reply posted inbetween comments... On 05/10/05, John Niven <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > On Oct 4, 2005, at 9:59 PM, Samual Acorn wrote: > > > if you like wannabe you'd love 'links' ;) > > > > http://artax.karlin.mff.cuni.cz/~mikulas/links/ (browser homepage.. > > has screenshots..) > > > > http://mac.linux-m68k.org/ (the os you would need to run it) > > > I think the the greatest thing an old Apple CPU has to offer is it's > ability to run the Mac OS, and, of course, all the great old > applications and games that you can get for cheap or free.
technically the ROM controls the system so mac OS is not an OS... its a UI front-end to the system ROM.. (operating systems are supposed to control the hardware... not just provide a UI) ... dont agree with me on that one? there would be no need to patch a rom to be '32bit clean' if it did... since the updateable os would already be '32bit clean'... there would also be no need to replace the rom to get macs that cant use high density disk drives to be able to use them... since the os would take care of this 'problem' by accessing the floppy controller directly... i also disagree about the best thing being the ability to run macos since the 'os' uses a shared memory environment its not stable enough for my uses.... one of the first things that happened when i first got ahold of a mac was a crash resulting in a window whos only clickable button was 'restart'..... my first thought was 'hmm.. smells like windows 98' this is just my take on the matter... not ment as an offence... every peice of software ive found for the mac thats free is not even worth the download... everything else says shareware and even then its not all that great... (one good example being the freeware jpegview [i think its free anyway]... it chokes on half the images i have saying 'unsupported SOF marker'... 'progressive' jpegs cause a freeze.... another would be 'soundapp 68k' ... no xm or it support and seriously flaky s3m support) > > I'm sure there are great technical arguments to be had on the relative > merits of the different OS, but the hard fact is that the most > development work for the *nix OS's is on the X86 platform. true this, but isnt the fun part about old computers in getting them to do things that they were considered obsolete and incapable of doing? why else would there be a linux port to the mac in the works? > > I remember reading on the web some geeks diatribe about what he saw as > the hardware weaknesses of the Mac he was trying to port *nix to. It > was ugly. most of it probably relates to complete lack of documentation on apples part (they dont want ppl to know how it works... wonder why...) ... lack of DMA (why in the world would someone use SCSI without supporting DMA???.. thats like leaving a corvette in 1st gear...) ... theres much more including the oddity known as the 'integrated woz machine' but i guess this can be taken in a 'computers are like cars' analogy.. most just want them to 'work' and they dont care how... and when the car breaks its taken to a matinence center for repair (usually by a customer who says that the check engine light is on or that it makes "this" noise) but there are the others that like to know -exactly- whats going on under the hood and are always trying to think of a new way to make it faster/better/more efficient.... im the type that enjoys the mechanical ballet... btw if you think the best thing an m86k can do is run macos then i take it youve never seen the commodore amiga... > > Seems to me that by changing an Apple into a linux box you have to > accept less well developed code AND loose the user-friendly Mac OS and > applications. Why not just get an old x86 platform instead? Plenty of > those about! the thing about linux is the UI can be as 'user friendly' as you want it... it can even look like macos itself (my linux system looks much like the windows 3.1 UI)... and get the added benifit of being able to run programs (after compiling them for your system of course) that normally mac users have no access to.. > > I have a load of old Macs, but for my netBSD plaything/learning tool I > use a dual 200MHz Pentium Pro box. I got it virtually free and built it > up with salvaged bits. It's a very nice bit of hardware. I also use it > to format SCSI drives destined for Macs :-) everything i own with a cpu in it i either got for free or less than $5 -- 85% of it has an intel (or clone) cpu... its the other 15%.. the macs that are the new toys to tinker with and figure out 'how it works'... but the lack of docs and a UI that i have yet to even find an option to even make it 'show hidden files' let alone a console that are giving me the frustrations and putting up the biggest challenge to being taken apart... (those damn torx screws are a serious pain) > > I'd rather commend the guy who wrote Wannabe, and if its not as good as > Links, encourage someone to do the development work so it is. no offence but im not holding my breath on any further development of wannabe (no updates since 2002)... > > I'd like someone to spend time improving (simplifying) the classic OS > so that it runs better on older machines. I don't believe that throwing > it out and replacing it with a "ported" version of serious server > software is the right thing to do. That's not what Apple was ever > about. not about end user choice? (macos and macos alone?) this is how they make me feel... apples 'os' on apples 'closed box' hardware... no questions asked no options given... apple isnt about supporting older hardware/software either... i doubt the classic OS will ever see any improvements... (i wouldnt mind something that could make that menubar 'autohide' tho) > > I think it's great that Apple have moved on to OSX - I use it daily and > am pleased that I can be a Mac user at work without having to jump > through hoops. But I like to use my Classic Macs when I can. For > example I'm currently digitizing selections of my LP collection with a > Quadra 950 and AudioMedia II sound card. Works very effectively :-) the price tag of OSX is a little crazy and the UI is.... weird (looks like colored water droplets and clear semi-molten plastic....) but at least its unix based (no more shared memory environment) 'quadra 950 introduced 1992 at $8500' (source; lowendmac.com) -please- tell me you didnt buy that new.. after looking at the specs tho it would make a great webserver (running linux of course) ;) one question; what format exactly are you digitizing that audio as? i dont think an ogg vorbis or mp3 encoder would be very speedy on a 68k (if such even exsists) > > Cheers, > John -- --sam http://mephitus.renamon.org/ "When you've done something right, no one will be sure you've done anything at all." -- Futurama -- -- Vintage Macs is sponsored by <http://lowendmac.com/> and... 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