OS9 or OS10?

[fongster]

I just bought a new G4 733 and am concerned with using OS X, v10.1 as I heard it is not worked out yet. I was using OS 8.1 on my former employer's G3 with no probs at all. Should I stick with the OS 9 preinstalled on the new G4 and forget the upgrade CD for OS X? I will be using this machine for heavy use of QX v3.3, AI 8.0 and PS 5.0 as well as Acrobat 4.0, MS Office. I cannot afford to have a tempermental mac as this is my income tool--I'm not a tech genius either. Thoughts? Thanks in advance.

P.S. My key periferrels are an Epson Perfection 1250 scanner and a HP 1200se laser printer (printer said on box it would be ok with OS 8-OS9.x, no mention of OS X...).

 

[ElDiabloConCaca]

It seems as though you're using a lot of applications and hardware that will work pretty much flawlessly under OS 9, but not OS X. Remember: OS X is brand-spankin'-new, and not a lot of applications have been ported over to it yet to run natively.

Considering the specific applications you're running, I would stick with OS 9 for the time being -- I would, however, make sure that you're running the latest version of OS 9 -- which is OS 9.2.1.

Once those applications you're speaking of become OS X-native, I would make the switch as soon as possible. I think your best bet would be to use OS 9 for those applications, but have OS X installed, too, and fiddle around with it enough to become comfortable with it... those applications you speak of WILL eventually be ported to OS X, and when they do, I would HIGHLY suggest using them under OS X for many, many reasons. The memory management and multi-tasking abilities of OS X far exceed that of OS 9, and when those apps become OS X-native apps, I think you'll find that you'll be much more productive and less crash-prone under OS X.

I've been a graphic designer/pre-press manager for about 6 years, and one thing I noticed is that you're still using QuarkXPress 3.3... I would HIGHLY recommend updating to Quark 4.11 ASAP. It allows you to save files in the 3.3 or 4.0 format for easy transfer to whomever you need to transfer those files to. I've found 4.0 to be much more user-friendly and productive than 3.3. I also recommend getting AI 9, PS 6 and Acrobat 5. If you're comfortable with the versions you're using, I don't think you'll find much difficulty at all using the new versions. I know cost is ALWAYS an issue with upgrading, but I would highly recommend it if you can allocate the funds.

Hoep this helps. Bottom line: stick with OS 9 for the apps you're using, but play with OS X 10.1 whenever you get a free moment, because if you plan on using a Mac for a few more years, chances are you'll use it eventually and it'd be a good idea to be comfortable with it when you do make the switch...