Later today will mark my second date with MacOS 9. The two of us have decided to go slow with things this time around, seeing as how we broke up entirely about nine months ago, and are a little hesitant to get back together. It's not that MacOS 9 wasn't a lot of fun, it's just that I don't quite know if I can trust her. I mean, you just never know when she's going to reveal her limitations to me at the worst possible time, or even freeze up on me altogether. Remarkably, she hasn't aged a bit since the last time I saw her, but on the other hand, she's not getting any younger, either.
I was impressed by the fact that I could still prune her extensions for optimal use for a school setting, from memory, without even needing to think about it. But then, she always was straightforward and self-explanatory in that way. What bothers me, though, is the amount of attention that she always seems to be needing. I'd always kept an old copy of Norton Utilities around, just in case I ever ended up getting back with her, but I didn't think she'd already be needing it so quickly. And perhaps the worst part of all is that if one thing in her world goes wrong, her entire existence falls apart and needs to be rebooted.
Alright, if you're wondering what I'm talking about, I'll be over at the local school again today, continuing on my project to breathe new life into a batch of old G3 iMacs, and it's the first time in nine months that I've even so much as looked at MacOS 9. And it just feels as if I've suddenly started dating an old girlfriend again, with all the familiarity (and all the contempt) that comes along with that. I can play OS 9 like a fiddle, I can tune it like a harp, but it's still an outdated operating system that was discontinued three years ago, and in almost all cases has no business being the primary operating system on any computer that can run MacOS X.
I want to bring the magic of OS X to the school more than just about anything in the world right now, but that's going to have to wait awhile. For the time being, all I can do is to make things happen within the existing OS 9 paradigm that I've walked in to. If that goes well, then OS X can always happen later. But for now, it feels like I've stepped into the Twilight Zone -- one in which everyone thinks that OS 9 is Apple's current, dominant operating, and no one has even so much as heard of OS X.
Hey, sometimes it's good to get knocked off your toes a bit. Keeps you sharp. But in any case, I've got to be there in about six hours, and between now and then I've got to get some semblance of a night's sleep. So we'll see you tomorrow.
But before I wrap up, I want to say hello to all the new people reading today, most of whom are likely from Minnesota. And I want to thank Pioneer Press columnist Julio Ojeta-Zapata, who in his article about LoadPod today, managed to mention not only the iPod Garage (which sort of ties in nicely with the LoadPod theme anyway) but also this site as well. It's the first time I can recall a newspaper journalist ever having mentioned billpalmer.net, even in passing. Let the games begin.
