My first Mac was a used IIsi
running System 6. Since then, I have upgraded only as necessary, always
remaining five to eight years behind Apple's current hardware and
at least a few years behind the current OS.
I tolerated the System 7 years, was glad to get to Mac OS 8, and
was sublimely content with Mac OS 9.
Through it all, I kept track of the progress of the Microsoft
operating system. My wife had to use it at work, and I occasionally
had to troubleshoot her home PC. I took solace in the fact that my
older Mac systems were at least five years ahead of the current
version of Windows in terms of an intuitive interface, ease of use,
stability, and "the frustration factor".
Enter OS X
I put off installing OS X on my 300 MHz beige G3 a long as I could. Most
of my classic applications were serving me adequately. Several apps
originally written for System 7 were still working fine with
OS 9, provided that I added a few megabytes of memory in their
"Get Info" windows.
I knew that OS X could run many of these programs in Classic
mode, but running one operating system inside another is a
convoluted and memory intensive way to get something done.
At one time, I had Windows 98 running on a Power Mac 7500, using Virtual PC. Aside
from seeming somewhat perverse, it never worked as well as running
Windows by itself on its intended hardware.
Good-bye OS 9
My OS 9 bliss came to a stuttering halt when it slowly became
impossible to find classic versions of the software I needed or to
get OS 9 updates for the ones I had. I had to resign myself to
installing OS X 10.2.8 on my old G3 (link below).
A few of my old programs could be updated for OS X, but, as I
suspected, running my other older programs in Classic is sometimes
problematic.
When using Photoshop 5.5 or ImageReady 2.0, the cursor may
disappear. My paid version of Eudora doesn't work at all. Several
other programs seem to have problems retaining their
preferences.
As an added insult, every so often when I open QuickTime in OS
X, I am asked to upgrade to the "Pro" version. Well, I did that a
while back. It's on my Classic partition, and I'm not going to do
it again any time soon! Okay, Apple?
Now how do I turn off this annoying message ?
Back and Forth
For some tasks, I'm better off booting into OS 9. For others,
including secure browsing on the Web, booting back into OS X
is the clear choice.
I have tried to fill some of the gaps with freeware and
inexpensive shareware written for OS X. Unfortunately, this
can't replace all of my programs, and much of it is quite
buggy.
I seriously considered setting up a second Mac in my office, one
that would just run OS 9, but that would be almost as
complicated and might negatively impact the electric bill. (I can't
do without at least two monitors per Mac.)
Make no mistake about it, OS X is a very stable, powerful, and
secure operating system that is easier to use than Windows. My
advice to any new computer user or business starting up: If you
want to decrease down time and increase productivity, buy OS X
Macs.
However, because I am a long-standing Mac user who is not only
unwilling but unable to repurchase hundreds of dollars worth of
software, the Mac OS has become unpleasantly complicated for me to
use.
In my living room sits a custom built 1333 MHz AMD Athlon PC
running Windows XP. It was a gift from my next-door neighbor when
he switched to an Intel Pentium machine. Not only does it have my
beige G3 beat for speed - no contest - but it has a faster 3D video
card, more memory, and a DVD-ROM drive.
It gets used only once a month to process orders for my wife's
food co-op. The proprietary software for doing this wasn't ported
for Macs. The rest of the time, it usually just sits, silently
taking up space.
Given the fact that there is a greater variety of freeware and
shareware written for Windows than Mac OS X, what would you do
in this situation? Is it foolish to let this PC go to waste?
Is it better to struggle along booting into two different
systems on the same computer?
Should I instead switch to a single operating system that is
unpleasant and time consuming to use, takes control away from the
user, is unstable, and requires constant security and virus
monitoring?
Maybe I just answered my own question. I guess I'll be sticking
with Macs. Even with the recent complications, I think my blood
pressure is lower when I use them.
I know I swear a lot less. 
Link: A
'Classic' Holdout Makes the Move to OS X - Why and How I Migrated
to Jaguar on my Beige G3
