Thanks for everyones helpful advice. No, I'm not a programer ...yet. And, yes I will start at the beginning. I was just thinking of Outlook as an example of something that never made it to OS X. I see your points and will not pursue that. On Apple's site it states that most OS 9 apps can run in the Classic environment. Is there a list of those that are known not to and/or an explanation of parameters that make an app unlikely to be able to run in Classic? I know this sounds like getting ahead of myself. I'm looking for something to aim at. I will start from the beginning. I took a class on Fortran some years back so I'm familiar with how long it will take to learn a new machine language. This seems like too good an opportunity to miss while it is here. Thanks to all, Anand