FLASH: Mac OS 9 Upgrades--should you do it?

[Frederico]

Hello Mac Faithful,


Well, many of you have been barraging us for weeks with our impressions 

of the new Mac OS 9 which we were happily beta testing, and now that 

release date is nigh, you are all asking us how soon you can upgrade to 

the new OS and all the great features.


The short answer is not yet. 


The longer answer is that if you are a graphics geek, depend on Adobe 

products, in particular ATM and Acrobat, you're simply going to have to 

wait.


 Macromedia-centric and MicroSoft-heavy users are also advised to proceed 

with caution until further notice. 


Audio geeks, particularly those using Digital Performer and Opcode 

products should also hold off for the time being.


We are only releasing this public address because, for some odd reason, a 

fair number of non-beta-testers have been receiving Golden Master product 

via UPS in the last two days, and we don't want you to jump the October 

23 release date without being prepared.


Basically, if you make your living with your Mac, wait it out awhile yet. 

If you are a casual user, willing to live without a few things for 

awhile, and can revert back if needed, go for it.


You new G4 owners are going to be in a lot of pain over this issue, since 

I can tell you first hand that OS 9 is a *HUGE* speed and stability 

improvement for the new G4 architecture, when compared with OS 8.6.1 

(Borg for G4). However, the good news for older G3 and PCI Mac owners is, 

that apart from the incredible array of new features you will miss out 

on, OS 8.6 will continue to serve you well for quite some time. Many of 

you may even wish to ride out with it until OS X Client is released early 

next year.


For those of you who simply can't wait for the few bug fixes provided for 

older extraneous issues, or are too jazzed to run the new MultiUser 

environments, new TCP FileSharing, new TCP enabled AppleScript (my 

personal favorite), Speech Recognition 2.0 (very cool), DVD 2.0, the 

8,169 Open File Count (up from 348), the 512 Open Font Suitcase (up from 

128) or any of the other 50 new features, we cannot stress enough how 

critical it is that you first create a backup of your existing, fully 

functional 8.x System, and be prepared to revert to it at will as you 

encounter various incompatibilities for the next several weeks.


Many of you will be able to upgrade to OS 9 for the bulk of your work, 

and revert to a bootable 8.x volume when you need to utilize Adobe ATM 

(our current strategy).


If anyone needs a service call to help setup a bootable backup OS, and/or 

to apply the OS 9 upgrade, please schedule with the service desk  with 

several days notice.


If you upgrade on your own, and fail to backup your 8.x System properly, 

then find you have critical incompatiblities, look for a hefty service 

cost to have us degrade your OS back to a working state.


We will be posting a final upgrade and illustrated installation guide for 

a safe, do it yourself upgrade in the last week of October. Anyone who 

receives the new OS prior to that date is advised to consult MacFixIt 

(<http://www.macfixit.com> and 

<http://www.macfixit.com/reports/macos9.shtml>). 


Please note there will be some critical issues that must be attended to 

manually this time, and for many high-end users, this will not just be a 

'slap it on top of the old one' upgrade -- though it will be nothing like 

the System 7 to OS 8 upgrade.


The Mac OS Up To Date Program has been reinstated, all iBook and G4 

owners, and any iMac or Mac purchased *after*  the *official* release 

date may upgrade for $19.95. Anyone who purchased OS 8.5 or newer after 

October [?] of 1998 until May (?) of 2000 qualifies for a $20 rebate with 

the purchase of OS 9.


Finally, just be happy with the fact that waiting a few extra weeks 

(October 23rd is *still* the official rollout date, despite the fact that 

many of you already have disks in hand) means that all the more 

compatibility upgrades will have been bug tested and approved by everyone 

else, so your own migration will go much more smoothly.


This OS is without a doubt the most-stable and fastest to date, and it's 

internal bug-count will be trivial. All we need is the third party 

vendors (are you listening Adobe?) to accelerate compatibility, and we'll 

all ring in the Milennium with a *truly* killer OS.


HTH


Frederico


~Following Apple's lead in producing compelling machines people want 

to buy, Microsoft's next major release of Win 2000 will now offer the

'Blue Screen of Death' in five tasty new colors.~

                       

                                     --[adapted from] David Puett


Think Imitation? Think Innovation. Think Different.


OS 9 ships October 23, 1999




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