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Note that this was the last “OldWorld” Mac (at least desktop Mac, the WallStreet PowerBook G3 was probably a bit later) where the traditional Mac ROM was in an
by mrpippy 1y ago
Note that this was the last “OldWorld” Mac (at least desktop Mac, the WallStreet PowerBook G3 was probably a bit later) where the traditional Mac ROM was in an actual hardware ROM.
“NewWorld” started with the iMac: only Open Firmware was in ROM and the classic Mac OS ROM was just a file on disk.
When a HW/SW team is shipping a new Mac and burning a ROM, that feels like an occasion to put in a picture of the team. When you’re not burning a ROM and the picture would take up space on everyone’s disk…not so much.
- dylan604 1y agohow is taking up space on someone's HDD worse than taking up space in the very constrained ROM?
- pavlov 1y agoThe physical ROM chip is a certain size. If you have 50kB left over, it doesn't matter if those bits are zeros or an easter egg.
- dylan604 1y agoand using 50K on someone's harddrive is a mortal sin? it's 50K. nobody will ever notice
- pavlov 1y agoThis was back when people still used 1.44M floppies to boot in an emergency.
- duskwuff 1y agoNot on a G3. These systems shipped with Mac OS 8; the System suitcase was over 6 MB alone. Apple stopped shipping systems with internal floppy drives altogether a few years later, with the iMac and blue-and-white G3.
- classichasclass 1y agoYou could absolutely boot a stripped-down Mac OS 8 on a floppy, including the beige G3. Apple even provided them ("Disk Tools").
- kalleboo 1y agoApple even still hosts a download of the Disk Tools floppy for MacOS 8.1! https://download.info.apple.com/Apple_Support_Area/Apple_Software_Updates/English-North_American/Macintosh/System/Mac_OS_8.1_Update/Disk_Tools_PPC.img.bin https://download.info.apple.com/Apple_Support_Area/Apple_Sof...
- elliotnunn 1y agoFascinatingly, the System file on the Disk Tools 8.1 floppy is actually a build of System 7, with HFS+ support grafted on. https://github.com/elliotnunn/HFSPlusBackport/blob/master/resreport.txt https://github.com/elliotnunn/HFSPlusBackport/blob/master/re...
- dylan604 1y agodidn't OS 8 come on a CD? I installed it from disc in my DVD drive. not sure how old you think the G3 is, but it's not as old as installing from floppy. just barely
- philistine 1y agoIf you need 32K of ROM because your code is 26K, then that means you have 6K just available that no one will ever be able to access otherwise. Why not use it for an easter egg?