Upgrading from 9.1 to OSX 10.3 on an iMac. Help!

Factual Questions
1

I would like to upgrade my system to Panther, but I have questions.
1) Will I be able to use my 9.1 applications, such as Photoshop, after the install?

2) Can I use any set of discs (eMac, iBook, etc.) to install OSX 10.3 on my iMac, as some on e-bay have said?

3) Do I first have to upgrade to 9.2 before installing 10.3, as recommended by Apple, and what can happen if I don’t?

4) If I buy a set on e-bay with the box (and, hence, the bar code at the bottom), does that mean I will have better access to future upgrades or do I even need the box?

5) Will I need a manual if I’ve been a Mac girl since 1991?

6) How many of you think I should just drop the $125 and buy it at Apple.com instead of paying $60 or so on e-bay?
I have already been to apple.com, and it answered some, but not all, of my questions.

Can anyone help?

2

According to the book that came with my OS 10.1:

3
  1. Will I be able to use my 9.1 applications, such as Photoshop, after the install?

Yes, Classic will allow you to use those System 9 apps. It can be a pain waiting for Classic to open, but it is cheaper than buying the OSX-native software.

  1. Can I use any set of discs (eMac, iBook, etc.) to install OSX 10.3 on my iMac, as some on e-bay have said?

Generally speaking yes, the main difference is the color of the label on the CD,

  1. Do I first have to upgrade to 9.2 before installing 10.3, as recommended by Apple, and what can happen if I don’t?

IIRC, you get a message recommending that you do that.

  1. If I buy a set on e-bay with the box (and, hence, the bar code at the bottom), does that mean I will have better access to future upgrades or do I even need the box?

You don’t need the box to get upgrades, of which there are plenty. The latest version of Panther is 10.3.8, and there are a bunch of security updates also. And Apple will probably release 10.3.9 before they release the Tiger.

Just make sure the Software Update System Preference is installed in Panther. You will be prompted to run Software Update on a regular basis w/o any documentation queries.

  1. Will I need a manual if I’ve been a Mac girl since 1991?
    I dunno, are you a manual-type girl? I have no idea where my manual even is. The Help function is pretty good.

  2. How many of you think I should just drop the $125 and buy it at Apple.com instead of paying $60 or so on e-bay?
    I think paying $60 for someone’s old iBook CD’s is too much. But it is $60 less than a new-in-the-box version. If you trust the eBay seller is not misrepresenting the software, go for it.

You could wait til mid-April when System 10.4, code named Tiger is rumored to be released. One way, or another Tiger will be released fairly soon.

4
  1. You probably will be able to find your way around without a book, but it wouldn’t hurt to have a guide to the trickier details that might not be so obvioius. There really isn’t a manual included with the softare, though, so you’re not missing out by buying the discs second-hand. In fact there’s a series of books out there called “The Missing Manual” to make up for all the manuals Apple hasn’t been including with their software. I haven’t read them myself, but I hear they’re well recommended.
5

Some things you need to understand before you proceed:

You may need to update your firmware first.. Some generations of iMac will come up with a black screen when you try to run MacOS X unless you do this first.

Your iMac that can boot MacOS 9.1 now will still be able to boot MacOS 9.1 afterwards, as long as you’ve still got MacOS 9.1 sticking around somewhere. That “somewhere” can be the same hard drive, as long as you’ve got enough room for it plus MacOS X plus your applications plus your documents plus a necessary bit of perpetually free space (for swapfile). That “somewhere” can be an external drive as well (FireWire, etc) if you’d rather buy a new hard disk and put the old hard disk in an external drive enclosure or something. If you’ve currently got a small, slow hard disk, that’s not a bad idea. The point is, though, that as long as you’ve still got a copy of MacOS 9.1 around, you can boot it instead of booting MacOS X, and of course your current MacOS 9-compatible applications will run there and then.

IF, HOWEVER, YOU WANT TO BE ABLE TO RUN YOUR EXISTING MacOS 9-compatible APPS ALONGSIDE OF MacOS X APPS, UNDER MacOS X, YOU NEED TO UPGRADE TO MacOS 9.2.2 FIRST. MacOS X comes with something called the “Classic Environment”. It launches a session of MacOS 9 within MacOS X, and that lets your MacOS 9-compatible apps run; you can copy and paste between them and MacOS X apps and so forth. But the Classic Environment won’t run off MacOS 9.1, it will only play with MacOS 9.2.2.

You could, if (again) you have several drives or partitions and sufficient overall free space, etc., keep your existing MacOS 9.1 System, install a new MacOS 9.2.2 System that you use for the Classic Environment when running MacOS X, and then install MacOS X. This is how I do it. (Except that my main MacOS 9 system is 9.0.4, not 9.1). The advantage of doing it this way is that you can custom-tailor your MacOS 9.2.2 system to make it nimble under MacOS X, getting rid of all the unnecessary extensions and control panels that don’t play nicely with MacOS X or are redundant or useless there. (For example, I don’t include my scanner drivers because the Classic Environment won’t run my scanners anyhow; and I don’t need USB and FireWire driver extensions because MacOS X mounts and runs all the devices and MacOS 9 just “sees” them without needing or being able to use these drivers).

6

You’ll hear it from me – if you’re feeling intimidated at the idea of moving to MacOS X, go get a copy of the latest “Missing Manual” by David Pogue. His writing style’s great for newbies and pros alike, and it flows by very easily.

7

I’ll second that. I figured out a lot of things in playing around with OS X over the last year or so, but The Missing Manual turned me on to some things I didn’t even know were possible with the system as well as filling in some gaps.

8

Thanks for all the help.

You guys are the bomb!

I think I’m going to first update the firmware, then update to 9.2.2 (or can I skip the firmware update if I install 9.2.2 first?), then buy the cheap disks on e-bay and install X. I don’t want to wait for Tiger.

I would like to be able to run 9.2.2 applications with OSX up at the same time. I’m only using one drive (the hard drive; no Zip drive and not running software off the disc drive on a regular basis). Also not using partitions.

One question: Do I have enough memory to do all this? I’ve only got 128MB of built-in memory, and the other numbers under Memory in CP and About this Computer mean nothing to me.

9

Officially you can run MacOS X in 128 MB, and technically speaking it has been successfully booted and used in as little as 64. But having said that, 128 is not realistically enough. Think 512. (Yeah, built-in memory is what you want to be paying attention to).

Do the firmware update before (or in addition to) upgrading to 9.2.2, you’ll need it.

10

Ok, but to get 512 I need a memory card, right? And Apple says OSX doesn’t like memory cards.

Is that not true?

11

There were about 15 different versions/eras of iMac, and they have different RAM capacities (and run at different processor speeds, etc). All of them allow you to add RAM, and as long as it’s good-quality RAM (Kingston is nice), OS X will get along with it.

  1. iMacs that looked like this:

Original Bondi Blue iMac = 233 MHz = 384 MB (Rev A) or 512 MB (Rev B). Takes two PC66 144-pin SO-DIMMs of 10ns speed or better.

Five Flavor iMac (Blueberry, Grape, Strawberry, Tangerine, Lime) = 266, 333 MHz versions; 512 MB, same DIMMS as the Original above.

Slot-Loading, first iMac with FireWire (same colors as above plus Graphite) = 350, 400 MHz versions; 1 GB max RAM, takes 2 PC100 3.3v 168-pin SDRAM chips of 10 ns or better.

Indigo, Ruby, Sage, Snow, Graphite iMacs of Summer 2000 = 350, 400, 450, or 500 MHz; same RAM as first Slot-loading model listed immediately above

“Perigree” and “Kiva” iMacs. Indigo, Graphite, Snow, Blue Dalmation and Flower Power. Last of the original series iMacs. Same RAM as above.

  1. iMacs that look like this:

First-generation G4 iMac = 700 or 800 MHz G4; takes two RAM chips of different types, one hard to get to [PC 133 168-pin SDRAM chip], the other easily accessible [PC 133 144-pin SO-DIMM chip] —maxes out at 1 GB, I think the hard-to-get-to chip will always have 512 in it unless someone took it out.

17" Flat-panel iMac = 800 MHz; same RAM as above

17/15" Later Flat-panel iMacs with Airport Extreme and Bluetooth = 1 GHz; 1.5 GB RAM max, in the form of 1 PC 2100 200-pin SO-DIMM [easy to get to] and 1 PC 2100 184-pin SDRAM [have fun]

1.25 GHz edition Flat-panel iMac = 1.5 GB max RAM in the form of 1 PC 2700 200-pin SO-DIMM [easy to get to] and 1 PC 2700 184-pin SDRAM chip [the deeply buried one]. Includes the bit 20-inch screen version as well as 15’ and 17" versions.

By this point I’ve gone past the iMac that you have; somewhere in there I went past the last iMac that will natively boot MacOS 9 (the newer ones will only boot MacOS X). So yours is in there somewhere.

12

I recommend Crucial Memory for Mac memory upgrades. Not only do they sell good stuff (MacOS X is picky about unreliable RAM), but their “Memory Advisor” web page tool makes it easy to get what your hardware needs.

13

I’m fairly certain it’s one of these, but mine is green (slot loading, w/FireWire.) What do you think?

14

Ok, after considerable effort, I just flipped over my 'puter and it read 450 MbHz, 612k, 2000 copyright, at least I think it does, cuz info was in font size 4. I guess it’s “sage” then, though it sure doesn’t look like sage to me. Or am I reading it wrong?

15

No, you’re right; sounds like you got a Sage (dark green) 450MHz slot-loading G3.

I’ll note that getting system information is mind-numbingly easy with MacOS X; the “About this Mac” menu has a button that takes you straight to the System Profiler application, where you can explore your Mac’s innards in mind-numbing detail.

16

Thanks!