Announcing Apple IIgs System 6.0.2 | Hacker News Reader

Announcing Apple IIgs System 6.0.2

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71 pointsrottyguy34 comments

Actually, 6.0.3 was just released: http://a2central.com/6499/the-source-awakens-system-6-0-3/

Exciting times for IIgs hackers!

The turnaround for 6.0.3 was quite a bit better than 6.0.2.

Google cache: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:Q2b0VpW...

My first Apple was a IIgs. We ran a bulletin board system (BBS) on a 2400 bps modem hooked up to a second phone line in the basement. The hard drive was 20 MB and was seriously the size of a large shoebox.

Good times on that machine.

Still got it? I bet its still good times.

(Old computers never die .. their users do!)

Yup. Sitting in my mom's basement. I'm sure it still works.

Would love to hear how you boot it up and crank up the fun times!

Grew up on these, my dad had a couple of em around the house. They were so far ahead of even the Performa machines we had at school in so many ways; it really instilled this notion that what you had to work with in terms of raw materials could sometimes take a second seat to ingenuity and drive. Super great system.

Man, how cool would it be if Apple talked to the devs of this and officially released it as a nostalgia treat or something?

How cool would it be if we didn't abandon these old systems but rather put them to use again, in a new context?

Crazier things have happened.

It's awesome to see old machines like this get a little love. The IIgs is obviously very limited in what it can do by today's standards, but these community updates make it that much more usable for what it can do.

Now if only a copy of the Classic Mac OS source would kindly surface itself…

The Mac OS System 7.1 source code was leaked a few years back.

Is System 7 considered abandonware yet?

>Is System 7 considered abandonware yet?

"Abondonware" isn't a real legal status, so it depends on who you ask. But considering Apple still exists, is litigious, and has had classic OS images on its ftp site as of a few years ago (and for all I know, still), I'm going to say no.

If at all possible, please consider building things like this as static websites. It makes them faster, cheaper and much more tolerant to load spikes like this.

I had a friend when I was a kid with a IIgs. They were such cool computers.

I dont understand this though.. this is seriously a new release of the OS? That is awesome!

Out of curiosity, what made them different from e.g. a PC with 386 CPU? I guess price may be one thing, but other than that?

Mostly it is an "end-volution" of the Apple II. The CPU was the 16 bits version of the 6502 In addition, it has a really nice sound chip and nice graphics. It could play all the Apple // softwares. And the OS is "mac-ish"

My understanding is that the Apple IIG was designed by members of the Mac team. It's also worth noting that the IIGS had resolution, speed, memory and color that would not be matched on the Mac or PC for years more to come. It was an extraordinary machine. (disclosure: I created HyperStudio for the Apple IIGS in 1988, and the rest, as they say, is history).

Wow! I _loved_ HyperStudio. We learned so much using it in my school, and I still actually have a floppy disc in my collection with my HyperStudio stack. It's an honour to be able to tip my hat and raise a glass for your contribution. :)

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/31250/gifs/kudos.gif

The Apple IIgs was the last and the best of the Apple II line, which had a cherished place at the heart of what we might now call hacker culture. Remember the first Apple II predated the first IBM PC by four years! Each platform had a different set of enthusiasts, and at least early x86 PCs were more business-centric.

I wouldn't compare the Apple IIgs to an 386 PC. It's not really a fair comparison; the poor IIgs would be outclassed. It's 2.8 MHz 65C816 processor was 16 bits and introduced in 1983.

The 386 benefited from two years of technological advances when it was introduced in 1985, and had 32-bit registers and a 32-bit data bus (2^32 bits==4GB of physical RAM). It shipped at 16 MHz. (A better comparison would probably be the contemporaneous 68000 family vs. the x86 line.)

More broadly, Apple didn't have a lot of great options circa 1984-1985. The original Mac was slow, black and white only, didn't support hard drives, etc., but at least enjoyed a modern architecture. The Apple II was still selling well, and bankrolling Mac development, but was falling behind its x86-based rivals (yay 64KB bank switching!). So you keep the cash cow alive for a while longer with the IIgs until the Mac reaches critical mass.

Apple II enthusiasts still resent John Sculley & co (though Steve Jobs would probably have been more ruthless) for this betrayal. :)

It might help to think of the computers of the early 80's as extensions of particular personalities.

It's no secret that the Macintosh was the computer of Steve Jobs.

The x86 PCs were the computer of Bill Gates and Paul Allen.

The Apple // was the computer of scruffy Steve Wozniak. The original computer built in a garage, the local Apple user groups, etc. The anti-IBM back when that meant a soldering iron and a trip to radio shack, not a mouse.

I would argue that those machines belonged to their users. I didn't know Wozniak for a fig, but I could CATALOG like a badass.

This is an "unofficial" release (aka not by Apple). The sources of the GS/OS was leaked on the internet in 2013.

In case you want to build it yourself, there is a video tutorial:) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L1tLhckz5q4 You need a mac (pre OSX)

Wow, how did that happen?

Because people are amazing and do amazing things.

Long live the retro-computing revolution!

Really need to dig my GS out of that box in my garage. Bit scared of things not working after 15 years...

I assume I would need the original hardware for this?

My oldest Mac is a 1995 MacBook running 7.6.1, the nicest classic OS I've seen. The battery's long been dead, but the machine still runs on mains power.

It should run just fine on an emulator. If you've got a Mac, Sweet16 is the way to go: http://www.sheppyware.net/software-mac/sweet16/

However, I get the feeling you are thinking of Mac OS - this is for the Apple IIgs - an entirely different beast. However, if you're interested in running old versions of Mac OS, give Basilisk II a try: http://basilisk.cebix.net/

Most Older OSes up to 7.5.5 can be downloaded directly from Apple last I checked. I particularly liked Mac OS 6.0.8 for it's simplicity.

Does anybody know if the fonts used on the old mac and IIgs are available somewhere?

Just copy them off a mac, there are TrueType versions of most of the original ones in System 7.5.

Starting at Susan Kare's Wikipedia page I was able to find links to public domain versions of Chicago [1] and Charcoal [2], which other ones do you want ?

EDIT: There are also bitmap versions of mac fonts in ET++ [3], an early X11 toolkit.

[1] http://christtrekker.users.sourceforge.net/fnt/chicago.shtml [2] http://www.scootergraphics.com/virtue/ [3] http://www.softwarepreservation.org/projects/c_plus_plus/lib...

Thanks!

About time.

Man, makes me wish I had a IIgs.

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