Comcast officially supports Mac OS 9.0 thru 10.3, excluding 10.0. This page contains a history of the Macintosh OS from 8.6 through 10.3.

Mac OS 8.6 was the last version of OS 8.x. OS 9.0 was a purchase upgrade. OS 8.6 is very similar to OS 9.0 with regard to the functions that we support. Following the kb instructions for OS 9 should work for 8.6 as well.

OS 9 had the following free updates (still available for download from Apple's site):

• OS 9.0.4
• OS 9.1
• OS 9.2.1
• OS 9.2.2

Mac OS 9.2.2 is the most up-to-date version of OS 9.x. Since OS 10.3 is Apple's newest operating system, they have discontinued all development of OS 9. Most Macs still have the option of running OS 9 in "Classic mode."

Classic Mode is the ability to run an emulation of OS 9 while booted in OS X. Classic Mode was originally designed to give Mac users the ability to run OS 9 applications during the migration period of going from OS 9 to OS X giving them time to purchase upgrades to the programs that enable them to run natively in OS X.

Most earlier G4s, iMacs, iBooks, and eMacs also have the capability to boot into either OS 9 or OS X. On these Macs, with Classic enabled, there is a copy of OS X and OS 9. One can use the Startup Disk system preference to change the bootable system and boot back and forth between OS 9 and OS X. However, they also have the ability to use Classic mode. If an application that requires OS 9 is launched in OS X it will automatically start Classic Mode.

Mac OS X (it is a Roman numeral so it is pronounced "ten") started out it's public life as 10.0. 10.0 was essentially a public beta and it was very unstable. Comcast does not support it.

OS X is essentially Free BSD (Berkely System Design) UNIX with a graphically user interface (referred to as "Aqua") rendered on top of it. It is because of this that makes OS X almost impervious to viruses and an extremely secure operating system.

The next version of OS 10 was 10.1. Code named "Cheetah." 10.1 was a huge improvement over 10.0 and was basically an entirely new operating system. There is no downloadable update from 10.0 to 10.1. Apple made 10.1 upgrade disks available by mail order for $19.95. Apple also placed 10.1 upgrade CDs at various locations including Apple Stores and computer stores such as CompUSA. One could also purchase the full install version of the operating system.

The next verion of OS 10 was 10.2. Code named "Jaguar." 10.2 added even more improvements in speed and reliability, especially on older Macs. 10.2 is more optimized, so it ran faster than 10.1 on the same computer. Having the same look and feel of 10.1, Jaguar incorporated compatibility for Windows networking. Again, there is no downloadable update from 10.1 to 10.2. The operating system plus drivers takes two CD to hold all that information, so downloading is not an option. The upgrade and full install CDs for 10.2 followed the same arrangement as mentioned above for 10.1.