Upgrade a Mac, can i keep old OS?

Question

I need to upgrade an old PowerMac 10.4 buying latest version of imac or mac pro.

But first i need to know if there's a way to keep alive old software such as Photoshop CS2, Free Hand MX, Quark XPress 6.5 etc. using a virtualized environment or remote desktop.

I Cannot upgrade them for now so i was thinking at 2 solutions, but i don't know if they are possible or if there's such a better way:

1) Create a virtual machine with old OS and old software inside new Mac.

2) Keep my old machine creating a remote desktop connection between new and old machine.

Since i need great performance to use such software i listed above, wich is the best solution?

Any suggestions?

thanks in advance

Answer 1

You could try using creating an OSX 10.6 Server environment via VMware or whichever virtualization software you like, and running the applications there. This is the only way I know of running PowerPC applications on machines that no longer support Rosetta (Mac's post 10.6). Here is Apple Support Communities thread with more information

Answer 2

On the new iMac or Mac Pro, you could create a second partition and duel boot it with 10.6 Snow leopard and migrate your 10.4 installation to this partition.

10.6 supports 64 bit Intel processors and PowerPC apps. You'll have to order it from Apple Store on DVD.