back to article Guy puts 1990s MacOS 7 on an Apple Watch – without jailbreaking it

An Apple Watch tinkerer has managed to get his wristslab running an operating system that hasn't been updated in nearly two decades. New Yorker Nick Lee said he used an emulator to get his Apple watch running a disk image of the MacOS 7.5.5 operating system. Why run watchOS 2 when you can run Mac OS 7.5.5? https://t.co/ …

  1. Anonymous Coward
    Meh

    On my command...

    "Lee said that as of right now there is no way to actually interact with the MacOS desktop, but it might be possible to use voice commands to perform some actions, in theory."

    It's a good thing MY Mac doesn't obey voice commands. Some of them would be impossible...

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    can't resist

    Wow he should have went whole hog and put just about the only worse OSs at the time, Win 3.1 or DOS on the watch. Seriously Apple has come a long way as their OSs from the 90s were total garbage (Next/OpenStep excluded I suppose).

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Linux

      Re: can't resist

      Oh FFS, it's a good hack is all. There is a long and distinguished tradition of booting another OS on something a bit odd that wasn't designed for it.

      Have a look at Alan Cox's page on G+ for some nifty examples of resurrecting old hardware to boot some form of Linux kernel and other, frankly weird but cool, experiments. Also I believe someone managed to get Linux to boot on a hard disc (that's "on", not "from" - even I can do that)

      I note it's not a native port which boots directly from the hardware, running only in an emulator but it is still a good hack.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: can't resist

        "Also I believe someone managed to get Linux to boot on a hard disc (that's "on", not "from" - even I can do that)"

        Reference: http://spritesmods.com/?art=hddhack&page=7

        That is page 7 of a very long but well worth reading hard disk controller hacking spree.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: can't resist

      "their OSs from the 90s were total garbage"

      Really? Compared to what? Have you ever actually used DOS+Windows 3.x? Hopeless doesn't even begin to describe it. No surprise there was such a fanfare for Win95 when it came out as PC users finally had something approaching a usable GUI (unless they wanted to install early versions of Linux which in those days wasn't exactly easy to set up especially where X was concerned).

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: can't resist

        > Have you ever actually used DOS+Windows 3.x?

        Did you read my comment yes I did and yes it was actually worse (and its descendants still won the world anyway sigh). Admittedly I was trolling but any OS that didn't do preemptive multitasking, or protected memory especially in the mid to late 1990s was tinker toys. As you say yes Linux was a nightmare in the early days what with having to get monitor timings right to avoid not ruining your CRT with X but even a hacked together hobbyists OS could be 32 bit and have real multitasking.

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: can't resist

      Sniff. I miss system 6.5, the last of the good ones. And hypercard...

    4. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: can't resist

      It was an OS line started in the late 1970s and released in 1983 with the Apple Lisa. It didn't get any fundamental core changes for much of its life.

      Don't forget that Windows wasn't pre-emptive multitasking until 1995 and that was a bit lame at times too. Formatting a floppy would slow the computer down, probably a lack of DMA.

      Neither are comparable to the Amiga with its pre-emptive multitasking, DMA etc in 1985!

  3. Sgt_Oddball

    Retro...

    Because talking into your wrist like Dick Tracy is just too mainstream.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Pint

    Other than the IO challenge

    Is the iWatch more powerful than a 20-year old Mac?

    1. Kirk Northrop

      Re: Other than the IO challenge

      Even without knowing the specs - I can confidently say yes. This is running an emulator of the machine and then the OS on top of that - not just the OS natively...

  5. Frank Bough

    I miss System 7

    there, I've said it

    1. Youngone Silver badge

      Re: I miss System 7

      I liked it too. Before I went to lunch I would restart the machine so that it would be working when I got back, and the same for afternoon smoko.

      Apart from that it didn't crash too often I suppose.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: I miss System 7

        "smoko."

        I take it it's lunchtime down south (NZ?) 8) Me, I'm off to bed

      2. Michael Thibault

        Re: I miss System 7

        I never needed to do anything like that, and the machines I was using were never high-spec Macs. Can you say "RAM-Doubler"? I have to put your need to do so down to the running of Norton-something or Adobe-something-else, or any of a number of dubious third-party control panels or extensions or 'screen-savers'. I recall there were many such niceties that did not "play nice" and though they could be shown to be the equivalent of digital foot-binding, it was nigh-impossible to convince people to do without them- though they were a drag on system performance.

        1. TonyJ

          Re: I miss System 7

          "Norton-something or Adobe-something-else, or any of a number of dubious third-party control panels or extensions or 'screen-savers'. I recall there were many such niceties that did not play nice and though they could be shown to be the equivalent of digital foot-binding, it was nigh-impossible to convince people to do without them- though they were a drag on system performance."

          Not much has changed there then.

      3. fruitoftheloon
        Happy

        @Youngone: Re: I miss System 7

        Y,

        indeed, back in the day (when I had hair), I used to refer to my trusty Mac SE (with 19 inch screen no less!!!) as a Grapple Crashintosh...

        I don't recall the particular version of 6.x it was, I do recall how f'ing unreliable it was.

        Cheers,

        jay

    2. deadlockvictim

      Re: I miss System 7

      Go on to eBay, buy yourself a Performa 475 [1] and load up System 7.1.1 onto it. Go get Civilization from the Macintosh Garden, download it onto a zip-disk (remember those?) or burn the file onto a CD (likewise) and load it into the aforementioned Performa with a SCSI zip-drive or CD-reader.

      You then have the glory of playing one the best games from the last century running on the might of a 68LC040 25MHz processor. Stay up all night playing, drinking coffee and eating pizza and then note that you aren't 22 any more.

      If you don't mind emulation, there is also Basilisk and SheepShaver.

      [1] Note, if you are unfortunate, you may need to get the capacitors replaced. The 20 year old PRAM battery will not work no more.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: I miss System 7

        Never mind Sheep Shaver - I miss Kitten Shaver (and the Bloody Kitten Shaver mode)

    3. AbelSoul
      Trollface

      Re: I miss System 7

      No need to miss them; they're still going strong and touring again this summer.

      I saw them do a Gong Vs System 7 mash up at Glastonbury this time last year.

      1. Loyal Commenter Silver badge

        Re: I miss System 7

        Beat me to it! You've got to love old hippies with synths...

    4. Mike Perrin
      Pint

      Re: I miss System 7

      It's NEVER too late to say that!

      (System 7.1 for me. Anything with MacOs in the title is just not the same...)

      1. Moeluk

        Re: I miss System 7

        Ahhhhh system 7.6 I miss you too

        I also remember the wide eyed excitement of going to Jessops/John Lewis in Nottingham, and returning home with OS 8.5

  6. Alan Bourke

    System 7?

    Why, run it here in your browser via JavaScript:

    https://jamesfriend.com.au/pce-js/

  7. This post has been deleted by its author

  8. Annihilator

    "the PowerMac/Performa lines that you may remember disabling the enemy mothership in Independence Day."

    Of course. I remember at the time remarking how it was lucky the aliens' ships were Mac compatible when most hardware you could buy in Dixons at the time, wasn't.

    1. ChrisBedford

      "Of course. I remember at the time remarking how it was lucky the aliens' ships were Mac compatible when most hardware you could buy in Dixons at the time, wasn't."

      Indeed. One of the two glaring plot holes in that movie -- the other that (at that time) it was 'known' that Macs were not susceptible to any significant viruses.

      1. TheOtherHobbes

        >lucky the aliens' ships were Mac compatible

        Of course they were. The clue was the shape.

    2. Dan 55 Silver badge
      Trollface

      Well it had to be hardware that was brought light-years across the universe that was compatible with AppleTalk, nothing else closer was.

  9. Dieter Haussmann

    Next stop MacFoxes - press my bezel come cheer me on!

  10. Benchops

    Hmm, my watch seems to be running about 20 years slow.

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Old meme is old

    So, this guy put an Apple OS in an Apple OS so owners can fanboy while they fanboy?

    Waiting for Xzibit to sue the guy as well as Apple... :-)

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Crystal Quest !

    yay !!!! I could play CQ on this :)

    and .... MazeWar ... with the bitmap b/w eyeballs :)

  13. 2fast748

    Did it immediately crash with an error type 11?

    It was supporting system 7.5.x that put me of Macs for life!

  14. This post has been deleted by its author

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