Chapter 7. The Classic Environment

The Classic environment is Apple’s tool that lets you use applications written for Mac OS 9 and earlier on Macs running Mac OS X. On its own, Mac OS X can’t run applications that were developed for Mac OS 9. The Classic environment is a nearly magical tool, since Mac OS 9 and Tiger are vastly different operating systems. Thanks to this magic, you can use applications like QuarkXPress 4 and 5 on PowerPC Macs—for example, the Power Mac G5 and PowerBook G4—which can’t otherwise run Mac OS 9.

I often see people get very confused trying to keep track of what operating system they used when creating specific documents. Try not to think of it that way. You don’t create documents in an operating system; you create them ...

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