If you're using Mac OS 9, you might wonder if there is actually
any modern software available for the OS. Firefox
requires OS X, and in my last article,
I found out that
Windows Media Player 9 also requires OS X. The past
two versions of
Cubase have been OS X only, and recent versions of
Photoshop
also require OS X.
This doesn't mean that you need to have the latest version of
everything in order to be productive on your machine. I was very
productive in Mac OS 9 on my blue
G3, and on a beige G3 before
that.
OS X added a bit of stability, as well as the ability to
run a whole bunch of more modern applications that couldn't run
under OS 9.
But what if your Mac can't run OS X or your machine isn't
up to spec enough for it? You're not completely out of luck. While
you won't be able to view recent Windows Media files on your
computer, if you're running Mac OS 9, chances are you won't
care about that anyway.
The things you might care about could include a modern word
processor, a modern Web browser, and something decent to play MP3s
with.
For the word processor, Microsoft Word 98 and
2001 both run just fine under Mac OS 9. The files they create are
compatible with newer versions, too, although older versions of Word
(5.1 and 6) won't be able to open them unless you specifically save
them as Word 5 or 6 documents.
AppleWorks 5 and 6 are also options, although they're starting to
look somewhat old now. AppleWorks 6 comes free with iBooks, iMacs, and
eMacs. If you get an older version of it (6.1 or earlier, I believe),
it'll run just fine on Mac OS 9 - but be aware that AppleWorks 5
won't open files created in version 6.
As for Web browsing, I pretty much ruled out
Internet Explorer with my article on Firefox. If Firefox were
available for Mac OS 9, I'd suggest it.
However, since it's not available, one proceeds to the next-best
thing. Some might say that would be iCab.
I hadn't used iCab in a while, so I decided to give it a try. I
downloaded the latest version and was disappointed when it failed to
render a number of websites correctly - including About.com and Mozilla.org.
I searched everywhere for a popup blocker, but there seemed to be
none. It's hard to believe that a web browser under development today
doesn't include a popup blocker.
What seems to be the best browser for OS 9 would be Mozilla 1.3.1,
which is available from the Unofficial
Mozilla for Mac OS 9 website, or WaMCom, the Web and Mail
Communicator build of Mozilla 1.3.1. (Download
WaMCom here.)
Lastly, you can use Apple's iTunes 2.0 for MP3s, but I find that a
bit limiting. It's based on SoundJam, and
SoundJam 2.5.3 works just fine under Mac OS 9. It's a bit hard to
find these days, but it the link used here worked when it was tested
this week.
There's also Audion,
which is now free and runs on both Mac OS 9 and OS X.
The combination of choice for me would be Word 2001, the WaMCom
build of Mozilla, and Audion. This is perfect if you've got an
OS X Mac and want to use the same software on both your OS 9
and X machines.
If you don't have quite enough RAM or processor power to spare for
some of the larger programs, look around for a used copy of MacWrite
II, MacWrite Pro, ClarisWorks, or Microsoft Word 5.1 (try
eBay) and download Internet Explorer 2.1 (1.7
MB) and GrayAMP.
That combination will make even a Power Mac 6100 useful again.
