Becoming obsessed with the idea of a mac

Posted by Stephen R. Diamond
Dec 9, 2007 at 08:02 PM

Chris Thompson wrote:
>Stephen R. Diamond wrote:
>>On the Mac
>>OS 9 nothing that was being made for OSX ran on
>9.
> >This is not true. Apple came out with a compatibility toolbox so developers could
>develop OS X applications that would also ran in OS 9, and several companies used it
>(but no, it did not become popular)

Could you name one company that used it - preferably the company with the most successful product. The “cult” Mac word processor on OS 9 was a program called Nisus. Ted Goranson of the Outliners column on atpm.com even developed an elaborate set of outlining macros that Nisus could run. Today, Nisus for OS X is still nowhere near its level on OS 9.
> >The thing is, in most cases it’s a fool’s game to
>develop software for older operating systems. People move on, and developers are
>stuck with a code base that’s old, doesn’t profit from new features the OS has
>introduced and feels out of place. I’m looking at you Zoot, MaxThink, and
>Brainstorm….

Yes, that’s exactly the issue. Are these programs better or worse because of their longevity? Would it have been better still if Grandview were still usable? Or are the latest embellishments more important than the accumulated wisdom embodied in longstanding or particularly brilliant outlining software? More 3 is far better than Omni-Outliner, and you cannot use More on OS X. There is no outliner in the world with greater basic power than MaxThink and Brainstorm, no organizer more powerful than Zoot (I’m taking Zoot on based on reliable second-hand commentary, though)—but you *can* use them on XP. (I don’t know about Vista for the others, but MaxThink was quickly updated for use on Vista).

Yes, THIS is the issue important for us, if we are going to discuss operating systems.

>>As I said, I don’t come across programs just coming out that
> >>don’t run on XP, but NO programs that were developed after OSX came out could run on OS
>9.
>>If you were running OS 9 like I was a few years ago, you had NO new application or even
> >>versions coming out. Imagine a CRIMP sufferer in that situation!
> >Your
>hypothetical doesn’t make a lot of sense. CRIMPers by definition upgrade to new
>operating systems. The set of people who are not interested in upgrading an obsolete
>OS but have a strong desire to try and buy a variety of new applications is not a rational
>market for any commercial developer to target.

It wasn’t a hypothetical but my personal experience. The problem arises when to upgrade OS you have to upgrade the hardware you run it on.