Below are some of the key features of Mac OS 9. This information is adapted from Technote 1176 and other online resources. More details in the Technote and elsewhere. (Note: This article is a copy/paste of an existing LEM article, however, due to the errors presented on that page, it has been instead migrated here. See Article/Page)
Hints & Tips
- Turning off Multiple User control panel and extensions will make the Finder more responsive.
Hardware Requirements
- Power Macintosh, PowerBook designed for PowerPC, iMac, iBook
- Clones are not tested and qualified by Apple, but field reports indicate success
- 32 MB physical RAM, 40 MB logical RAM (VM set to 64 MB by default if less than 64 MB physical RAM installed)
- First generation Power Macs (6100, 7100, 8100) and computer with System 7.5.1 or earlier must be booted from Mac OS 9 installation CD
Mac OS 9 Features
- Allows multiple users to have their own preferences
- Supports copying files over 2 GB in size, up to 8,169 open files
- Encrypt command added to File menu (encrypts files, not folders)
- Keychain tracks user passwords
- Carbon support
- Unicode support
- Sound and Monitor control panels separated
- Font Manager fixes FOND problem found in Mac OS 8.6
- Mac OS USB v1.3 fixes sleep problem found in v1.2
- Mac OS USB v1.3 provides improved support for PCI USB cards
- Support for preemptive multiprocessing on Power Macs with more than one processor
- Notification Manager eliminates “modal” alerts for background applications
- Date & Time routines now default to 4-digit years, use 64-bit routines, eliminate Y2020 problem on older Mac OS, supports dates to A.D. 2108
- Large memory leak in Appearance control panel fixed
- File Sharing now supports TCP/IP
- Supports automatice OS updates over the internet
- Sherlock 2 allows grouping of search sites
- Palm Desktop 2.5 (formerly Claris Organizer) includes with OS
- Support for Color StyleWriter 4000 series dropped
- LaserWriter 8f drivers, which include support for fax cards in certain LaserWriters, in not compatible with OS 9
Links: OS X index, 2002 archive, 2001 archive, 2000 archive, 1998-99 archive, OS 9 overview
