As the Apple watchers out there may or may not know, the Macs that have started shipping recently no longer have the ability to boot into OS 9. They've not taken OS 9 away, mind you. It's there for the benefit of running Classic apps under OS X, you just can't boot the machine into 9.
You see, Apple is weening us off of OS 9. In August 2002, they stopped including the OS 9 install CDs with new Macs. So if you need to reinstall OS 9, you have to use the restore CDs. This isn't so bad if you have a machine that shipped with OS X 10.2; the software restore utility included with those systems is flexible enough to let you restore individual components (such as OS 9) without wiping out the whole system and starting from scratch. Pre-10.2 restore discs are not so friendly, however. Of course, you could always purchase OS 9.2 from the Apple Store for $99.
The next step in the weening process is taking away dual boot capability. Presumably step three is getting rid of Classic mode, which I don't imagine will happen until certain application vendors get it in gear and start shipping native-OS X versions of their products (Quark is a big one).
As a Mac user, I can certainly understand why Apple would want us all migrated completely to OS X. It is vastly superior to previous versions of the Mac OS; with it's Unix core and lovely Aqua interface, how could you not like it?
But as someone who provides tech support for Macs, the loss of dual boot capability is somewhat inconvenient. Being able to boot into another OS is an invaluable troubleshooting tool. Not sure if it's a hardware problem or a software problem? Boot into the other OS and try to reproduce the issue. If the same issue exists under both operating systems, it's probably hardware-related. Yes, I know it's not the end of the world, but it is an inconvenience.
You know, now that I think of it, maybe this isn't so bad. Perhaps one day they'll decide to stop supporting pre-OS X systems. What a beautiful day that would be...
