37 replies to this topic

[matt_olsen]

Soooo, what do you think? What is the best classic version?

[Dr. Hurt]

I'd say 8.6 because it is the only other mac os I've ever used (on my trusty old power pc g3)!!! But of course it's not compareable with os x on my DELL.

[jrsdead]

I would say OS 9 as it was built on top of the others with added features also it was the one that came with my powerbook.

jrsdead

[Rhapsody Guru]

Mac OS 8.6 all the way, baby!

w00t!



Guru

[Colonel]

Let's hear it for 1.0!



I still voted for OS 9 though

[A Nonny Moose]

There were so many changes with just point releases that it's hard to just pin it down to one Classic system. For right now, I'm going with OS 9 with some huge props to either System 6 or 7.

[matt_olsen]

I think that the best Classic version is MacOS 8. It has a lot of improovments over System 7 and it's still very light. But MacOS 9, which I'm testing now, is a bit slower, plus it's enslaved by MacOS X - you know the 2 applications folders.

[sHARD>>]

9 is a hack, 8 is bloated, leaving 7 to take the position at the top. Seriously, 8 and 9 are part of the reason Apple almost died.

[kerimeton]

system 7.5 was rock solid, after taht, the OS deteriorated until OSX

[A Nonny Moose]

9 is a hack, 8 is bloated, leaving 7 to take the position at the top. Seriously, 8 and 9 are part of the reason Apple almost died.

Actually it was caused by a lot of factors not at all related to the Mac OS:

1. Clone makers actually siphoned off sales from Apple instead of attracting new customers

2. Mega glut of cheap Performa models made for very little profit from Apple

3. Byzantine product names made it super hard to evaluate what system came out when/where/how and it ultimately confused customers.

OS 8 came out around the same time as the iMac G3, which was the super-de-duper hit that Apple wanted since the original Macintosh. It had nothing to do with the Mac OS as it had to do with the big three reasons.

[odrex]

I voted for OS 8. It was a major difference from 7 to me. I remember I even d/led the beta on my 14.4 modem.

[iLux]

I would say System 6. The most stable of the family

[nikongeek]

8.6 comes in first, with 7.6.1 being close second

[AriX]

Are you guys kidding? 9 Sucked! I didn't use 8 much, but I LOVED System 7. P.S. There was no System 5, although there was a System Software 5, Finder Software 4, but it was considered System 4 I think. Or something like that.

EDIT: No wait I'm completely wrong about that. Go look it up for yourselves, it may be System 4.

EDIT 2: OK, I got this. There was a System 5, but the old Mac OS Versions were combinations of the System File and the Finder. System 5 was System File 4 and Finder File 6. Therefore, there was no System File 5.

[RacerX]

9 is a hack, 8 is bloated, leaving 7 to take the position at the top. Seriously, 8 and 9 are part of the reason Apple almost died.

That is sort of an odd position to take considering that Apple's return to profitability started with the release of Mac OS 8 and the G3 systems. And that the dark days at Apple were all during the System 7 era (including the seven consecutive quarters of losses).

Also Mac OS 8 introduced a number of important features that System 7 was sorely lacking (like system wide multitasking and partial protected memory). Any one who actually had to use System 7 noticed the change with Mac OS 8... you could still work while other applications were working on a process (in 7 you were left waiting for the process in most apps to finish).

As for stability, Mac OS 8.6 is the high point of the classic Mac OS. Mac OS 9.1 approached that level of stability, but never quite reached it. The rest of the Mac OS 9 releases were significantly less stable than Mac OS 8 on the whole.

Of course most of the reason for Mac OS 9's relative instability was that it wasn't being aimed at running a computer by itself... Mac OS 9 was being tailored to be a good Classic environment for Mac OS X. Also Mac OS 9 was an incredible resource hog... 9.0.x required at least 32 MB of RAM for the system itself (which meant that new Apple hardware with 32 MB of RAM running Mac OS 9 were already forced into using virtual memory right out of the box), with later versions of 9 surpassing 64 MB of memory just for the system. Mac OS 8 used between 6 MB to 16 MB (for 8.6) of memory for the system. And considering that the latest version of the Carbon libraries can be used in 8.6, you really didn't get much out of running Mac OS 9 that you couldn't get from 8.6.

...which is why you won't see any of my non-Mac OS X (or non-Rhapsody) systems running any version of Mac OS 9.

[oggydk1]

Voted MacOS 8, though nostalgia allmost made me vote MacOS 7. because of trusty old MacOS 7.5.3, which came preinstalled on my old Performa 5260. It was as unstable at a roboat with holes in it, but it was the first thing i saw, on the first computer i bought with my own money:-)

[acidnine]

I BRAKE FOR 8!

[NeXT Freak]

Dude... I would have to say Mac OS 8.6 was the best ever! Mac OS 9.1.2 was bloated as hell when I used it a couple years ago.

[BlackShadowWolf]

Mac OS 8.6, I like it alot, even if only in emulation. I do like OS9's software update feature, wish it was in OS 8 .

Edit: Woot my 20th post, only 980 to go .

[trav1085]

I voted System 7. My Mac LC 475 has 7.6 and it works fine. I also like Mac OS 9 (as my school uses it on their iMacs and eMacs) as it runs fast.