Quick FMPro 6 and OS X.2.6 preinstall questions

[TLMurray]

I have a PowerBook G4 with OS X.2.6. I have FM5, and I'm sitting here with an FMPro6 Upgrade still in shrinkwrap, because I wanted to check out some things first.

- The box says 10.1 is required in OS X. Does FM run in Classic mode, or is it for-real OS X? I figured they'd spell it out, but I find it safer to check first.

- I am not thrilled about having to install FM5 just so FM6 can find the files it needs to verify the upgrade. Is there a way around that? For instance, does anyone know if the process might let me slip in my FM5 CD? Maybe just drag-copy something from FM5 CD?

Thanks.

[Fenton]

It runs in OS X. Personally I still prefer OS 9 for development, mostly 'cause I can't get mouse scrolling to work (and I've got long lists to scroll). Not too crazy about the skinny font in the Calculation dialog either. It's not a place where you need any confusion about where exactly the cursor is.

I don't know if you can bypass installing 5 first. But it's easy enough to do. Just don't install all the extra stuff, and it'll only take a few minutes.

Be sure to upgrade to 6.0v4 afterwards, if that's not what's on the CD. I'd definitely go to 6, 5.0 was not a finished version.

[Steve T.]

Hi, TL! I think FM6 is going to be the last version that can run in Classic... future versions will be X only. We run FM6 natively in X and we run FM5.5-unlimited on different servers (1 in X, the other in X using Classic), so I guess you can use either.

I'm not sure if FM6 installs individually (Classic or X) or if it installs a hybrid version. If you drag the Classic app and upgrade, it may upgrade you to Classic FM6, eh? I could be wrong but I don't think you could drag from the install CD anyway. IMHO, you should just install 5.0. At work, we use, FMP2.1, FMP4, FMP5.5-u, and FMP6 in various X/Classic/MacOS modes and don't have any trouble even when multiple versions are installed on the same machine. Actually, I'm too lazy to convert some of my older dbs and just use the old versions. The only one that is somewhat annoying is 2.1 which was Y2K compliant but always assumes 2-digit years are 19xx. Versions 5 and 6 share the same format (very few exceptions) so should be compatible with each other.

Good luck!

--ST

[TLMurray]

Turns out that you can install without the earlier version. What you do is key in the new serial. It searches the disk, and when it doesn't find anything, it simply asks you for your previous version serial number. This was on the letter that came with the product, but oddly enough under the heading for those switching platforms ... so I didn't read it at first.