iMac G3 | ||||
| iMac G3 (266 MHz, 333 MHz) | ||||
| iMac G3 (Slot Loading) | ||||
| iMac G3 (Summer 2000) | Machine-specific version only | rowspan="3" colspan="2" | ||
| iMac G3 (Early 2001) | rowspan="2" : Machine-specific version only | |||
| iMac G3 (Summer 2001) | ||||
| iMac G4 | ||||
| iMac G4 (February 2003) | rowspan="6" : Classic Environment only | |||
| iMac G4 (17-inch 1 GHz) | ||||
| iMac G4 (USB 2.0) | ||||
| iMac G5 | ||||
| iMac G5 (Ambient Light Sensor) | ||||
| iMac G5 (iSight) | ||||
| eMac | ||||
| eMac (ATI Graphics CD-ROM drive) | rowspan="2" : Machine-specific version only | |||
| eMac (ATI Graphics Combo drive) | ||||
| eMac (ATI Graphics SuperDrive) | rowspan="3" : Classic Environment only | |||
| eMac (USB 2.0) | ||||
| eMac (2005) | ||||
| Power Mac G4 (PCI Graphics) | rowspan="4" colspan="3" | |||
| Power Mac G4 (AGP Graphics) | ||||
| Power Mac G4 (Gigabit Ethernet) | rowspan="2" : Machine-specific version only | |||
| Power Mac G4 Cube | ||||
| Power Mac G4 (Digital Audio) | Machine-specific version only | rowspan="2" colspan="2" | ||
| Power Mac G4 (QuickSilver) | ||||
| Power Mac G4 (QuickSilver 2002) | rowspan="2" : Machine-specific version only | |||
| Power Mac G4 (Mirrored Drive Doors) | ||||
| Power Mac G4 (FW 800) | Classic Environment only | |||
| Power Mac G4 (Mirrored Drive Doors 2003) | Machine-specific version only | |||
| Power Mac G5 | rowspan="6" : Classic Environment only | |||
| Power Mac G5 (June 2004) | ||||
| Power Mac G5 (Late 2004) | ||||
| Power Mac G5 (Early 2005) | ||||
| Power Mac G5 (Late 2005) | ||||
| Mac Mini (G4) | ||||