Still browsing like it's 1999: Fresh tools that keep vintage Macs online and weirdly alive

The first Intel-based Mac was 19 years ago, but new versions of apps for both Classic Mac OS and PowerPC Mac OS X still occasionally appear, and we are here for it. Most recently, some new internet tools emerged for those determined enough to try to get a vintage Mac on the World Wide Web in the 2020s. First, we thought we'd …

[tony72]

What is going on? A classic AmigaOS update last week, and now classic Macs getting software updates. Must be something in the air.

[Nematode]

Preparing the world for 30 years of regression caused by Trump's "policis"

[karlkarl]

I've got my tuna tins and my classic macs ready!

[PghMike]

Running new OS on old Mac hardware

If you're trying to run a new OS on old hardware that's not supported, you should check out OpenCore Legacy Patcher. I have a 2016 MacBook that is running Sequoia because of it, and it works well enough for me to do software dev on it.

Of course, I'm pretty careful. I have a separate APFS volume for Sequoia, and you have to be careful not to use autoupdate on the new OS. But I'm hoping to scratch out another year or two from this MacBook before I buy a 15" MacBook Air, which looks like a much better system.

[Liam Proven]

Re: Running new OS on old Mac hardware

> Running new OS on old Mac hardware

Er, no. I do not know what you are getting at here.

This article is about tools for Classic MacOS and PowerPC Mac OS X.

1. Classic Macs have 680x0 CPUs and cannot run any form of OS X, so this is irrelevant.

2. Late model PowerPC Macs can run early versions of OS X, but not any x86 version, so this is irrelevant.

3. TFA is not about changing the OSes the machines are using, so this is irrelevant.

4. I have written about OCLP:

https://www.theregister.com/2023/10/09/opencore_legacy_patcher/

... So this is irrelevant.

_Very_ irrelevant. In fact, it's completely hatstand.

[ckm5]

Re: Running new OS on old Mac hardware

Someone is trying to add to the conversation about old Macs and you turn around and respond like a dick.

Great, thanks for that. It's so nice that you encourage people to participate.

[ICL1900-G3]

Re: Running new OS on old Mac hardware

Seconded. There is sometimes a need for snark; this was not one of them. I'm a fan of your writing, Liam, but on this occasion, a downvote.

[herman]

Quality HW

I have two 2012 Macbook Pros still in daily use. I never before had computers this old. Things used to blow up after three to four years.

[PhilipN]

Re: Quality HW

Two cheese-grater Mac Pros here, one at home one in the office. Back-ups and archiving. I would not trust any of that new-fangled stuff for the job.

[ICL1900-G3]

Re: Quality HW

Sadly my cheese grater died last week. I transferred its Linux OS to an only 20 year old AMD box and it kind of worked.

[PhilipN]

Re: Quality HW

Check with OCW or eBay to see if it can be revived. I’ve treated mine to a new backplane, video, other bits.

Otherwise it’s a solid piece of furniture - great for standing on when I’m painting the ceiling.

[The Travelling Dangleberries]

Re: Quality HW

A white macbook 2,1 here from 2006 running Linuxmint together with two 4,1s from 2008 again with Linuxmint.

[Uncle Slacky]

Re: Quality HW

The 2,1 is great for Librebooting if you're so inclined. I have a black one, running Trisquel.

[Ilgaz]

Re: Quality HW

I have Macbook 5.1 from 2009, running openSUSE Tumbleweed. Actually, I have run a small restaurant's social media with it. It is a core duo 64bit. Unfortunately, there is a power supply problem which is a bit expensive overengineered thing. I will soon reboot it with 4000 updates once I replace the power supply.

[Grunchy]

Re: Quality HW

I found a 2012 MacBook Air in the e-recycle bin down in the basement parkade, helpfully the previous owner attached a sticky note with the Apple password. So I transferred it to my possession, whaddya know, works like a champ.

I am contemplating hitting it up with all the upgrades and keep it for documents and office productivity. What the heck, why not?

(I was gonna reformat it for Linux Mint if the OSX couldn’t work, but it does work. Good enough.)

[Uncle Slacky]

Re: Quality HW

I was given a mid-2012 MacBook Pro for free (with a damaged HD cable, which was probably why it failed - a common issue with them). Replaced the DVD drive with an SSD in a caddy; upped the RAM and it's been my daily driver for over a year now (running Solus Budgie).

[timrowledge]

Re: Quality HW

2012 iMac is my main machine, with several pi 4 & 5’s for squeak development work. I should probably think about upgrading someday

[45RPM]

I have an LC475 sitting on my desk next to me at the moment. This SDL news is impressive - but leaves a lot to be desired from a performance perspective.

The 475, especially overclocked to 40MHz and fitted with a full 040, is more than able to run Doom or Duke Nukem 3D. Even Quake, albeit with a shrunken window, isn’t out of reach. With this SDL though nothing runs well (yet). Even Arkanoid (which had an excellent black and white port which runs well on even the earliest Macs) runs slower than molasses in the SDL port on 68k Macs.

So, exciting news - but nothing to get excited about (yet)

[Liam Proven]

> So, exciting news - but nothing to get excited about (yet)

Exciting but not exciting? ;-)

Agreed. (Also, I wish I hadn't sold my LC 475. Lovely little machine.)

[myhandler]

I'd rather have my LC475 back than my Quadra 840 AV - or even my G3

[neuro]

erm

oi. liam. aquafox. that’s the successor to interwebppc in terms of having builds available to mortals.

[Omnipresent]

grrrrrrr

What can I say? Tiger was always the best OS.

[Liam Proven]

Re: grrrrrrr

> Tiger was always the best OS.

Snow Leopard for me.

But before that, Jaguar or Panther. Leaner lither beasts.

[PhilipN]

Re: grrrrrrr

And the coolest pic to go with it.

[Omnipresent]

Re: grrrrrrr

I'll give you panther, also a great os. Most of the rest were not really innovative as much as .xx updates to me.

[chivo243]

Nice stuff

I just fired up the the iMac G5 and installed Aquafox recommended above, this works great! This could end up being the workshop computer. I knew there was a reason I kept this baby...

[PhilipN]

Lynx web browser

Ahhh....swoon.... the last time surfing the Web actually felt fast.

[hunterirving]

MacProxy Plus (tool to get vintage Macs (and other old computers) online)

I recently did some work on a project that makes the modern web more accessible to vintage computers (including my own 1986 Macintosh Plus). I got it surfing Wikipedia, the WayBack Machine, and even YouTube (kinda). Details and code here: https://github.com/hunterirving/macproxy_plus

[achillesneil]

Shazzam

I still have a G4 Mac Mini which will still boot in an emergency. I thought it was great at the time because you could bring up a Unix terminal. Although my son hijacked it as a gaming machine.

[Kev99]

A few years back I bought "cheese grater" mac Pro with 2 Xeon CPUs and Mac OS X Snow Leopard. With a little tweaking, I flashed the EFI from 1,1 to 2,1 and installed El Capitan. Ran just fine. Problems? You mean beside the fact the unit had two 64 bit CPUs but Apple purposely crippled the EFI so it only ran in 32 bit mode? That no versions of Firefox after v12 (I think) because of the crippled EFI. It didn't really matter because I could still travel the internet as easily as on my win10 PC, unless a website had been rewritten to intentionally not work on any version of Firefox before the most recent.

[lucidnightmare]

I recently got A/UX 3.1 running on qemu.

I'd really like a working browser for this!