The answer would be 10.2.8 Jaguar, or earlier. While app compatibility per se is unchanged between 10.3 Panther and 10.4.11 Tiger, there are lots of graphical smoothness issues, and some games actually became basically unplayable (e.g. Hexen).

Nothing beats natively-booted Mac OS 9.2.2 or earlier systems, though. That's what "Mac OS 9 Lives!" is all about!

OS X up to and including 10.4 Tiger includes the Classic compatibility environment. AFAIK there was no change in app compatibility between the versions. It won't run anything like a sequencer that relies on timing or accesses special hardware, so it's generally not useful for most music things. But I've used simple audio editors and such.

Sad news indeed. You might try a direct message to "herd" over on 68kMLA.org as he repairs such things I believe. And even if not, he might be able to offer you a replacement. (And likely would be glad to take yours off your hands.)

And he's not too far from Houston.

Good luck!

Hoopla!

For anyone interested in the audiobook (free borrow) of Tamara Shopsin’s “LaserWriter II” — hoopladigital.com offers this title.



Hoopla also offers: Ebooks, Movies, Television, Comics and Music. All free and at no charge… IF your local library offers this streaming service to your computer, or television. (You might even apply for a digital library card from other libraries that also participate.) Not a fan of audiobooks? Me neither. However if I can’t find a particular title at my local library… an audiobook might just do in a pinch.

Have also read a review of Shopsin’s “LaserWriter II’ — which loosely likens it to Robert M. Pirsig’s “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance”. So that alone might just warrant an audiobook listen for me. 

I killed this earlier this year. Please someone take it off my hands. It makes me angry seeing it in the drawer.

I idiotically destroyed a Sonnet upgrade earlier this year and have not seen another come up for sale since. Does anyone have one now that they're willing to part with? I promise I won't ruin it this time...

I'm located in Houston, TX. Thank you

... in terms of App compatibility think how snow leopard is comparable to Windows XP in those terms I am curious is it closer to Puma or Panther?? googles AI is useless when I ask it that question so I might as well ask real humans unless your a bunch of bots

...and I see the original thread had been renamed, so there are two of them now. *chuckle*

Everything you said makes a ton of sense but nowadays with the hacked Mac OS 9 release, unless you need expandability/certain peripherals I don't see a great advantage of a tower 1.25 GHz G4 over a Mac mini 1.25 GHz G4. It's approximately the same speed, even quieter, uses much less energy, and takes up much less space.

Well... yes... and no. Unfortunately, it is slightly more difficult to jam (2) Powercore Cards, (1) UAD1 Mackie Card and (1) 2496 into the G4 mini; this was my favorite setup for many years in the MDD. 

I do, however, enjoy pulling up old projects on the mini for export, but most of the time I use a VM. At any rate, the mini is still an amazing machine for me to run OS9 and peruse all the legacy stuff that I used to create the site

Thanks, @ssokolow. I was wondering if anyone was ever going to create a new (yet related topic) as it is often the case around here, seldom is this ever done. Now, we’ve a new topic for such “other” non-Mini System 7 things.

It is far easier for individuals to do this upfront, rather than to do this… afterwards.

Cheers!