For those of us who are already of an age, (luckily or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it) we hallucinate every time we find a virtual machine that emulates a computer from ten, twenty, or thirty years ago. In this case, it’s 25, to be exact.
As macOS 8 It was first released on a Mac in 1997, and now you can run it virtually from your browser, and thus remember old times, if you’re in your fifties, or if you’re a kid, see how Apple computers worked at that time.
The first computer I had was a Sinclair ZX81. It was connected to the television through an analog output and had a black and white resolution of 256 x 192 pixels, and 1K of RAM. External storage was done by connecting a conventional audio cassette recorder to it. The current one, where I am writing from right now, is a 24-inch iMac with an M1 processor. Almost nothing the difference.
So in those forty years that separate the ZX81 from the iMac I have had computers of all kinds, and among them, a Macintosh Quadra who died with macOS 8 in his veins. So when I came across a new emulator for that version of macOS this week, I had no choice but to try it.
Thanks to the folks at Infinite Mac, you can now try a Macintosh of the year 2000, from any type of computer. Without installations, nor drivers of any kind, since it is a virtual machine that runs on a web server. So simply by accessing the emulator’s website, you can run macOS 8 from your browser.
Experience what a 2000 Macintosh looked like
You only have to enter macos8.app and you will be able to run a Mac computer from the year 2000 in a virtual way. It is not 100% operational, but you will be able to run the programs and games that you will see installed, and even upload and download your own files . Instead, one of the things you won’t be able to do is access the internet from your Netscape browser. A shame.
Anyway, you can have a good time fiddling with macOS 8. Whether it’s because you got to work with it (granddaddy), or just to poke around a Mac from the year 2000. Sniff, sniff…
