Basic Questions on OS X and misc.

K

KBS

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I have been using an iMac G3 running OS 9.0.4 for 5 years. I finally decided to get a non-obsolete computer and got a 20" iMac G5 with OS 10.4. It's a beautiful machine and I am very happy with it but OS X is new to me and the guides I've read haven't been very helpful so I wanted to ask a few basic questions...

1) I need to install OS 9 so I can run some of my old programs. I have OS 9.0.4 on disc and have downloaded the updates up to 9.2.2. I've read the Apple article on installing a Classic environment, but I'm still unclear how this works. After I've installed OS 9, will I then need to choose with OS I want every time I start up? Or does it mean I will be able to use OS 9 apps in OS X? And when I install it, is there a certain way I need to do it so the comp. doesn't think I want OS 9 as my default OS?

2) I downloaded the newest Stuffit for my .sit files, but it quits immediately after starting up. Is this a common occurance? Is there a patch I need? Can anyone guess what the problem might be? Or is there another app I should d/l to open .sit files?

3) Many games I've played only have the option of 'window' or 'full screen' for the display options. On a 20" widescreen monitor, the 'window' option is ludicrously small, but the 'full screen' option looks stretched and pixelated. I don't seem to be able to change the window size manually, so is there any other way I can play the game in full screen but have it look normal?

4) The guide that came with the computer said that you should put the comp. to sleep if you plan on waking it within 3 days. I use my computer every day for at least a little while, so should I NEVER use the shutdown command? I tend to like to keep my electronics off when they aren't in use, but does the turning on and off the comp. reduce it's performance and/or lifespan?

I appreciate the help. I've been using Macs since my first SE in 1987, but OS X is a whole new can of worms and I feel like I need to relearn a LOT. (Thankfully most of the keyboard shortcuts are the same!)

Many thanks yous...
KBS
 
1.) Classic should already be installed or you should install it from the media that came with the computer. You can't install OS 9 earlier than 9.1 anyway.
2.) No, that's not normal. Do you mean StuffIt Expander or StuffIt Deluxe?
3.) I'd look for newer games.
4.) Yes, you should not use the shutdown command. From time to time, a reboot can be healthy (clear out memory and stuff), but basically, you should handle the iMac like a notebook. It sleeps if you don't need it to work, but you never shut it down - unless you're positive you won't use it for a couple of days.
 
In the old days, turning on and turning off a computer was debateably "bad" for it, since people thought that the sudden surge of electricity when you flip it on could cause premature failure of some components... so turning your computer on and off as little as possible was recommended.

Nowadays, power supplies are smarter and better and are not as succeptible to sudden spikes in power -- certainly not affected at all with simply turning on and turning off the computer.

Sleep mode uses very little power at all -- barely a blip on your electricity bill. In addition, it provides quicker startup and no need to fully boot the OS. A rule of thumb I've heard is that if you're not going to use the computer for more than a day, shut it down. If you use it daily, sleep it instead. Like fryke said, I don't shut down my computer unless I'm going to be gone for more than a few days or so... and, of course, during lightning storms.
 
Shut down vs. sleep:
It's mostly a matter of personal preference. I tend to reboot every couple weeks to clear out my VM and such. The advantages of sleeping are:

1. It's much faster to wake up than start up (obviously), and you don't need to quit all your apps.
2. OS X caches a lot of data in RAM. When you reboot, it ditches the caches. So if you reboot, you'll need to re-cache some things, which can hurt performance a bit. The more RAM you have, the bigger the advantage of sleeping here. With 256MB, I found it better to reboot more often. Now that I have a GB, I rarely reboot.

If you want to shut it down, then go ahead. There's just not much reason to these days. OS X doesn't suffer from things like fragmented memory like OS 9, so rebooting doesn't refresh anything really vital.


OS 9:
You CANNOT boot into OS 9 on recent machines. It is only useful for using the Classic environment within OS X. So yes, you'll run your OS 9 apps within OS X (in a "virtual machine" that integrates pretty well into OS X).

You can install it wherever you want. People used to recommend installing OS 9 on a different partition than OS X, but that was when most people dual-booted instead of using OS 9 strictly for Classic. And it was always more a matter of geekademics than actual real-world advantages. So just do whatever's convenient.


StuffIt:
It's certainly not normal. I think we'll need some more info to figure out the problem. Like, what flavor of StuffIt, exactly when it quits (do you ever see a menu bar? Does it bounce in the Dock? Do you get OS X's "unexpectedly quit" dialog?) and what kind of files you're trying to decompress.

I've found that for some reason, the recent versions of StuffIt have some serious issues with older archives I made in OS 8. The only way I can successfully decompress them these days is to use StuffIt Expander 5.5 in Classic (I haven't tried digging up older OS X versions of StuffIt, so it's possible they would work, but the latest version has problems).
 
Thx for the replies, guys. Good info, esp. on sleep vs. shutdown.

As to Stuffit Deluxe, it bounces momentarily on the dock, then disappears and I get the 'unexpectedly quit' dialog. As to the files, it's all kinds, from games to icons to utilities. Seems no matter what I try to unstuff, it quits.

As to OS 9, so if I understand correctly, I can just install it and whenever I use a classic app, it will just open as normal?

Thx,
KBS
 
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