[G4] General OS Craziness w/Two machines

[Brian Silverio]

Quoting Dale Hoffman <dhoff at margnat.com>:

> >
> How specifically are the OS install disks linked to the machines they 
> came delivered with? When the next pay-for upgrade is released, will 
> it be pressed in different flavors for G5s and pre-G5s?
> DaleH
> 

The issue is that each new hardware gadget requires new software drivers.  When
a new feature is added Apple does not retrofit the software drivers into
previous OS releases.  Recent examples are: G5 processor, Airport Extreme, and
Firewire 800.  Dig out your old 10.1 disks and try them on a system with any of
these devices.  

This is aften true of new system packages.  Will 10.2.0 run on a G4 iBook?  I
don't know.  But it would not be a suprise if it didn't.  

It takes time and money to qualify OS releases on all the hardware platforms.  
This had to be one of the reasons why Apple stopped moving classic forward. 
This allowed them to stop developing and testing OS9 drivers.

I do not have "insider" knowledge of any of this.  If anyone does know the real
story, feel free to correct me.

Brian Silverio

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