4 ms·

Mac OS 7 installed and running on the iPhone

70 points by jasonlbaptiste 18y ago

rms 18y ago
Editor should probably switch link to the much less ad-happy source: http://www.macosiphone.co.cc/ http://www.macosiphone.co.cc/
- jrockway 18y ago
  Thanks, that is a much better link.
- jasonlbaptiste 18y ago
  agreed. Sadly, I cannot change the url, only the title. Editors/PG feel free to change to the less ad happy source RMS provided: http://www.macosiphone.co.cc/ http://www.macosiphone.co.cc/
geuis 18y ago
That is just more awesome than I can describe in words. Man, what memories of OS7
- snprbob86 18y ago
  Sorry, I think I just accidentally down-modded you when I was trying to do the opposite!
merrick33 18y ago
Mac OS 7 was the reason I hated mac's from 1996-1998. I am curious what virtues it could possibly have because I just remember having to run around the UCLA computer lab troubleshooting that OS futzing with the network printer daemon.
- gry 18y ago
  It it is a problem to solve. Hackers need little excuse beyond that. I think that's why most people appreciate the hack.
- compay 18y ago
  Agreed, MacOS 7 brings back more bad memories than good. I think the virtue here though is not Mac OS 7 itself, but rather the interesting exercise in OS porting.
  - tlrobinson 18y ago
    It's neat, but not particularly impressive or interesting. It's an emulator running as a user space application; The iPhone isn't running Mac OS 7 natively (of course, it can't, since they use different CPU architectures, etc). There have been classic Mac emulators for OS X for awhile now, and porting it to the iPhone was probably quite easy.
    - gry 18y ago
      Reminds me of the current Louis CK meme floating about. System 7 is running on your phone. While it in itself right now isn't the most amazing thing, the series of events leading up to it is.
  - Angostura 18y ago
    How can you not like System 7. It introduces tinted 3D folders for goodness sake.
    - jrockway 18y ago
      I believe that was OS 8, actually. As I drift off to memory land, I still remember the System 7.5.3 update that made icons that were being dragged translucent. That was so exciting back then :)
- bonaldi 18y ago
  Virtues? It runs in comically small amounts of memory and on processors without much puff; yet is beefy enough to handle serious DTP, early Photoshop and the web. I'm not saying it's something to switch to today, but System 7 has features that OS X still hasn't got around to matching, especially in Finder speed/snappiness.
- rbanffy 18y ago
  Just keep in mind that the other major GUI available when 7 launched was Windows 3.0. It has multitasking, virtual memory and peer-to-peer networking. Quite impressive for the time.
mark911 18y ago
Very Nice + here is the first serverside app, that let you watch TV on the iPhone without installing an app: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-RLkfBf4cw http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-RLkfBf4cw
whughes 18y ago
Classic Mac OS has been 'ported' (that is to say, emulated) on many, many platforms. It can still play many impressive games and the original hardware wasn't terribly beefy, so it's a great candidate for emulation on weaker devices. That's not to say the iPhone is weak (it isn't), just that this has been done more impressively elsewhere. For example, there's MinivMacDS: http://lazyone.drunkencoders.com/wordpress/?p=41 http://lazyone.drunkencoders.com/wordpress/?p=41 There was MinivMac for iPhone before: http://namedfork.net/iphone/minivmac/screenshots.html http://namedfork.net/iphone/minivmac/screenshots.html Basilisk II for PSP: http://forums.ps2dev.org/viewtopic.php?t=3741 http://forums.ps2dev.org/viewtopic.php?t=3741 It also helps that a lot of the emulation materials are legally free. Apple gives out the disk images for System 6 and 7 on their website, for example.
DLWormwood 18y ago
The article writer complains about not being able to enter text, but that's what the Key Caps desk accessory was for. It provided text entry via copy/paste for keyboard-less "kiosk" systems, which were common back in the day. (My university used them for printing stations and short term internet/e-mail terminals. Unlike Windows 3.1 (which could to be used without a mouse), classic era Macs could be feasibly used without a keyboard.)
gamache 18y ago
...And with that, the iPhone gained Copy + Paste capability.

rms 18y ago

Editor should probably switch link to the much less ad-happy source: http://www.macosiphone.co.cc/ http://www.macosiphone.co.cc/

jrockway 18y ago
Thanks, that is a much better link.
jasonlbaptiste 18y ago
agreed. Sadly, I cannot change the url, only the title. Editors/PG feel free to change to the less ad happy source RMS provided: http://www.macosiphone.co.cc/ http://www.macosiphone.co.cc/

geuis 18y ago

That is just more awesome than I can describe in words. Man, what memories of OS7

snprbob86 18y ago
Sorry, I think I just accidentally down-modded you when I was trying to do the opposite!

merrick33 18y ago

Mac OS 7 was the reason I hated mac's from 1996-1998. I am curious what virtues it could possibly have because I just remember having to run around the UCLA computer lab troubleshooting that OS futzing with the network printer daemon.

gry 18y ago
It it is a problem to solve. Hackers need little excuse beyond that. I think that's why most people appreciate the hack.
compay 18y ago
Agreed, MacOS 7 brings back more bad memories than good. I think the virtue here though is not Mac OS 7 itself, but rather the interesting exercise in OS porting.
- tlrobinson 18y ago
  It's neat, but not particularly impressive or interesting. It's an emulator running as a user space application; The iPhone isn't running Mac OS 7 natively (of course, it can't, since they use different CPU architectures, etc). There have been classic Mac emulators for OS X for awhile now, and porting it to the iPhone was probably quite easy.
  - gry 18y ago
    Reminds me of the current Louis CK meme floating about. System 7 is running on your phone. While it in itself right now isn't the most amazing thing, the series of events leading up to it is.
- Angostura 18y ago
  How can you not like System 7. It introduces tinted 3D folders for goodness sake.
  - jrockway 18y ago
    I believe that was OS 8, actually. As I drift off to memory land, I still remember the System 7.5.3 update that made icons that were being dragged translucent. That was so exciting back then :)
bonaldi 18y ago
Virtues? It runs in comically small amounts of memory and on processors without much puff; yet is beefy enough to handle serious DTP, early Photoshop and the web. I'm not saying it's something to switch to today, but System 7 has features that OS X still hasn't got around to matching, especially in Finder speed/snappiness.
rbanffy 18y ago
Just keep in mind that the other major GUI available when 7 launched was Windows 3.0. It has multitasking, virtual memory and peer-to-peer networking. Quite impressive for the time.

mark911 18y ago

Very Nice + here is the first serverside app, that let you watch TV on the iPhone without installing an app: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-RLkfBf4cw http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-RLkfBf4cw

whughes 18y ago

Classic Mac OS has been 'ported' (that is to say, emulated) on many, many platforms. It can still play many impressive games and the original hardware wasn't terribly beefy, so it's a great candidate for emulation on weaker devices. That's not to say the iPhone is weak (it isn't), just that this has been done more impressively elsewhere. For example, there's MinivMacDS: http://lazyone.drunkencoders.com/wordpress/?p=41 http://lazyone.drunkencoders.com/wordpress/?p=41 There was MinivMac for iPhone before: http://namedfork.net/iphone/minivmac/screenshots.html http://namedfork.net/iphone/minivmac/screenshots.html Basilisk II for PSP: http://forums.ps2dev.org/viewtopic.php?t=3741 http://forums.ps2dev.org/viewtopic.php?t=3741 It also helps that a lot of the emulation materials are legally free. Apple gives out the disk images for System 6 and 7 on their website, for example.

DLWormwood 18y ago

The article writer complains about not being able to enter text, but that's what the Key Caps desk accessory was for. It provided text entry via copy/paste for keyboard-less "kiosk" systems, which were common back in the day. (My university used them for printing stations and short term internet/e-mail terminals. Unlike Windows 3.1 (which could to be used without a mouse), classic era Macs could be feasibly used without a keyboard.)

gamache 18y ago

...And with that, the iPhone gained Copy + Paste capability.