Since the release of System 1 in January 1984, Apple has played an integral role in designing and implementing the graphical user interface (GUI) as we know it.
You can bring an old laptop back to life with these lightweight OS. Once you replace Windows or Mac from an old slow laptop with a lightweight Linux distro, you can revive these laptops to a new life, and those can fly. You can enjoy a bunch of open-source Linux games on these revived PCs as a bonus.
Purchase an older version of Mac operating system You can purchase a boxed or email version of past Mac OS X directly from Apple. Both will cost you around $20. For the reason of being rather antiquated, Snow Leopard and earlier Apple versions can only be installed from DVD. The Mac is deadlong live the Mac! Last week marked two major shifts in Apple’s personal computing platform: the introduction of Macs built around Apple’s own custom silicon, and the launch. If you're planning on running the treasures of the past you'll find here on real old Macintosh hardware from the 90's, you sir/madame, deserve to win an Internet! For others, there's SheepShaver, a PowerPC emulator capable of running Mac OS 9.0.4 down to Mac OS 7.5.2 and there's Basilisk II, a 68k emulator, capable of running Mac OS (8.1 to 7.0).
With the announcement of OS X Mountain Lion this week, Apple is continuing the process it started with Lion by streamlining the connection between the Mac and iOS.
We wanted to take a look at some of the biggest changes in the history of the Mac Operating System over the last 28 years. Looking back, I can't help but be struck by how many elements of the original Macintosh OS are still there more than 30 years after the project started taking shape.
It's a testament to the work of Bill Atkinson, Andy Hertzfeld, Bud Tribble and the other members of the original Macintosh team that so many aspects from System 1 have become integral to personal computing as we know it today.
There are a few phases in the evolution of the Mac OS that are of particular note. System 7 was the longest-running release for Apple (until OS X); it shipped with all Macintosh machines from 1991 to 1997. If you're in your mid-to-late 20s and used a Mac in elementary or middle school, chances are it was running some iteration of System 7.
One of the many challenges Apple faced in the 1990s was figuring out a new operating system strategy. As revolutionary as the original Mac OS work was, by 1994 it was starting to look stagnant and stale. This was especially true after the first release of Windows NT in 1993, which cemented Microsoft's place in the corporate and enterprise space.
After the Copland project was cancelled in 1996, Apple was left to search for an operating system it could acquire. That led to the purchase of NeXT and its NeXTSTEP operating system.
Not only would NeXT technology serve as the foundation for the future of Apple as it is known today (OS X and iOS are direct descendants of NeXTSTEP), it was responsible for bringing Steve Jobs back to Apple.
It would end up taking ten years from the beginning of the search for a next-generation Mac OS. But the hunt finally reached its quarry with the release of Mac OS X in 2001. But it would take until Mac OS X 10.2 (Jaguar) before the system was really able to hold its own.
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Over the last decade, OS X has evolved into a powerful desktop and server platform — while also serving as the core for iOS. With OS X Mountain Lion, Apple is bringing more of the elements and features of its mobile OS to the desktop.
Vintage computer fans who want to take a look at more screenshots of classic Mac OS versions should check out Marcin Wichary's GUIdebook Gallery and Nathan Lineback's collection of GUI history.
Gallery created by Chelsea Stark
I just recently purchased a new iMac G3. Of course Apple hasn’t sold iMac G3s in nearly fifteen years and this one was purchased new in 2000. But that doesn’t mean it’s not new to me. The first question that I’ve been asked is why I would spend money on a computer that is fifteen years old. After all, it only has 64 MB of RAM, a 350 MHz PowerPC G3 processor, and a 10 GB hard drive. It also runs a version of Mac OS that predates protected memory on the Mac (Mac OS 9.2.2). So why did I buy it?
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Well, the most obvious answer to that question is nostalgia. I’ve wanted one since they were new and can now finally afford to spend money on one (it cost me 25€). Of course that statement is all the more ridiculous when you consider the fact that I probably spent more money on the gas to go pick it up than I did on the actual machine, but that is beside the point.
Thirteen years ago, I bought an iBook G4 — not one of those iBooks that looked like a colorful toilet seat, but rather its white successor. It originally came with Mac OS X 10.1 and “Classic mode” which allowed me to boot into Mac OS 9.2.2 or run OS 9 applications in an emulated form directly from OS X. That was my first Mac and I didn’t have much software for it yet. Most of what I got at first was given to me by other people with Macs and it was mostly for OS 9. I still have almost all of this software lying around on CDs in dusty cases somewhere in the back of a closet and that is where the new iMac comes in.
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While I obviously won’t be using the old iMac for every day tasks, I will use it to run some of the old games I enjoyed playing back then as well as for a couple of old language learning programs which really never go out of date since languages generally don’t change that quickly. Running OS 9 again has made me very appreciative about modern operating systems and especially about their stability, but I liked OS 9 back then and I still enjoy using it on occasion. I’m just glad I don’t have to use it every day.
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Screenshot of Mac OS 9 taken by myself on an iBook when OS 9 was still new