Knowledge Base .: MacOS support

What's happening with Mac OS?

Mac OS 9 (and the classic environment) have been effectively considered at end-of-life by Apple, for development purposes, since May 2002.

Self-help support for Mac OS 9 is still available from Apple, though this online resource may be removed without warning. The introduction of Rosetta translation software permits Mac OS X software to run on Intel architecture, but this does not extend back to OS 9 technologies.

Development of new titles for OS 9 has become more difficult as the tools and development environments tend not to work on newer hardware. As such we no longer actively develop OS 9 versions of our new releases. In addition we no longer offer new solutions to Mac OS 9 specific issues.

What does this mean for our software?

Whilst we will no longer be able to actively support OS 9 or the Classic environment, existing products should continue to operate as normal.

Patches and support articles will still be available here, but we will not be able to offer new solutions to problems affecting these retired Macintosh systems. We will of course offer advice as best we can.

We no longer develop for or test our products against Mac OS 9.

Why did you do this?

Unfortunately, without active Apple support, the operating system and hardware environments become more prone to errors due to malicious code, third party software or resource-hungry code designed for later systems, to the point that performance of new and existing products is unacceptable.

For security reasons we cannot run old systems on our networks therefore we are unable to reproduce customer issues effectively or safely.

Why was there no warning?

New development for OS 9 was effectively terminated by Steve Jobs during his keynote speech at the Apple Developers Conference in May 2002. A report of this address can be seen at: http://www.macworld.com/news/2002/05/06/wwdckeynote/

The freeze in core code has effectively produced an erosion of capability where supporting code such as browser technology, new hardware technologies and networking continue to progress. The continued development of these supporting technologies has been such that the OS has become progressively outdated and incompatible. In particular, the retraction of Microsoft Internet Explorer for Macintosh has been a notable indicator of this change.

I have an old version of Mac OS, what should I do?

You should follow the advice of Apple, and upgrade to Mac OS X - check on the Apple site regarding hardware requirements.

In the short term, you should seek the guidance of your LEA or school IT administrator.

How long will the other versions of Mac OS be supported?

We consider the first stable and mature version of Mac OS X to be 10.2 - we will continue to develop for and support Mac OS X from 10.2.8

It is important that you maintain security updates and other system software updates as they are released by Apple. OS X 10.2.x users should ensure that they upgrade to 10.2.8 to enjoy the benefits of improved security and stability. These upgrades are typically available at no cost through the Apple website.