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Wow! 400 OS X Odyssey columns in 22 months. It’s been quite a journey so far. I’m definitely switched, although the transition took about a year longer than I had initially expected. The 700 MHz iBook with Quartz Extreme support proved the charm. I’ve never actually done any production work on this iBook in OS 9, although I’m still very glad that the old OS is there to boot into for troubleshooting and disk maintenance purposes. Actually, however, there has been very little of that necessary. The iBook so far has been running like clockwork with really nothing to complain about. I run Cocktail’sPilot suite of maintenance routines every couple of weeks or so. and Disk Warrior (from OS 9) very occasionally. Since installing the OS X 10.2.6 update a couple of months ago, performance has been flawlessly smooth and dependable. Thanks for reading, and the Odyssey continues. Classic Mode uses a significant percentage of CPU and memory resources, but many users are loathe to quit Classic Mode when it’s idling because the darned thing takes so long to start up again. 
However, you can let Classic Mode go to sleep, although it’s a less-satisfactory form of sleep than obtains when you’re booted in Classic. You can put Classic Mode to sleep by opening the Classic pane in System Preferences, clicking on the Advanced tab, and adjusting the slider that configures the time before Cassic Mode sleeps to the minimum two minutes (why the heck isn’t there a sleep immediately option?) 
Ah well, two minutes isn’t that long to wait for something like this, but the real fly in the ointment is that Classic Mode won't go to sleep at all if there are any Classic applications open. That’s right; if you want to sleep Classic Mode, you have to quit all your Classic apps., which is a lot bigger pain than waiting two minutes for sleep to kick in. Consequently, Classic Mode sleep isn’t going to get a big workout on my Mac. There are a couple of Classic applications that I utilize several times a day, every day, and the amount of resources freed by sleeping Classic Mode just doesn’t justify the hassle of quitting and restarting them all the time, even though they both start up quickly. Incidentally, that’s how you awaken Classic Mode from its golden slumbers -- start up a Classic application. What would be great is if Classic Mode sleep worked properly -- allowing you to sleep whatever Classic programs you have running along with the system. Force Quit Highlights Something I learned reading Scott Kelby’s the Mac OS X Conversion Kit, for which I’m working on a review, is that in OS X 10.2 Jaguar, when an application freezes, the Force Quit window display wll show the miscreant application’s name in bright red if it really is frozen, rather than just taking its time to complete a task. 
Also, Scott notes that if you select the application’s Dock menu, the Quit item will automatically shift to Force Quit without your having to hold down the option key if the application is really frozen. Selecting Force Quit from the Dock bypasses the Force Quit window, which may allow the Force Quit to succeed in situations were the window itself will not respond. Useful to know.
The OS X Odyssey archives may be accessed here: Note: Letters to Moore's Mailbag may or may not be published at the editor's discretion. Correspondents' email addresses will NOT be published unless the correspondent specifically requests publication. Letters may be edited for length and/or context. Opinions expressed in postings to Moore's MailBag are those of the respective correspondents and not necessarily shared or endorsed by the Editor and/or Applelinks management. If you would prefer that your message not appear in Moore's Mailbag, we would still like to hear from you. Just clearly mark your message "NOT FOR PUBLICATION," and it will not be published. CM
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