Goodbye 9600

[krissel]

Odd coincidence with the earlier post from Russ about his 9600...

I'm in the process of getting my 9600 ready to take to recycling. I hadn't paid any attention to it in years since I got a used DA in late 2006 and upgraded that as my main machine. But when I turned on the monitor and pushed the start button on the tower...BONG!, it started right up. I had a momentary shock when there was a message on the screen that it couldn't find SCSI 6, etc. but then it went into the white text on black background of a text login using XPostFacto. I had forgotten that it did not start up with the usual welcome screen since it was running 10.3.9 on a totally unsupported machine.

It was a pleasant surprise to see everything pop up on the desktop and when I started up Mail it went ahead and downloaded the past month's worth of mail from my ISP's server, no problem.  When I scrolled back in Mail to the last email before this latest bunch, I saw it was from Russ. It was about some 9.1/9.2 extensions/preferences dated 2007. Wow, that tower has been under the table for all those years and the battery still worked!

What a trip going back in time with all the "talk" about the old systems. Some of the emails discussed all kinds of difficulties with modems, PCI cards, extension conflicts and incompatibilities with certain USB and FW drives. I fired up an old version of Painter that ran on 9 and Classic started up....watching those icons march across the bottom of the screen was like taking a trip back in time. I was amazed that everything still worked, albeit slower than what I am now used to with the newer Macs. I even started up Internet Explorer just for fun and came to TS to see how it would look. Would you believe it was almost normal? I expected a bunch of tangled text and graphic mess but the only thing that wasn't in the right place was the line of links below the banner.  

I hate the thought of dismantling this old girl when she is still working. But I can't keep it since space will be at a premium at Dad's when I finally sell my house. I think I copied off anything of value long ago but am looking around just to be sure before I take out the drives. I also have an eMac and Epson wide format printer that have to go. I doubt anyone would want them as shipping would be rather expensive and local places have newer hardware.

It's a shame that these things have been usurped by newer tech when they are not really broken. But I guess the wagon maker said the same thing when the Model T took over.  

[gunug]

I suppose that I ought to go down into the catacomb and seek out my little beige pizza box; not so sure I didn't give the keyboard to a needy teacher 10 years ago!

[chriskleeman]

Kris, that is so cool!

I haven't had the heart to recycle my old 9600, you and I exchanged many an email and many Forum topics here at TS over our hot-rodded 9600's!

Never did try to get 10.3 going on that old beast, but what a machine back in the days of OS 9!!!

Chris  

[sandbox]

I feel your pain... my PB 5300 was retired (past along) this year...still working.
The G3 tower...still going strong but hardly used.
The eMac gets more attention now and then, but hardly enough to justify the space and dust.
I use a MBP primarily, and a Mini server. My significant other has an Air and Mini.
We both use Samsung phones and tabs. We're down to 1 printer from 3 and Faxes are done using eFax.
Oh I still have that big metal SCSI backup box that we both purchased some years back. Not to mention boxes of cables, and connection dodads. It's been a long road. °¿°

[daryl66]

QUOTE(sandbox @ Oct 19 2014, 04:12 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I feel your pain... my PB 5300 was retired (past along) this year...still working.
The G3 tower...still going strong but hardly used.
The eMac gets more attention now and then, but hardly enough to justify the space and dust.
I use a MBP primarily, and a Mini server. My significant other has an Air and Mini.
We both use Samsung phones and tabs. We're down to 1 printer from 3 and Faxes are done using eFax.
Oh I still have that big metal SCSI backup box that we both purchased some years back. Not to mention boxes of cables, and connection dodads. It's been a long road. °¿°

BOY I can sure relate. Started in "86"

[krissel]

QUOTE(sandbox @ Oct 19 2014, 05:12 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Oh I still have that big metal SCSI backup box that we both purchased some years back.

Oh, yeah, I remember the "deal" we got on those. After SCSI went the way of the dodo, it made a good stepping stool for a while. But in my recent clean up I took that one apart a couple months ago. I tried to give the drives that were in it the sledge hammer treatment but there wasn't even a dent. Those things were like tanks!  I finally disassembled the drives down to the beautiful silver multi-disks that are now an amazing paper weight. If I were a cook, they could be used to make noodles by turning them on their side and rolling them through the flattened raw pasta.
Well, you have to use your imagination.
 

[sandbox]

I hope your move is rewarding....though I suspect it's a matter of necessity.
We haven't had to make that move yet....but did move one of the seniors to our 1 story house in Maryland.
Baby steps...