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Troubleshooting System Software

Why does Apple charge for system software?

Apple charges for system software because Apple's policy makers suspect they'll make more money by charging for it than by not charging for it. Apple is a publicly held corporation in a capitalist economy where the law requires corporations to make reasonable attempts to maximize profits. To give away something Apple could make more money by charging for would be a breach of the fiduciary responsibility of Apple's Board of Directors and actionable by Apple stockholders in a court of law.

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What does System 7.5 give me for my $$$ that System 7.1 doesn't?

Quite a lot actually. You get Apple Guide, MacTCP, the ability to read DOS formatted floppy disks, a hierarchical Apple menu, a menu bar clock, QuickDraw GX, some new fonts, drag and drop between applications, background floppy formatting, a disk cache that actually works, AppleScript and a scriptable Finder, QuickTime 2.0, and about fifty other features of varying utility. There's no feature that makes the upgrade a necessity, so if you're happy with your current system software and don't want to spend $90 for these new features don't. Most new software should continue to work well with System 7.0 and 7.1 for at least the next year

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Where can I get System 7.5?

Apple no longer sells System 7.5. For older units that cannot use 7.6, 7.0.1 is available from Apple free of charge. These older units can use up to 7.5.5, but are usually better off with 7.1. System 7.1 is not available free yet from Apple. This is why users groups are so nice to have! If you desperately need one of these systems restored to your machine, a fellow Mac user is probably happy to oblidge. Remember though that unlicensed upgrades are generally not legal.

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Where can I get non-U.S. system software and scripts?

Most international versions of System 7.0.1 are available for anonymous ftp from Apple at this location.

Your best chance to get Korean system software or any international version of System 7.1 is to have a friend in the appropriate country mail you the software.

If you want to work with multiple languages but don't need an entire foreign system, you first need to upgrade to at least System 7.1, the first truly international operating system. System 7.1 includes numerous hooks to support multiple languages. After installing System 7.1 the first thing you'll want are keyboards, fonts, and script systems that let you write in your language of choice.

A number of Roman keyboards are also included with System 7.5.

Apple's Japanese and Chinese Language Kits are available from MacConnection (1-800-800-2222) for a little less than $200 each. Until the Japanese Language Kit 1.2 is released you should be sure to use the System 7.5 compatibility updater for the JLK available from this link.

While Apple plans to release more language kits in the future, no others are currently available. So once again if you want to work in Arabic, Hebrew, Icelandic or something else, you need to have a friend in the appropriate country mail you the software.

Application software that supports your language of choice is also nice to have. Currently the only WorldScript savvy word processors are Nisus Writer 4.0 and WordPerfect 3.1. (SimpleText is WorldScript savvy but only supports text up to 32K in size.) Nisus Writer supports Western European languages and Japanese. With an extra cost ADB dongle it can also work in Arabic, Chinese, Korean, Farsi and most Eastern European languages. WordPerfect supports all Roman and two-byte WorldScript II languages like Chinese and is not copy-protected. However it does not work with the right-to-left WorldScript I languages like Arabic.

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What is System 7 Tuneup? System Update 3.0? etc. Do I need them?

If you use System 7.0, 7.0.1, or the System 7.0 printer drivers, you need System 7 Tuneup 1.1.1. The tuneup includes a number of fixes and enhancements to System 7, including substantially faster printer drivers, a StyleWriter driver that supports background printing, a fix that saves several hundred kilobytes of memory on non-networked Macs, and, most importantly, a vaccine for the disappearing folders bug.

If you're using System 7.1, 7.1 Pro or 7.1.2, then you should install System Update 3.0 instead.

This replaces all the various System Software Updates and Hardware System Updates. None of these are necessary for System 7.5.

If you're using System 7.5, you should install System 7.5 Update 1.0 instead.

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Can I get System 7.5 on 800k disks?

As of this writing Apple has not made System 7.5 available on 800K floppy disks. You can still install it from a remote computer (via a network) or CD-ROM though.