Adobe Illustrator Installation Error

Okay, this may have been a bad idea but I purchased Adobe Illustrator 9.0 for Mac. I tried to install it on my MacBook and got the following error message.

"You can't open the application Install Adobe Illusrator because the Classic environment is no longer supported."

Did I waste my money? Should this software run on my MacBook? System details below. Should I just bite the bullet and jump into the most current version. I'd hoped to start off with an older version and try to learn it before I spent the money on the latest and greatest. Any help is appreciated.

Hardware Overview:

Model Name: MacBook
Model Identifier: MacBook5,1
Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo
Processor Speed: 2 GHz
Number Of Processors: 1
Total Number Of Cores: 2
L2 Cache: 3 MB
Memory: 2 GB
Bus Speed: 1.07 GHz
Boot ROM Version: MB51.007D.B03
SMC Version (system): 1.40f2

There's no way your going to be able to run Ai 9 since it was built for Mac OS 9 and not Mac OS X.
Since you have a Intel Mac you couldn't even install Mac OS 9 if you wanted, since it will only install on PPC Macs. And that OS is so different and old from what you are used to that it would only frustrate you.

Even if it there was a way for it to run, todays Ai is also totally different from the version you have. Since then there have been countless improvements, added features .etc
If you don't have the $$ you can try to get Ai CS4, this is the second latest, isn't to outdated and shouldn't be so expensive vs Ai CS5 if you can find it. If you don't mind spending more, by all means get Ai CS5.

McYukon,

Thanks for the information. I'm fairly new to the Mac, as you could tell. I should have checked the system requirements before buying this software package. I'll see if I can sell it and buy the Ai CS4 as you suggested.

I appreciate you taking the time to answer my questions and educate me. It just shows an old dog is never too old to learn new tricks. Woof woof.

God bless you.

Cheers,
Ray M.