Tina writes,
Because I did desktop publishing I work on a Mac and have all the requisite DTP software: PS, QuarkXpress, Illustrator etc. I've been away for a few years so I haven't upgraded my system to OS X. My new digicam requires OS X to download my CD that came with it. The question is, if I load OSX will it either 1. make my software obsolete to the point that I have to spend hundreds un upgrades and/or 2. will I be able to access my files and docs from OS 9.2?
No, you won't have to pay hundreds, it's probably more like thousands. Don't panic. You can do it slowly if you must. Heres why. In the early releases of OSX, Apple built-in a Classic mode that would run 9.2 apps within OSX. OSX would recognize a 9.2 program and launch an emulator (Classic mode)to run the program. It worked well, although it was slow to launch, and possessed a general sluggishness in operation. The problem is that the latest releases of OSX DO NOT support Classic products. It has been quite some time now since the switch. If you have an early version of the OS (10.2 or earlier I think) you're OK. Here's how I solved the problem: I partitioned space for both Operating Systems and, depending on what I was working on, would start up in that OS. Not very elegant, but it worked, until I finally moved everything up. You can access and share files between the different Operating Systems, although the file hierarchy will be a lot different than what you're used to. I hope I haven't scared you.