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Sunday March 06

OS9 enthusiast support group

Let me talk about They Whom Must Not Be Mentioned. OS9 users. Yes, like ghosts of Christmas Past, there are still some lingering around unable to resolve their issues with the new OS and unable to let of their old one. It was brought to my attention yesterday that there are legions of them. But they have gone underground like modern pariahs.

The fact that nobody talks about them doesn't mean they don't exist. The fact that Apple still maintains a OS9 support forum and that Versiontracker still gets submissions every day to its new software list is evidence that they are still an important market.

As I said yesterday, I respect anyone's choice of operating system, whether it is Windows or Linux and I don't begrudge them of it. And I apply the same principle to OS9 users. Many of them are using G5s and iBooks they bought as late as 2003. But since then, Apple has stopped making hardware for them and have cut them off. Yet, I doubt that will nudge them to an upgrade. Mainly because they don't see OSX as an upgrade.

They see OSX as simply a different OS. As different as Windows is to Mac. And I do understand where they are coming from. I spent a year like them when I bought my first iMac (a lime-coloured one), booting up in "Classic" and refusing to try OSX. That is, until I felt I couldn't live without a multi-IM-service client like Fire. And then I "switched".

So OS9 users are now like orphans. They are enthusiasts with no forums for them to congregate because all the Mac forums only support OSX to the exclusion of all others. And they're shy of making themselves public for fear of mockery and derision, especially from fellow Mac users. They want more software companies to support their choice of operating system, but they have no voice and are afraid of speaking up.

And so I'm proposing to one of the local Mac User Groups that is in contact with several OS9 enthusiasts to create a special forum site just for them. A safe haven where they can form their own OS9 support group and discuss their software and hardware issues openly. If you know of other OS9 enthusiasts, please let them know that help is on the way. And if there is such an enthusiast site already in existence, please let me know so I can tell them.

Comments

I appreciate your effort. i went back to OS9 due to my
dropped ibook 900, since i found icab on a dial-up
connection i won’t be investing in new equipment
untill IBM gets HAL on the desk top.

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