Apple OS Upgrade Question(s)

Macs aren't really my stomping grounds, so pardon the confusion, but here goes...

I have a user that has a G3 blue and white box. It has been upgraded with 256mb more RAM and a 60gb hard drive. It runs OS 8.6.

I have been trying to set him up with a backup solution, and right now have him backing up to an external usb hard drive The usb drive requires at least OS 9.1 to recognize the drive. As a workaround he is booting up with a Norton Utilities for Mac CD which is OS 9.2 and then backing up to the drive and it's working fine.

It would be nice for him to be able to do this without the reboot, just to push the backup button on the drive and go home, but that requires at least OS 9.1.

So then this brings up my question(s)

What is the best way to handle this?

It is my understanding that you can't just download updates to take you from 8.6 to 9.1 or can you?

Is there a simple update to make the drive visible under OS 8.6?

Or should he just upgrade to OS X? assuming he likes/needs it's new features.
If he does will all his programs still work? (webauthoring software)
Can you just uninstall OS X if trouble arrises?
Which flavor of OS X should he use? Jaguar?

TIA :)

OS X might run slow on his machine

you will have to buy os 9 to install...just like windows 95 and windows 98 type thing

I would just go get OS 9 then you can get the updates thru there updater (must have internet) and you will be upgraded to 9.1.2 or somthing hehe

OS-X on a blue-and-white will be slow. It's usable, but it's slow. Plus, some of his Classic apps may crash. I don't think it's worth it.

As for the OS upgrade, yes, 8.6 to 9.x is not free, as Daemon said.