# Switching quickly between Mac OSes **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 12, 2003, 4:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/switching-quickly-between-mac-oses/168208 "2003-04-12T04:54:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Aslan\_of\_Narnia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecd19e/32.png) [@Aslan\_of\_Narnia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aslan_of_Narnia)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2003, 4:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/switching-quickly-between-mac-oses/168208/1 "2003-04-12T04:54:56Z")
How would you easily switch between the mac OSes of 9.2 and 10? ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2003, 4:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/switching-quickly-between-mac-oses/168208/2 "2003-04-12T04:56:51Z")
What do you mean “switch between” them? You can have both OSes installed on the same drive (same partition, even) and choose one to boot at startup time, or you can boot OS 9.2 in the “classic” environment when in MacOS X. Perhaps if you explain what exactly you’re trying to accomplish a more detailed answer will be forthcoming. ---
**Author:** ![Aslan\_of\_Narnia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecd19e/32.png) [@Aslan\_of\_Narnia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aslan_of_Narnia)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2003, 5:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/switching-quickly-between-mac-oses/168208/3 "2003-04-12T05:07:38Z")
I wanna run programs that are 9.2, such as Office 2001 while also being able to run OSX, to run programs like iMovie 3 and iPhoto. Basically, I need to run programs that are version 9.2 compliant and also be able to switch to programs that are OSX compliant quickly. ---
**Author:** ![Aslan\_of\_Narnia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecd19e/32.png) [@Aslan\_of\_Narnia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aslan_of_Narnia)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2003, 5:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/switching-quickly-between-mac-oses/168208/4 "2003-04-12T05:08:52Z")
That is to say, I need to know how to quickly(relatively) how to switch between the two OSes because of different versions of programs. ---
**Author:** ![NurseCarmen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/5daacb/32.png) [@NurseCarmen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NurseCarmen)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2003, 5:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/switching-quickly-between-mac-oses/168208/5 "2003-04-12T05:12:45Z")
I suspect you don’t have Jaguar (10.2) the early version of 10 (10.1) kinda sucked at booting classic at the completion of the 10 boot. I wouldn’t reccomend checking the “boot 9 automaticaly” box in 10.1. I haven’t had anywhere near the problem (with this particular problem) with 10.2. ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2003, 5:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/switching-quickly-between-mac-oses/168208/6 "2003-04-12T05:22:34Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Aslan2 \* > \*\*That is to say, I need to know how to quickly(relatively) how to switch between the two OSes because of different versions of programs. \*\* There is no need to switch OSes. If you have MacOS 9 installed and you attempt to launch an OS9 application while running OSX, the “Classic” environment will automatically load and run the program. Easy as pie (perhaps easier.) ---
**Author:** ![NurseCarmen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/5daacb/32.png) [@NurseCarmen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NurseCarmen)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2003, 5:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/switching-quickly-between-mac-oses/168208/7 "2003-04-12T05:53:18Z")
**friedo** , the key word is **quickly**. With 10.1; lauching 9 at start up caused no shortage of fuckups. With 10.2, most of the problems were cleared. _most._ ---
**Author:** ![NurseCarmen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/5daacb/32.png) [@NurseCarmen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NurseCarmen)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2003, 5:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/switching-quickly-between-mac-oses/168208/8 "2003-04-12T05:56:35Z")
(I must clarify, both OS’s give the option of having 9 automatically boot. The default in 10 is to NOT have 9 boot.) ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2003, 6:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/switching-quickly-between-mac-oses/168208/9 "2003-04-13T06:14:25Z")
I never had any major problem booting 9 (Classic environment) while runnign 10.1.5, but YMMV. To increase the speed, don’t use the same MacOS 9 partition that you use when you boot directly into 9 (assuming that you do that at all); instead, do a separate MacOS 9 installation to a different partition and pare down the extensions and control panels to the bare-bones set that will let you work with your Classic apps under MacOS X. ---
**Author:** ![istara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/e79b87/32.png) [@istara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/istara)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2003, 7:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/switching-quickly-between-mac-oses/168208/10 "2003-04-13T07:04:34Z")
If for some reason (low specs?) you are having problems switching, eg it’s slow, and you can afford to buy OSX software, I would highly recommend getting OfficeX. Failing that, you might want to consider getting [**ThinkFree office**](http://www.thinkfree.com/) for OSX - it’s only $49 (compared to several hundred dollars for the Microsoft version). ThinkFree office lets you work with Office files, and create and save them in all the Office formats - .doc, .ppt, .xls. You could use it in combination with Office 2001 - eg on days when you wanted to switch between using office apps and imovie, etc, use ThinkFree, and days when you more exclusively wanted to just use office apps, boot Classic (or directly into 9.2) and run Office 2001. ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2003, 7:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/switching-quickly-between-mac-oses/168208/11 "2003-04-13T07:13:05Z")
There is also a beta of [OpenOffice.org](http://www.openoffice.org/) for OS X available for free. I haven’t tried the OS X version, but I’ve been impressed with the 1.0 version for Linux. It does pretty well with MS file formats, both importing and exporting.