Appendix A: A Tale of Two Systems

Overview

(Or: Mac OS X versus Mac OS 9—transitioning and switching back and forth.)

In Chapter 8 I talked about the Classic Environment in OS X: what it is, how it works, how to best use it. What I didn't get into much was the comparison between booting into OS 9 versus OS X. People who are making the transition from OS 9 to OS X will notice that the latter differs significantly from the former in many ways—sometimes, in their opinion, not in good ways.

In addition, although the Classic Environment works very well, some people will need to (or, let's face it, want to) boot into OS 9 at times, and this itself presents challenges, because the two operating systems handle some things very differently, such as the Documents folder(s).

This appendix provides some assistance. I cover a few issues that can be confusing or troublesome when making the transition from OS 9 to OS X. I also include some tips for those who use OS X full-time, but wish that it did some things more like OS 9 (can you say, "Where's my old Apple Menu?"). Finally, I discuss problems and solutions that affect those users who tend to switch back and forth.

Note 

At this point in the book (almost the end, can you believe it?), I'm not going to spend a lot of time talking about installation and configuration when I mention a third-party software solution. I'm going to assume that you're an old pro at that by now.