To Upgrade or Not to Upgrade (OS9.0.4)

Philippe Robert · 02-16-2005, 04:17 PM

Greetings to all of you,

my parents have an indigo iMac G3 (Slot-Loading, Pro Kbrd and mouse) with OS9.0.4.

Question is: would upgrading to 9.2 be a good thing to do?

It sees everyday use, but only text, internet, mail, 2D games.

If the answer is yes, I have another question: its connection is dial-up. To avoid hours of waiting, can I download the upgrades at school on DSL and put them on a CD?
Is it possible?

Have a good day,
Philippe Robert-Staehler

mark hunte · 02-16-2005, 06:20 PM

You do not say why your thinking about upgrading their system.
Which does not help anyone to answer your question on the pros and cons.

I do not use OS 9 at home very much but when I did I have found 9.2.2 to be very stable, But then thats on My system with My apps.

Personally I can not see the harm, but I would do the usual and back up before you touch whats sounds like a system that aint broke, before you play around with it.

Also if you can download it as a stand alone installer on dial up then there should be no reason you can not do it on DSL.

AHunter3 · 02-16-2005, 09:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Philippe Robert


	Greetings to all of you, my parents have an indigo iMac G3 (Slot-Loading, Pro Kbrd and mouse) with OS9.0.4. Question is: would upgrading to 9.2 be a good thing to do?

Probably not, although it probably wouldn't hurt anything either.

MacOS 9.0.4 is a very solid system and probably the last one Apple generated that wasn't mostly designed for the Classic environment and only incidentally also capable of being booted natively. Any iMac is sufficiently part of the "new world" to not suffer from 9.2 (whereas I've seen it cause problems on Macs old enough to have ADB &etc) but unless you run across an application that requires 9.1 or 9.2, there's no advantage to it.

Philippe Robert · 02-17-2005, 04:41 PM

Thanks to all of you for your input.

Truth is, the decision of whether to upgrade was simply based on the assumption that the newer versions had superior abilities. Since there seems to be no significant difference, I think it'll stay just like it is.

Have a good day,
Philippe Robert-Staehler

DJ_Max · 02-17-2005, 10:11 PM

I remember when I was running 9.0.4, I upgraded due to software support, and to fix random crashes. Didn't use it much cause I upgraded to X.

jeffo · 02-18-2005, 09:55 AM

chances are your OS 9 system folder is small enough to burn to a cd as a drag and drop replacement in case something does go wrong. that way you could just trash the system folder that got screwed and replace it with the "exact" system that was before with all the preferences still in tact and all.

Las_Vegas · 02-18-2005, 09:14 PM

Do not make a copy of the System folder currently in use. The result will be pretty much useless. OS 9 leaves a number of critical file open during use, including the System suitcase that will not copy properly. To backup the OS 9 folder, boot from another drive or CD before duplicating the System Folder.

Craig R. Arko · 02-19-2005, 08:11 AM

If this were my system, I'd make sure that the firmware was up-to-date (4.1.9, I think for a slot-loading G3 iMac) and then do the update to 9.1 on the OS.

That seemed to be the best stability for USB and FireWire (if you have it) devices.

There are some fixes to OpenGL (graphics) and OpenTransport (networking) in the 9.2.x family that might prove useful, but not necessary.

TazmanDman · 02-19-2005, 01:08 PM

I think the firmware update requires 9.1 to run in the first place.

Las_Vegas · 02-20-2005, 06:09 PM

9.2.x also contains a number of improvements for Classic mode use.

DanTheMan · 02-22-2005, 06:24 PM

I would be asking, why not move to X? Yes I know it means a lot of new software, but depending what you use, it may not be that bad. I personally could never run in 9 once i had my first taste of OSX. And they've worked out most of the kinks, so panther runs very well. I guess it is as much of a change as going from pc to mac. My 2¢.

jeffo · 02-24-2005, 08:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Las_Vegas


	Do not make a copy of the System folder currently in use. The result will be pretty much useless. OS 9 leaves a number of critical file open during use, including the System suitcase that will not copy properly. To backup the OS 9 folder, boot from another drive or CD before duplicating the System Folder.

granted dupeing the OS folder when not in use would probibly be better, but i have done this before while being booted from it and did not have any problems. my most recent one was to make a custom boot CD for OS 8.6 for one of my machines.

02-16-2005, 04:17 PM	#1
Philippe Robert Prospect Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Sherbrooke Posts: 13	To Upgrade or Not to Upgrade (OS9.0.4) Greetings to all of you, my parents have an indigo iMac G3 (Slot-Loading, Pro Kbrd and mouse) with OS9.0.4. Question is: would upgrading to 9.2 be a good thing to do? It sees everyday use, but only text, internet, mail, 2D games. If the answer is yes, I have another question: its connection is dial-up. To avoid hours of waiting, can I download the upgrades at school on DSL and put them on a CD? Is it possible? Have a good day, Philippe Robert-Staehler

02-17-2005, 10:11 PM	#5
DJ_Max Prospect Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: Chicago, IL USA Posts: 34	I remember when I was running 9.0.4, I upgraded due to software support, and to fix random crashes. Didn't use it much cause I upgraded to X. __________________ PHP5, Ruby, JSP, XML, Python, PostgreSQL \|\| daejuan@gmail.com iMac G3 400MHZ 256MB Ram 40GB ATA HD ATI Rage 128 pro OS 10.3.9 & Ubuntu Linux 5.04 "Hoary" Unoficial Ubuntu Linux PPC wiki

02-18-2005, 09:14 PM	#7
Las_Vegas League Commissioner Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: Las Vegas Posts: 5,875	Do not make a copy of the System folder currently in use. The result will be pretty much useless. OS 9 leaves a number of critical file open during use, including the System suitcase that will not copy properly. To backup the OS 9 folder, boot from another drive or CD before duplicating the System Folder. __________________ Las_Vegas -- Ts'i mahnu uterna ot twan ot geifur hingts uto. -- Sometimes I wonder… Why is that Frisbee getting Larger? …and then it hits me. -- Disposable thumbs make me specialer than most animals…

02-20-2005, 06:09 PM	#10
Las_Vegas League Commissioner Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: Las Vegas Posts: 5,875	9.2.x also contains a number of improvements for Classic mode use. __________________ Las_Vegas -- Ts'i mahnu uterna ot twan ot geifur hingts uto. -- Sometimes I wonder… Why is that Frisbee getting Larger? …and then it hits me. -- Disposable thumbs make me specialer than most animals…

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02-16-2005, 06:20 PM	#2
mark hunte MVP Join Date: Apr 2004 Location: Hello London Calling Posts: 1,787	You do not say why your thinking about upgrading their system. Which does not help anyone to answer your question on the pros and cons. I do not use OS 9 at home very much but when I did I have found 9.2.2 to be very stable, But then thats on My system with My apps. Personally I can not see the harm, but I would do the usual and back up before you touch whats sounds like a system that aint broke, before you play around with it. Also if you can download it as a stand alone installer on dial up then there should be no reason you can not do it on DSL.

02-17-2005, 04:41 PM	#4
Philippe Robert Prospect Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Sherbrooke Posts: 13	Thanks to all of you for your input. Truth is, the decision of whether to upgrade was simply based on the assumption that the newer versions had superior abilities. Since there seems to be no significant difference, I think it'll stay just like it is. Have a good day, Philippe Robert-Staehler

02-18-2005, 09:55 AM	#6
jeffo All Star Join Date: Mar 2002 Posts: 713	chances are your OS 9 system folder is small enough to burn to a cd as a drag and drop replacement in case something does go wrong. that way you could just trash the system folder that got screwed and replace it with the "exact" system that was before with all the preferences still in tact and all.

02-19-2005, 08:11 AM	#8
Craig R. Arko Site Admin Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Minneapolis, MN Posts: 3,965	If this were my system, I'd make sure that the firmware was up-to-date (4.1.9, I think for a slot-loading G3 iMac) and then do the update to 9.1 on the OS. That seemed to be the best stability for USB and FireWire (if you have it) devices. There are some fixes to OpenGL (graphics) and OpenTransport (networking) in the 9.2.x family that might prove useful, but not necessary.

02-19-2005, 01:08 PM	#9
TazmanDman Triple-A Player Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: Ft. Worth, TX Posts: 231	I think the firmware update requires 9.1 to run in the first place.

02-22-2005, 06:24 PM	#11
DanTheMan Prospect Join Date: Feb 2005 Posts: 4	I would be asking, why not move to X? Yes I know it means a lot of new software, but depending what you use, it may not be that bad. I personally could never run in 9 once i had my first taste of OSX. And they've worked out most of the kinks, so panther runs very well. I guess it is as much of a change as going from pc to mac. My 2¢.