Essential apps for a classic Mac OS 9 experience

[yntzl]

Hello y'all.

Could we make a thread about the essential applications for a general Mac OS 9 install? I recently acquired a G4 500MHz DP to go along my G3 B&W and besides some games, what other applications should I install on these two? I've found a thread about Extensions and Tweaks but what about the apps?

I'm even talking about some productive apps and tools live Photoshop, iMove, iTunes, Toast, Classilla (RIP), etc to enhance the usage experience and nostalgia as to what was like to had these systems as main computers back then.

[Mat]

Welcome yntzl!

The question for "essential" programs is somehow unanswerable. Would you like to have the 3 different DICOM data programs I have for MacOS 9 to deal with your MRI data? No? Some doctors would call them essential. Or do we talk about imposing programs for sheet assembling? Some of them are still 4k bucks. But perhaps you are talking about professional architecture programs with witch millions of buildings were constructed?

See alone the huge collection of digital audio programs here at macos9lives, and that is just one field of use cases for Macs. Do not forget, MacOS (for PPCs) was for 10 years the 2nd mainstream desktop OS and especially used in all creative fields. And for some like me, it is still the only Operating System that is used for everything I do with computers.

So please give us a "field" of things you like to do with your Mac OS 9 computer. There is nearly nothing you can not do.

[yntzl]

Good point Mat,

I was talking more in the sense of nostalgia, "What the average home user would have in it's Mac back then?" and I'm not talking about a specific field like medical or architecture, but what are the essential apps for the basic productive use of the OS? Like StuffIt for example.

I think video capture from Windows 98 at the time can illustrate my idea https://youtu.be/OyTPAN7uvoU

[Mat]

Well the Win 98 video is just about the Internet, …

To be honest, I do not exactly understand what you mean by "nostalgia" or by "basic functionality". You like to work with you machine, but what? Or better you like to use your computer as a tool, …

So I do not know what you plan, so I just can tell you what I put at all my machines in every case.


Operating System
latest drivers
ATM light for font smoothing
ATM deluxe for font management
Acrobat 5
Ghostscript (from this forum)
JAWS PDF creator for "printing" PDFs from every program
a good texteditor like BBEdit
Stuffit Deluxe
MacZip
MacRAR
MacGzip
MacTar
Toast
Virex (but just for checking new files)
PGP including PGP Disk
Disk Warrior
Hard Disk Speed Tools
Techtool Pro
FWB HD Toolkit
CD/DVD Speed Tools
QuickTime (plus codecs)
MPG2 Component
DviX
DviXDoctor
Serial Surfer
Dave
Via Voice
Spell Catcher 8
VueScan

Classilla
iCab
Opera 6.03
Netfinder for SSL-FTP
Mac SFTP
Mac SSH
Telnet program
Snak IRC
ShadowIRC
Anarchy/Interarchy
Transmit
KDX Client
Eurdora
Traceroute
MacVNC
VNCThing
Jabbernaut and TVJab
Rapscallion
Goliath
WebStar
MacTorrent

ACDSee

GraphicConverter
Quark XPress 4 and 5
FlightCheck
Acrobat InProduction
Quite Imposing
Freehand MX
Cumulus
Framemaker
Photoshop
Streamline
InDesign 2
Premiere
Illustrator
Final Cut
After Effects
Combustion
Maya
ArchiCAD
FormZ
Canvas

MacAmp
SoundJam MP
Audion
AMP Radio
More Amp (from this forum)

OMS
ProTools Free
Cubase 5
Deck
Logic
Sound Edit 16
Audacity
Peak
Sibelius
Finale Allegro

Word 2001
Excel 2001
PowerPoint 2001
DocXConverter
AppleWorks 6
RagTime
FileMaker
NisusWriter
Omnipage
Abbyy FineReader
Palm Desktop
Pepper
OzTeX
Cyclone Text converter


MagiCMac
Virtual PC
Connectix Virtual Game Station

Pixeltoy

Myst
Myth
Civ II
Tropico
Age of Empires
4x4 Evo
Red Faction
Oni
Unreal
Tamale Loco
Heroes of Might and Magic
Diabolo
Tomb Raider

That is what I personally consider as "basics" for my use cases. Leaving aside all the tons of system extensions, tools, enhanncements pr plugins for every program. That would be several extra threads, …

[IIO]

so what is more nostalgia?

the top notch RTCW or the oldest hyperstack game from system 5 times which still runs in OS9?

the "christmas lights" desktop gimmick for bored housewives or the superprofessional "adobe after effect production bundle"?

i also still fail to understand the question.

[yntzl]

Thanks Mat, that's exactly what I wanted. My G4 hard drive is gonna be sorry. 

[Mat]

If you are happy, I am glad too

But the thing is, there are so many special programs that it does not make sense for everybody. For example, you need Sibelius only if you are not satisfied with Cubase' and Logics' score editor, or if you need more special functionality of this high-end notation program. I for myselve mainly need it for PostScript integration of layouting songbooks as I am no music composer, …

You do not need Vuescan if you have no scanner, or you need another scanner software if you for example like to use a Dia-scanner including batch processing of film stripes, what VueScan cannot provide, even if it makes nearly every scanner usable at Mac OS.

You see the point?

But if you like to go for a "show down" what Mac OS can do, just go ahead and install all of them, or even go to macintoshgarden and macrepository and download another 5k programs.

BTW, if it is really for "nostalgia" I would recommend to use your G3 with just NOT carbonized programs, and Mac OS 8.6 – and be fascinated what Mac OS once was!

[yntzl]

Thanks for the tip Mat,

Yeah I understand your point, I was a bit broad when I asked.

Also, I do have the original G3 B&W Rev. 2 restore disc which is 8.6, I was in doubt as to what OS I should install on it, I've read great things about Mac OS 8.6 like the new kernel and refinements that classify it as the "finest Classic Mac OS ever released", my G3 will run happily on that. 

But I wonder, why no Carbon apps?

[Mat]

But I wonder, why no Carbon apps?

I didn't think about it myselfe for a long time, … Carbon has nothing to do with Mac OS 9, it is the API for porting stuff to X and it's Cocoa (Openstep). So – polemically speaking – Carbon is the X crap that taxes Mac OS programs and is crippeling down our OS and "reorganizing" calls to be Cocoa compatible. There are 2000 Macintosh Toolbox functions – out of 8000 – that are not existing anymore. So Carbon is no good for Mac OS, it is focused on X. Later the situation was that it allowed X-optimized programs to run as well at Mac OS 9.

Carbonized programs are most times a lot slower at Mac OS 8 and 9 compared to non carbonized ones. That is maybe not striking at our 1GHz machines, but a BW G3 with pure Mac OS 8 and 9 code runs a lot faster, more stable and more reasonable, than with the useless Carbon code.

[OS923]

I recommend this as a start for beginners:

Aliases:
- AliasZoo 2.0.8

Calendar:
- AllDay 4.5

Compression:
- BinHex 5.0
- MacBzip2 0.0.2
- MacGzip 1.1.3
- StuffIt Deluxe 7.0.3
- TomeViewer 1.3d3
- ZipIt 2.2.2

Contextual Menu Items:
- FilePathToClip CM
- LockIt CM
- UnlockIt CM
- WildSelect CM

Dictionaries:
- Collins Cobuild 4
- Concise Oxford Dictionary 1.2
- Oxford Reference Shelf 2.0

Disk repair:
- DiskWarrior 2.1.1
- Norton Utilities 6.0.5

Dock:
- Malph 3.0.1

Files:
- CopyAgent 1.0
- Invisible File Copier 1.0

Finder info:
- DropAttribute 3.0.0
- File Whacker 2.0
- Text Press 1.1a
- touchMe 1.2

Folders:
- Folder Compare 2.04
- Icon Begone 2.0
- Package First Aid 1.0.1

Fonts:
- BitFont 1.0
- FONDetective 1.0.1
- FontBook 4.5
- Font Clerk 6.2
- Font List 1.1.3
- Fontographer 4.1.5
- MacFont 3.01
- Metamorphosis Pro 2.0
- TypeSpec 1.2

Internet:
- iCab 3.0.5

Language:
- Grammarian 2.0
- Spell Catcher 8.0.1

Memory:
- Memory Mapper 1.4.1
- RAMEdit 1.1.0
- Search & Rescue 3.0.1

Menus:
- BeHierarchic 4.2

Multimedia:
- QuickTime 6.0.3

Office:
- AppleWorks 5.0.4 (is better than 6)
- Microsoft Office 2001

PDF:
- Acrobat 5.0.10
- Acrobat Reader 5.1

PRAM:
- PRAM Inspector 1.1

Processes:
- MacLoad 1.0a4
- ProcessWatcher 3.2
- Process Spy 1.2

Programming:
- ASCII Chart 4.0
- ASCII Translator 1.0
- BinCalc 1.0.3
- CalConvert 1.2
- CodeWarrior Pro 6.3
- GestLab 1.2
- HexEdit 1.7.4
- Lines Of Code 1.0.4
- ProcDoc 1.0
- REALbasic 5.5.5
- The Fragmalyzer 1.5.2
- Traps Check 1.1
- Yellow error reference 2.0.0

Raster pictures:
- GifBuilder 0.3.2
- GraphicConverter 6.5
- Photoshop 7.0.1

Resources:
- ResCompare 2.6
- ResEdit 2.1.3
- Resorcerer 2.4.1

Screen:
- CameraMan 3.0
- Desktop Screenshots 1.0
- Pixel Spy 1.3
- Scope 1.6
- Screen ruler 2.0.1
- Snapz Pro 2.0.1
- Zoom Lens 2.0

Scripting Additions:
- Akua Sweets
- Jon's Commands
- Kamprath's Text Utilities
- RegEx Commands

Snippets:
- Clp Convert 2.0
- Text2Clip 1.0

Sound:
- DropSound RoundUp 1.1
- Sample Editor 1.0.3
- SimpleSound 1.1
- SoundApp 2.6.1

System:
- Conflict catcher 9

System info:
- Mac Army Knife 2.7
- TattleTech 2.0.3

Startup:
- BootLogger 1.0

Text:
- BBEdit 6.5
- Character Chooser 1.4
- Clean Text 1.2.3
- SimpleText Pro 1.0a3

Text encodings:
- Cyclone 1.4.1

Text search:
- SpeedSearch 1.1

Vector pictures:
- Adobe Illustrator 10

Volumes:
- AutoFlush 1.0
- LockVol 1.3.2
- CatFinder 2.5.1
- Joliet Volume Access 2.1b5
- ShrinkWrap 3.5.1
- Toast Titanium 5.2.3

[xerograph]

My suggestions (software I install on all my sys 9 macs)

Control panels:

- "USB Overdrive" (essential to configure any new USB mouse - with more than ONE button)
- "Default Folder" (enhancemant for open/save dialogs)
- "PopChar Lite" (when you do not find specific letters on your keyboard)
- "Extension List" (helps debuging your system startup)

Applications:
- "Drag Thing" (when you have more than just a few applications installed on your mac)
- "GrabbyWindows" (essential when you want to use graphic design applications like QuarkXpress 4/5 - it provides drag and drop functionality for several applications and gives insight to IPTC and EXIF data of picture files)

[bfcastello]

Anyone know if there is an app to open .bin files?

[GuiBer]

Anyone know if there is an app to open .bin files?

With Mac OS X you can use 'The Unarchiver' (free), available for Tiger/Leopard and later OS X, with Mac OS 9 'Stuffit Expander v.6' (free).

[OS923]

Also BinHex 5.0 to open .bin files.