Mac OS 9.2 & 9.3

"Because of its true graphical user interface,
you will never have to type obscure system
commands on a Macintosh."

Mac OS 9.2 was a bug fix and hardware support release, including improved Classic support for use with OS X.

Mac OS 9.3 - "Starlight" project

June 12, 2001: Apple Planning Successor to Mac OS 9.2, code-named Starlight.
The Starlight release will continue to improve Classic support. With Classic's resource requirements, Apple must continue to pare it down to boost performance. That, along with hardware support for Macs released after OS 9.2 hits the streets, was the central focus of Starlight.

Death of Mac OS 9

"Because OS 9.3 probably would've cost them half of Tiger".

During his keynote address opening Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference in San Jose, Apple CEO Steve Jobs put to rest any uncertainty developers had about the status of Mac OS 9 -- the company's "Classic" operating system.

"Please join me in a moment of silence as we remember an old friend -- Mac OS 9," Jobs said during his keynote. "It isn't dead for our customers yet, but it's dead for you."

With those words, Jobs closed the book on a chapter in Apple's history for the company's core developers.

Death of Classic Environment

The Classic software compatibility environment (or simply, Classic) makes it possible for the latest versions of Mac OS 9, and most of the applications capable of running on those versions, to run on a Mac OS X system.

The fifth major update to Mac OS X, Leopard (released to public September 2007), contains a mountain of features - more than 300 by Apple's count. One of them is the eliminated support of Classic compatibility environment.

Will never die... OS dies only when no one uses it

Traditional Mac OS will simply never truly "die", because there's no other OS out there that posesses the same strong points as Mac OS has: ease of use and maintain, (non-intrusive) GUI, design, expandability, flexibility, freedom, speed.

Traditional Mac OS is nicer and easier to work with than any other operating system ever made. It is more inspiring for creative people than any other operating system ever made.

It is a superior system in many ways, and not just because we're making due with old hardware or because we ourselves are too old to learn new tricks. Yes, it's dead to Apple, and it's 8 years old, but it still has life left in it as far as I and many others are concerned.

"I think Apple's now doing the best work it's ever done."
- Steve Jobs

"Their [Apple's] software is more of a mixed bag these days, doing some things superbly and others not very well."
- Andy Hertzfeld

"Painting it greeny-bluey and changing boxes to baubles doesn't make the grade."
- Jef Raskin