Apple Rhapsody revisited, to go (2014) | Hacker News Reader

Apple Rhapsody revisited, to go (2014)

tenfourfox.blogspot.com

I remember playing with the OS X Beta. We'd install it on a friends Powerbook G3 and after a couple days go back to OS 9 because it was so much faster and it didn't use all your memory.

Not too soon after that, I bought a Powerbook G4. 867MHz, and Mac Mall doubled the RAM back then so I had 256 or 512MB, I forget. It was still pretty slow and after fumbling around with it for a few months, I sold it. Was nice for playing with iMovie using a Firewire VHS-C camera, though.

Then around 2006, a friend purchased one of the first Intel MacBook models. We had fun trying to get all of his old PowerPC era stuff working on it. It was still slow, and hot.

Finally, in 2010 I bought a 13" MacBook Pro and was in love ever since. Not sure how everyone else stuck around so long.

G4 Powerbooks around 2005 on OSX 10.4 were very nice to work on. Applications weren’t very RAM hungry and it was simple enough to keep tabs on what uses which system resource. As an engineering student the small but capable 12inch was a perfect fit.

My friend had a 12" Powerbook G4 running OSX 10.5 that I really, really wanted. I could only afford an iBook which got me through a few years of school just fine. I still have it and use it occasionally; if nothing else, it's still a great DVD player that can connect to bluetooth headphones!

The software ecosystem for Rhapsody hasn’t changed much since 1014, has it? I have a PDQ too, and it was kind of disappointing how little one can do in that environment.

By the way, I’m pretty sure that I’ve installed and booted Mac OS X Server 1.x (or maybe it was one of the early pre-Aqua beta versions of Mac OS X?) on an early revision of the PowerBook G4. It’s not really any better of an experience than the PDQ, but it’s interesting no less!

These days one of the things I’m most interested in with regards to a POSIX environment on an old Mac is MacRelix: https://www.macrelix.org/

I really want to compile cryanc/carl for it, but I haven’t quite figured out how to work the C compiler…

> The software ecosystem for Rhapsody hasn’t changed much since 1014, has it?

It has become markedly harder to procure enough quality goat skin to create parchment and the grimoire which contained the formulae for the ink has unfortunately been lost to the ages. Quills are still easily available but you need to make sure they have been cured in open air for 2 years, the modern microwaved variety is clearly sub-par. What has been observed is a marked reduction in the number of bugs in the last century, possibly related to the use of insecticides.

You're covered, see gopher://gopher.floodgap.com/1/gopher/clients/mac -- there is a pre-built Rhapsody carl in that folder, intended for Classilla, but of course works generally. It runs on OS X/ppc too.

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